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Mach
12-18-2010, 08:43 AM
I found this over at DailyPaul (http://www.dailypaul.com/node/152232). Are there any here that disagree with it?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZJoCfgAEuE

pcosmar
12-18-2010, 09:10 AM
Accurate.

This is old and long, but related and goes into some details.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUYCBfmIcHM

hazek
12-18-2010, 10:27 AM
A friend of mine went to Chicago after she finished the third year of gymnasium here in Slovenia. When we heard from her during our fourth-last year she told us that the school was laughably easy compared to our standards, that for example they were learning math that we mastered in 8th grade of primary school, which is a 5 year difference.

But our schools are also not perfect. They don't teach anything about economy or money or politics but rather pump us full of scientific topics which most students will never need in their adult life. We have on average a far better general knowledge then you do but we still don't learn the important stuff.

Travlyr
12-18-2010, 10:33 AM
Good video. +rep

The informal continuing education from TV and radio news shows complete the dumbing down process.

pcosmar
12-18-2010, 10:38 AM
A friend of mine went to Chicago after she finished the third year of gymnasium here in Slovenia. When we heard from her during our fourth-last year she told us that the school was laughably easy compared to our standards, that for example they were learning math that we mastered in 8th grade of primary school, which is a 5 year difference.

But our schools are also not perfect. They don't teach anything about economy or money or politics but rather pump us full of scientific topics which most students will never need in their adult life. We have on average a far better general knowledge then you do but we still don't learn the important stuff.

A 1910 8th grade test.
How does it compare to today?
http://www.eagleforum.org/educate/2004/july04/1910.html

hazek
12-18-2010, 10:43 AM
Well I just skimmed through it and 8th grade is long ago for me that I can't really say for sure but I think it's similar to what we were doing, yea. Especially the math part seems on par with ours.

pcosmar
12-18-2010, 10:49 AM
Well I just skimmed through it and 8th grade is long ago for me that I can't really say for sure but I think it's similar to what we were doing, yea. Especially the math part seems on par with ours.

Really?
It is a long time for me too.
But I don't remember learning anything about square roots till High School algebra.

Find the square root of 95.6484.

I seriously doubt that most High School graduates could pass this today.

Heimdallr
12-18-2010, 10:51 AM
A 1910 8th grade test.
How does it compare to today?
http://www.eagleforum.org/educate/2004/july04/1910.html

That's pretty impressive. Most of it doesn't blow my mind, but for 8th grade, that is expecting quite a lot.

To think, all without a Department of Education. How did they cope?!

hazek
12-18-2010, 11:03 AM
Yea really. I'm pretty sure we learned that stuff in 8th grade already.