The Two Cultures....With All Due Respect

www.fredoneverything.net ^ | August 18, 2003 | Fred Reed

[Little Ray]

I'm not too worried about these losers. It means I'll never have to worry about retirement. I'll be one of the few, the proud, the Literate.
My biggest worry is, that since they don't read, they won't subsidize my SF / F habit.

Funny thing though, I have not met many of these losers yet. Even my nephew, who suffers from a major case of being a young boy (bless his mother who won't allow the school to drug him!) is getting a pretty good education. My nieces (all four of them), ages 2-5 are learning to use their Disney software... The oldest ones are already on the edge of literacy.

Once I met a kid who was in sixth grade who didn't understand the communitive and associative properties; he didn't care because he going to join the Army and learn to be a mechanic. I couldn't figure out how he was going to get through HS without 'em, myself, but he could read pretty well. That is the closest I have been to the losers Fred describes.

[Billthedrill]

A BTT, and thanks for reminding me. The kids are all right. I sometimes forget. And I should know better - one look at what we sent into Iraq, and a reminder that every one of them volunteered...

[ladtx]

Excellent.
Having a Junior College education and 20 years of Army life at some point about 15 years ago I felt I was missing something. I sat down and made myself a reading list beginning with Aeschylus up through the present. I still haven't gotten through all of it but it has been a real eye-opener for me. There is a whole "new to me" other world out there in those books. I've tried to push my own children into reading more without much success. They are almost all college educated (even though some of that education seems a little lacking) and seem amazed at the knowledge I have gained on my own without the degrees they have or are earning. It all comes down to self-motivation, and sadly our younger generation seems to coming up short in that department.

[Cronos]

That's why we're going to lose to the Asians who value education unless we do something about the state of our schools, and fast

[staytrue]

Is fred a freeper. His picture looks familar to me.

[Nick Danger]

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