'Less is said than done'

It's edumacation week on MSNBC. I was REALLY shocked to learn that the US slipped from number one in the rankings of industrialised nations. I hadn't realised it was so BAD. Down to 25 of 30 nations for science? 21 of thirty at math?

Holy crap!

When you... and mostly I... talk about the dumbing down of the populace so that the upper crust gets more 'upper'.... oh wow. Those are figures you can't argue with.

Now, I don't know how they measure that in the US. In Europe, there is a yearly test called PISA, and it measures children's development in learning, and Austrians (the gov't.) gets pissed off if they aren't top ranking. And raises hell.

It is very competitive, and they INVEST in making changes, so that children get the best edumacation possible. It 'sounds' like a vanity thing, but for them it is dead earnest.

Because the 'brighter' your young population is, the more successful they will be.

Sure.... we all HEAR whack jobs like Christine O'Donnell denying evolution, (which she probably doesn't believe...) or all the crap thrown about just to make a political point...

But it makes no sense. You have to nurture children, make them curious about the world, make them very happy to just look about them and learn.

They haven't only made adults into political footballs, they have children dumbed down.

I had the worst teacher EVAH in eighth grade. She was ill, but I didn't KNOW what was wrong. She would go into a little closet, and drink something. And promptly fall asleep. All hell would break loose in class, and she would be 'out of it'. That was frustrating...

So one fine day, I went to the principal and complained. 'And it smells like alcohol'.

Turned out she was terminally ill, and I was 'da rat'.

Well, Preciousses, I don't BUY that. Surely, am sorry for the woman. HOWEVER, she had us so badly prepared for High School it was HORRIBLE.

And that was THEN... but what the hell, it was a school in a poor neighborhood, no one was going to DO anything, and if you wanted to get ahead you had to STRUGGLE. Most didn't make it.

Seemingly, it's even much worse nowadays.

I got to high school, and spent three MISERABLE years being an outcast, because I was from the wrong side of town, and my grades showed that.

And in my senior year, I had a guidance counselor. Told him I wanted to go to university, and he was only interested in the kids from the North End, where they are rich. He ridiculed me, and laughed in my face. So I went to a local business college who would take 'anybody', and made the Dean's list. Straight A's, hey. It even made the local newspaper. And I TOOK that and shoved it in my counselor's face... along with the news that I had gotten accepted at the local university.

There is SO much wrong with the US edumacation system, it shrieks to high heaven. And at base, it's always been about class, or race, or Gawwd knows what. It was always a shake-down.

Seemingly, things went from very bad to much worse since the 1960's....

I liked this Ed clip.

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