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Stupid in America -- Why your kids are probably dumber than Belgians
Reason ^ | January 13, 2006 | John Stossel

Posted on 01/13/2006 3:34:41 AM PST by JTN

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To: JTN

someday...somewhere...somehow...someone needs to run the NEA through the RICO wringer and prosecute accordingly......


21 posted on 01/13/2006 4:04:09 AM PST by mo
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To: JTN
My daughter taught in three different states - Georgia, Connecticut, and Tennessee.

She said of all three systems that the biggest obstacle to improved education was the teachers union.
22 posted on 01/13/2006 4:04:47 AM PST by Rhetorical pi2
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To: LukeL

3 advantages of being a teacher...June, July and August.


23 posted on 01/13/2006 4:05:37 AM PST by toddlintown (Lennon takes six bullets to the chest, Yoko is standing right next to him and not one f'ing bullet?)
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To: JTN
Well, there are some smart Belgians out there.


24 posted on 01/13/2006 4:06:28 AM PST by Larry Lucido
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To: Larry Lucido

LOL


25 posted on 01/13/2006 4:07:45 AM PST by cyborg (I just love that man.)
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To: Jim Noble
But they're not schools.

That's the same school system that gives kids Hardy Boys books as reading assignments. In my day, we were reading Shakespeare, Dickens, Melville, and others of their ilk (not that we wouldn't have prefered the Hardy Boys!)

26 posted on 01/13/2006 4:09:56 AM PST by Fresh Wind (Democrats are guilty of whatever they scream the loudest about.)
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Comment #27 Removed by Moderator

To: sassbox

If you think that running a country on educated folks is to expensive try having it run on jerks.


28 posted on 01/13/2006 4:25:26 AM PST by globalheater (we need more thoughts then opinions)
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To: sassbox
I agree with you, Sassbox. One must concede the obvious truth that European kids are much more rigorously educated. I agree, also, that great education may not add up to a great society.

We have all been trained to believe that education is a pure and great good that can never be over done. I've had some pretty serious second thoughts about this lately. I pay a lot of attention to French culture and to their very competitive and rigorous educational system. French people are very educated, but they have a dying culture. (I am not engaging here in cheap French bashing -- there is a lot there that I admire.)

Intellectual activity is only one sphere of human endeavor. Someone (some country) will always be ahead and some other will be behind when we rank ourselves on educational attainment. I don't think it is a healthy thing to become obsessed with the necessity always to ratchet up and up the goals and standards of education. It can be life enhancing, but, for many, it is crushing, dispiriting, when the real world needs lots of people who don't especially need to know any calculus or have a knowledge of ancient Greece.

I say all this in a very tentative spirit. I don't exactly have a plan. For me, personally, life is in large measure about learning and understanding. But I do feel that we are unreasonably pressuring everyone to fit into that mould. All the while, these educated people are chosing not to have enough children to reproduce their numbers. This strikes me as the ultimate definition of social decay.

29 posted on 01/13/2006 4:28:06 AM PST by LK44-40
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To: sassbox
There are many things that should be done to improve education in the US. But please let's not emulate Europe. They are a dying civilization - better seen as a warning of what not to do than as a positive role model.

Because our public education system is a socialist monopoly, I'm afraid we're already emulating Europe.

30 posted on 01/13/2006 4:28:54 AM PST by Uncle Vlad
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Comment #31 Removed by Moderator

To: JTN
"If people got to choose their kids' school, education options would be endless. There could soon be technology schools, cheap Wal-Mart-like schools, virtual schools where you learn at home on your computer, sports schools, music schools, schools that go all year, schools with uniforms, schools that open early and keep kids later, and, who knows? If there were competition, all kinds of new ideas would bloom."

Why can't we grasp this? Why can't the American people see that a garden designed and maintained by the "state" is profitable only to birds and fertilizer companies. Birds because insects and weed seeds will prosper, fertilizer companies because the poorer the harvest the more the state demands. Until we submit such social fallacy to the tines of free market forces we shall continue to reap our well deserved harvest of blooming idiots.

If we don't have the constitution to deal with squawking birds and turd haulers, then we'll soon have no Constitution period.

32 posted on 01/13/2006 4:31:20 AM PST by Mobilemitter (We must learn to fin >-)> for ourselves.........)
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To: JTN
In fairness, the hours they spend in the classroom are only a portion of their day. Many teachers spend evenings and weekends preparing and grading lessons as well as participating in extracurricular events.

My sister was an award-winning teacher in the gifted program in Alabama. Her life revolved around her students, and like many teachers, she spent a lot of her own money to supplement supplies for her classes. She ended up burning out and quitting the profession. The kids weren't the problem. Lack of parental support was part of the problem, but the main problem was dealing with the school administration.

33 posted on 01/13/2006 4:32:41 AM PST by Chanticleer (Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point. Lewis)
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To: JTN

This from the country whose only notable achievement is the Belgian Waffle.


34 posted on 01/13/2006 4:33:25 AM PST by jimbo123
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To: globalheater
If you think that running a country on educated folks is to expensive try having it run on jerks.

We call it the Senate

35 posted on 01/13/2006 4:33:28 AM PST by CzarNicky (The problem with bad ideas is that they seemed like good ideas at the time.)
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To: Jim Noble
That is the myth that all, or virtually all, young adults are capable of tenth-grade level work and beyond.

It certainly is possible! Just keep lowering the standards for 10th grade level work!

36 posted on 01/13/2006 4:35:23 AM PST by Chanticleer (Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point. Lewis)
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To: JTN

Comparing 300 million Americans to 40 million Belgians is stupid. We have a larger sample OBVIOUSLY we will score worse.


37 posted on 01/13/2006 4:37:02 AM PST by MNJohnnie (Misuse of the Commerce Clause is the root of all Congressional evil)
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To: jimbo123
This from the country whose only notable achievement is the Belgian Waffle.

No, no, no! Belgian chocolate is wondrous! Amazing what they can do with cacao, milk and sugar.

38 posted on 01/13/2006 4:38:59 AM PST by Chanticleer (Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point. Lewis)
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To: Fresh Wind

My daughter brought home a book list to choose a book from, on the list were: Bastard Out of Carolina, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Deliverance and lots of other books consisting of mostly deviant sexual behavior. (I blew a gasket over this list).

Later on, she told me she was doing a report on The Crucible and The Scarlet Letter. I said, great, you're finally reading some classic literature. No, she told me, they watched the movies in class. *sigh*


39 posted on 01/13/2006 4:39:41 AM PST by tuffydoodle (Shut up voices, or I'll poke you with a Q-Tip again.)
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To: JTN
Their education system is better because it's less socialist.

I am not sure what that means. What most European socialist governments offer is govnerment funded choice, so there is no monopoly, though there is socialism - the taxpayer pays regardless.

40 posted on 01/13/2006 4:40:39 AM PST by AndyJackson
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