It’s Official: Americans R Stupid

[DamianTV]

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/a...icans-r-stupid

As Americans, we tend to be pretty full of ourselves, and this is especially true of our young people. But do we really have reason for such pride? According to a shocking new report from the Educational Testing Service, Americans between the ages of 20 and 34 are way behind young adults in other industrialized nations when it comes to literacy, mathematics and technological proficiency. Even though more Americans than ever are going to college, we continue to fall farther and farther behind intellectually. So what does this say about us? Sadly, the truth is that Americans are stupid. Our education system is an abysmal failure, and our young people spend most of their free time staring at the television, their computers or their mobile devices. And until we are honest with ourselves about this, our intellectual decline is going to get even worse.

According to this new report from the Educational Testing Service, at this point American Millennials that have a four year college degree are essentially on the same intellectual level as young adults in Japan, Finland and the Netherlands that only have a high school degree…

Americans born after 1980 are lagging their peers in countries ranging from Australia to Estonia, according to a new report from researchers at the Educational Testing Service (ETS). The study looked at scores for literacy and numeracy from a test called the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies, which tested the abilities of people in 22 countries.

The results are sobering, with dire implications for America. It hints that students may be falling behind not only in their early educational years but at the college level. Even though more Americans between the ages of 20 to 34 are achieving higher levels of education, they’re still falling behind their cohorts in other countries. In Japan, Finland and the Netherlands, young adults with only a high school degree scored on par with American Millennials holding four-year college degrees, the report said.

How in the world is that possible?

I can tell you how that is possible – our colleges are a joke. But more on that in a moment.

Out of 22 countries, the report from the Educational Testing Service found that Americans were dead last in tech proficiency. We were also dead last in numeracy and only two countries performed worse than us when it came to literacy proficiency…

Half of American Millennials score below the minimum standard of literacy proficiency. Only two countries scored worse by that measure: Italy (60 percent) and Spain (59 percent). The results were even worse for numeracy, with almost two-thirds of American Millennials failing to meet the minimum standard for understanding and working with numbers. That placed U.S. Millennials dead last for numeracy among the study’s 22 developed countries.



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I think the real question we need to be asking is "if children spend so much time in schools and are not learning what these standards say they need to learn, then what are they learning"? Perhaps the real lessons in Public Schools are State Worship, Obedience, Emotional Dependancy, Confusion, Authority, and a plethora of other things that John Taylor Gatto would have already addressed many times over!

Agree / Disagree? (10 points)

[Ronin Truth]

Not really much to disagree with nor argue about when dealing with the 80% of folks who share 20% of the brains.

[heavenlyboy34]

Question: what does memorizing wrote facts have to do with "education"? That is "schooling". The most useful parts of that test are those about maths and reading/writing.

[acptulsa]

Question: what does memorizing wrote facts have to do with "education"? That is "schooling". The most useful parts of that test are those about maths and reading/writing.

Well, if we have rotely memorized the difference in spelling and meaning between 'rote' and 'wrote', we can impress people all around the world with the fact that we're smarter than our own auto-correct. And since we think in, meaning we conceptualize advanced concepts using, language, we wind up better able to understand each other and the whole universe.

Just as a random example.

[heavenlyboy34]

Well, if we have rotely memorized the difference in spelling and meaning between 'rote' and 'wrote', we can impress people all around the world with the fact that we're smarter than our own auto-correct. And since we think in, meaning we conceptualize advanced concepts using, language, we wind up better able to understand each other and the whole universe.

Just as a random example.

Meh. That's what editors are for. Beg your pardon for the typo. Even Dostoevsky had his share of them. Fortunately, writing is just an artifice-a representation of language, as linguists call it. Gross errors in spelling-I would agree that that's a serious barrier to communication.

Having a done a bit of study in linguistics, I wouldn't say a poor understanding of written language leads one to a poor understanding of language generally. After all, only a very small portion of the world's many, many languages are written at all-yet native speakers are as eloquent as folks from literate societies. (Did Homer learn to read before his blindness and subsequent authorship of The Odyssey and The Illiad? IDR.)

[acptulsa]

(Did Homer learn to read before his blindness and subsequent authorship of The Odyssey and The Illiad? IDR.)

Why ask me? I never asked him.

When I was in school, I was taught how to use my brain. I was taught how to think, and given the tools I needed to do so. These things aren't taught any more. The only thing on the menu any more is conformity.

And spelling often helps to differentiate between words--and the concepts behind them--helping understanding. There are rote things teachers make kids do besides writing, for example. To think the only rote thing we can do is write something on the blackboard a hundred times, we definitely miss a goodly part of the concept.

[heavenlyboy34]

Why ask me? I never asked him.

You seem to have a broad general knowledge of interesting bits of history and I thought you might know.

When I was in school, I was taught how to use my brain. I was taught how to think, and given the tools I needed to do so. These things aren't taught any more. The only thing on the menu any more is conformity.

True that. Standardized testing (among other things) destroyed education and institutionalized "schooling". :P

[Terry1]

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/a...icans-r-stupid



Full article on Link

I think the real question we need to be asking is "if children spend so much time in schools and are not learning what these standards say they need to learn, then what are they learning"? Perhaps the real lessons in Public Schools are State Worship, Obedience, Emotional Dependancy, Confusion, Authority, and a plethora of other things that John Taylor Gatto would have already addressed many times over!

Agree / Disagree? (10 points)

This is why I support homeschooling. Parents are to blame despite the state of our liberalized classrooms today pushing everything, but what's needed to actually carve out a successful life.

If people expect the government to raise and teach their kids--then they can't whine about the results later on. Got kids--it's work and responsibility trying to keep them from being indoctrinated into the system.

[DamianTV]

Bump...



In all fairness, everyone is probably in on the gag where people dont know that Australia is not Iran or North Korea. But then again...