Reply #25: I get that people are cynical because of who's being quoted here, [View All]

[crim son]

but I don't understand those who appear to be arguing against a better or different educational system. I am certain that some of the deep shit we're in, socially and politically, is a direct result of how we have opted to school our kids. Critical thinking, humanities, and the arts are passe, and the focus is now on the maths and sciences where, generally speaking, we do miserably compared to the rest of the world. True, who needs calculus to pump gas, but if pumping gas is as much as your hoping for then you have more problems than having to listen to Duncan.

I'm not from the U.S. but moved from Vancouver, B.C. to Salem, Oregon when I was in my teens. One of the first things I noticed at my new school (nicknamed "the country club on the hill" because it was in the wealthier part of town) was how abysmally far behind my fellow students were in pretty much every area of study. No, I didn't merely notice it, I was frankly stunned. I went from average student to goddamned genius merely by changing residence. Since then I don't find that there's been any improvement in how our schools prepare students and I'd know. I have three kids, two of whom are gifted, and I have had to be actively involved in making sure they weren't bored to tears in regular classes.

My point: people, there is room for improvement! When our kids are not reading the best literature in school they are not learning about cultural and human variability and they tend to be unskilled thinkers. To wit: the teabaggers! Teabaggers can't articulate what they believe in because they can't articulate anything beyond what they saw last night on Showtime. Go ahead, hate Duncan, shoot the messenger but don't ignore the message. By and large, we are not incorrectly viewed by the rest of the world as a country full of good-natured, idealistic dummies and here in the U.S., we are paying for it.