Pearl Harbor Remembered

[Green_Elite_Cab]

No doubt. Some kids in some neighborhoods are pretty much a lost generation. Poverty tends to breed poverty, unless something or someone breaks the cycle.

But in what way is this related to what schools teach? BiL's original claim was (more or less) that schools didn't teach any American history any more, and that this somehow was Jimmy Carter's fault for creating a federal Department of Education. Which makes about as much sense as seeing "Marxists" under every bed.

Smile,
Stein

I think the point though, was that the "cycle of poverty" isn't going to end because some government act is going to come in and change the game. an individual's actions are up to themselves, especially in this country where people hate the government being on their backs.

Jimmy carter may not be to blame, and marxism as it is meant to be understood is probably not the conscious goal of most people, but their is no doubt that knowledge is key. how can someone make an informed decision without having a clue?

The sort of nonsense the education system in this country gets away with is outrageous. in my state of New Jersey, instead of failing and holding high school seniors, they were just giving them progressively wimpier versions of the "High school proficiency assessment" tests until it was asking the kind of questions meant for 12 year olds. When they passed that, the state claimed "Oh, look! we have a 98% graduation rate!". Keep in mind the wimpier test holds the same value as the regular one i took and burned my brain cells preparing for. When someone goes to get a job, it shows that they passed the HSPA, not that they only passed the dummy version (wouldn't want to hurt anyone's feelings!).

When the school system lets otherwise normal people pass who essentially failed all their classes, who can hardly read or do math to save their lives (those two really being more important than anything else they teach), it doesn't really help the country as a whole. The only reason they do this is so the school can say "look at all these failing students who turned it around and passed!" so they can get more state and federal money.

this isn't just a feeling, or a he-said she-said. I've PHYSICALLY seen the "dumb" tests. I also happened to be passing by that school on the day that test was being administered, and it wasn't a small group of people. I only just graduated in 2008, and i'm still in college, so i'm not all that disconnected.

There is definitely problems in this country. bottom line, there should be no lowering of standards in schools just so that people can pass, but it happens all the time.