Are We Being "Dumbed Down" Deliberately?

i agree that our society is in the process of dumbing down the masses. however, i disagree that a simple approach (such as no child left behind) is wrong. complex solutions do nothing more than line pocketbooks of those who come up with them. education is not complicated. remove the social engineering classes. return to the basics...reading, writing, arithmatic. eliminate the passing forward so that "self-esteem" is not harmed and hold back those kids who do not understand the material. return responsibility to the parents instead of the state. do those things and any perceived inequities among schools systems will no longer exist.

I loved your article. +1

FreeCracker4Jack
Would you like to earn money writing similar articles?
Click the link below. It's easy and it's Free!
CLICK ME!

The dumbing down of our people is part the government's fault, part technology's fault, and part the people's fault.

(technology includes the media)

The government uses techniques to scare our people, technology is used to open us up to conspiracies and scripted-truths, many created by the government, and our people follow blindly, as, if they were following the pied-piper.

But, I want to bring my focus of comment back to education. I do agree with the thoughts about focusing on reading, writing, and math. As, an example of the immediate need to return to these basics, I ask everyone this question:

How many people have you come in contact with who do not know how to count change-back, from a purchase?
Today, it is common to rely upon a machine to tell you how much change you get back. (technology).

I read papers written by university students, and even with spell-checkers, their spelling is absolutely terrible. Their writing has no-flow to it. It's choppy, at, best.

I student-taught kindergarten for two-years (best job I ever had!), and I worked under Mr. Scott McBeth, here in Portland (OR), and I was able to see him take those little people from not knowing too much, to being able to count to 1000, read from a book, speak a little Spanish, be able to multiply numbers up to the 12s, have a grasp of the science around us, and certainly, an understanding about their fellow classmates, Black, White, Asian, Hispanic, and Native American, and, upon their graduation to first grade, they graduated as one class, the classes of 2017, and 2018.

I remember asking Scott what his biggest fear was for those 28/26 kindergarten students, and here's what he told me, "my biggest fear is that they might end-up with a teacher who doesn't care."

It is unacceptable to continue to renew contracts of teachers who are not competent enough to give children the tools to travel in the 21st Century. Education can not be changed without everyone's input, whether you have children or not.

We must implement procedures to encourage our students, rather than the in-place policies, which discourage students. You want change? Get involved. Go to school board meetings, talk with your neighbors, write letters, bang on the doors of your representatives, make-a-big-sign, stand on a street corner, and bitch like hell!

Social engineering classes? Social engineering, to me, is the aim to better society through education about each other, about different cultures, about different people, about creating a world that works for everybody. Its hopeful result is that we become knowledgeable to the fact that we are not the only people on Earth. Social Engineering has rooted, within it, the aim of breaking down ethnocentric-based perceptions.

I am a proponent of social engineering. Barack Obama, and Hilary Clinton, would have never had a chance, in a million years, to run for President, had it not been for social engineering. Equal Rights would have never made it to the table had it not been for social engineering. Women would have never achieved the right-to-vote had it not been for social engineering.

And this past-year, Portland State University began White Studies, a look into racism, to go along with its Black Studies classes. This upcoming school year, 2008-09, the Portland Public Schools will initiate similar studies. These are what I term Social Engineering classes.

(Social Engineering has had its downsides too. Adolf Hitler used Social Engineering to spread his hate.)

And, with that said, I bring us back full-circle to parent(s). Back to the public. Back to each of us, as individuals. It is important to embrace social engineering in order to continue aiming to make a world that works for everyone.

Unshackling ourselves from the prejudices, and ideologies of centuries-past is a goal of social engineering.

And, a world void of social engineering, is a world full of dumbed people. "Stand up for change (1)."

(1) quote from Barack Obama
_________________________

The Big Yellow Box, to the Right:
http://www.xomba.com/the_yellow_box_to_the_right

I have believed in John Edwards for five and a half years.
I believe in Barack Obama, and have for two years.
I am a Libertarian.

VOTE BARACK OBAMA for PRESIDENT!
"...it is time to pass the torch from one generation to another..."
John F. Kennedy, Jan. 20, 1961

WRITE & Earn $$$
http://www.xomba.com/referral/7777ea2e

Read all my posts:
http://www.xomba.com/user/bigpink

Check out two of my favorite YouTubeChannels
Lots of Playlists - Organized Content - Much Variety
http://www.youtube.com/quinoacat

Old Vintage Commercials, Old Cartoons, Old TV Shows, Dogs, Martial Arts
http://www.youtube.com/wahwahwahwahwahwah

It does matter what you believe, but, what you believe does not matter if you do not act upon your beliefs.

you can not vote on the truth
--Pope John Paul II, 1995

How many people do you know, adults and children alike, that have trouble telling time on a clock with hands instead of a digital display?

Get Paid $$$ to Write! Join Xomba! www.xomba.com/referral/7778f814

Check out your weekly Tarotscope
http://spiritlightsinsights.blogspot.com

This is an old debate... not to say it isn't true in some ways, but every generation can point to things that are lost from one age group to the younger set.

In the 1940s or earlier it was felt by some that comic books were corrupting young minds, taking them away from serious reading. Radio, when it was new, was seen by some as a bad influence. And of course TV was called the "boob tube" at least as far back as the 1960s.

When I was in high school there was a big debate over whether it was wrong to let students use calculators in math and science tests (yes, I was in h.s. in the Dark Ages). Electronic cash registers eliminated the need for cashiers to be able to count change, as bigpink noted.

One of my first xombytes was about this college that puts out a list each Fall for its faculty, reminding them of the world their students grew up in... it's a fascinating list (students don't remember smoking on airplanes, the Soviet Union, or a divided Germany, or rotary phones)...

When Was the Last Time You "Dialed" a Phone Number?
http://www.xomba.com/when_was_the_last_time_you_dialed_a_phone_number

Some great and inciteful thoughts from: SupaDupaFlyGirl

Read more great articles: http://www.xomba.com/xombyte/free_cracker_4_jack?p