I am listening to an interview with David Kay Johnston. He said that 50% of Americans read at a 5th grade level, and 30% at a third grade level. There is little common understanding of important historical events or prominent forefathers. There are an increasing number of towns that have no local newspaper. Children today are seldom requ…
I am listening to an interview with David Kay Johnston. He said that 50% of Americans read at a 5th grade level, and 30% at a third grade level. There is little common understanding of important historical events or prominent forefathers. There are an increasing number of towns that have no local newspaper. Children today are seldom required to read novels and draw from their reading insights about life. Civics is seldom taught, much less become a high school club (like I was a member of) and thereby an acknowledgement of how important our constitution and governmental institutions and our elections are in insuring the rights and freedoms of our citizens. The dumbing down of American youth appears to have been accomplished. It will take generations to elevate the level of basic understanding that was once common and widespread. Tuition at the University of Wisconsin has risen from $275/semester to nearly $5,000 a semester. It seems that fewer young people will be able to afford a higher education. There will likely be far ranging consequences if this trend continues. Who will teach our children, what will they be taught? Who will staff our institutions, run our industries, and grow and market our food? I fear for our nations future I fear most for the 99% who don’t seem to proper any more, and who increasingly are duped and conned into making choices that imperil their own self-interest.
While I hear a number of complaints about our failure to teach civics in our schools, I never took civics. I did learn American history, and in that course we were taught about the framing of the our constitution which included discussion of the thinking behind having three co-equal branches of government imbued with checks and balances. I believe I have a pretty good understanding of how our government was intended to operate and much of the thinking behind the creation of our constitution, though even among the framers there were disagreements, though they democratically worked out their differences to arrive at a consensus document that we refer to as our constitution.I respect and value our constitution and fear that we have at least one political party in this country that no longer does, at least in more than a few instances.
IMHO it varies geographically. Some taxpayers refuse to pay for public education.
Generally students in wealthy school districts do as well as kids in expensive private schools.
On average, roughly 20% of the general population can not take care of themselves. When I was in the Army, we had a program to bring in low IQ "duty soldiers" who otherwise would not qualify. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_100,000
I am listening to an interview with David Kay Johnston. He said that 50% of Americans read at a 5th grade level, and 30% at a third grade level. There is little common understanding of important historical events or prominent forefathers. There are an increasing number of towns that have no local newspaper. Children today are seldom required to read novels and draw from their reading insights about life. Civics is seldom taught, much less become a high school club (like I was a member of) and thereby an acknowledgement of how important our constitution and governmental institutions and our elections are in insuring the rights and freedoms of our citizens. The dumbing down of American youth appears to have been accomplished. It will take generations to elevate the level of basic understanding that was once common and widespread. Tuition at the University of Wisconsin has risen from $275/semester to nearly $5,000 a semester. It seems that fewer young people will be able to afford a higher education. There will likely be far ranging consequences if this trend continues. Who will teach our children, what will they be taught? Who will staff our institutions, run our industries, and grow and market our food? I fear for our nations future I fear most for the 99% who don’t seem to proper any more, and who increasingly are duped and conned into making choices that imperil their own self-interest.
While I hear a number of complaints about our failure to teach civics in our schools, I never took civics. I did learn American history, and in that course we were taught about the framing of the our constitution which included discussion of the thinking behind having three co-equal branches of government imbued with checks and balances. I believe I have a pretty good understanding of how our government was intended to operate and much of the thinking behind the creation of our constitution, though even among the framers there were disagreements, though they democratically worked out their differences to arrive at a consensus document that we refer to as our constitution.I respect and value our constitution and fear that we have at least one political party in this country that no longer does, at least in more than a few instances.
IMHO it varies geographically. Some taxpayers refuse to pay for public education.
Generally students in wealthy school districts do as well as kids in expensive private schools.
On average, roughly 20% of the general population can not take care of themselves. When I was in the Army, we had a program to bring in low IQ "duty soldiers" who otherwise would not qualify. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_100,000