But that would be pretending we actually respect outsiders opinions of us.

yep,and then they elected Pretty Boy Trudeau and Kathleen Wynne!

One word...Television.

Whoever controls the media, controls the mind

- Jim Morrison

decline of society, too many conveniences not enough hard work, advances in technology leading to a reliance on instruments rather than the brain, reality TV, believing what ur told... I think we're living the movie idiocracy and heading towards wall-e

"some of the worst mistakes in my life were haircuts" - Jim Morrison

Does this have anything to do with why the Republican party is so opposed to spending any money at all on improving American education, and instead only supports rote memorization testing?

didn't bush rebuild all the schools? what have the dems done lately?

r u sure their is a difference when they r not in the publics eye?

Bush REBUILT schools? Don't tell me, you were on another planet for the entire duration of his time in office, right?

Bush's "no child" program was mechanically designed to do exactly one thing: punish teachers (who the Republican Party hate, because they assume all teachers vote for Democrats) who don't teach the specific rote answers to nationalized tests which the Republicans made up.

Worse, when a school system showed difficulty, the NCLB program didn't help them fix anything, by "rebuilding" the school. It PUNISHED THEM, by REDUCING their funding.

also , I think we place too much significance on social things INSTEAD of the basics


just the idea that knowing(memorizing) geography, or names and dates, is lumped with other signs of being 'intelligent',,, degrades the assumptions being made



understanding and applying patterns, capacity to read and comprehend, ability to use logic, perform computations,,,,,,these are the 'intelligence' that we should focus on mastering


just my opinion,, of course

Problem is whiney parents complained to these idot politicians. Now we have gridlock in Government and in education. Thanks as@$!#/&s

Our schools have failed because government is involved, where it doesn't belong. Parents have gone along with it. Blaming a political party shows only ones political bias.

so,you are a Fan of Public Schools,regardless of their dismal Failure?
So,just throwing more Money down that Bottomless Hole will fix it?

Get a rag and some Brasso.....that hook aint shiny enough for me

don't be such a troll, i know just about every town in Texas wound up with a new school (or two) while bush was in office... the NCLB had nothing to do with that... they were built with lottery profits...

that's the liberal way... throw money at something, keep half and pat themselves on the back for the public to see... yay liberals...

We haven't.

The measuring tools have simply become stupid.

Continually comparing apples to oranges.

People aren't stupid.

At worst they are over specialized.

Not only specialized, but specialized following utilitarianism.
Why do you think "pursuit of happiness" is in the declaration of independence.
Not too long before that "happiness" wasn't the be all end all of human civilization and individual living.
It used to be tempered by different religious dogma and its push for moderation.
You can't identify american values without spotting christian religious influence, but you can't do it without spotting utilitarianism either.

P♦eople pursue what makes them happy.

If it doesn't make them happy then it's "bad."

Ask any mother what she wants for her children "I just want them to be happy!" or what's she's told her children to do "you can do anything, but pursue what makes you happy!"

That doesn't make people stupid.

Just extremely smart towards making themselves feel good and really smart in avoiding anything that makes them feel bad.

Really smart along the path they believe will lead to their happiness, and smart along the path they believe will lead to the least amount of harm (which may influence their finding "happiness").

But that detracts from training and learning where they need to delay happy gratification, detracts from civil responsibility, detracts from things like honor, and duty, and civic obedience, and civilization, and social stability, and getting along with others, and being "well rounded."

People aren't stupid, they've just been trained where to apply their intelligence.
And it is not in areas that are all that conducive to group/family/national unity, social stability, or in a whole bunch of different areas that may help other people more than themselves and their emotional gratification.

The "American dream" is ultimately the individual achieving their highest potential.

When you train people to believe their highest potential is in making themselves "happy," that's where their intelligence is going to be focused.

Everything else is just trying to learn a way to get the resources to achieve that happy high.


American people aren't stupid. At best we're an experiment of the utilitarian ideal.

Our priorities are simply different than other cultures and nations.
Measuring as though everyone wants and values the same thing is stupid.
No different than comparing an Amish kid to an Apple iPhone fanboy and saying the Amish kid is "stupid" because he can't figure out how to download the spotify app faster than the fanboy.

What's stupid is to compare them to each other in the first place.

I would not say stupid, just more ignorant !!!! BUT DO NOT WORRY----THE REST OF THE WORLD IS CATCHING UP (FOR EXAMPLE "GERMANY)!!!!!!!!!!

People who propose sending the funding instead to the much more expensive private schools are the ones who you should be accusing of throwing money at the problem.

The reason why I have always supported public schools, is because I know why they were created to begin with. I also understand how the process of fixing ANY problem has to be conducted, and so I know that this procedure has not been followed, by EITHER the supporters or the opponents of Public schools.

The reason public schools were originally created, had NOTHING AT ALL TO DO WITH SAVING MONEY. They were created because our MUCH more intelligent forefathers, realized that an educated populace is the greatest and most useful resource any nation can have.

This is part of why putting "saving money is everything" Republicans in charge of the fix planning, has been so disastrous. And no, that doesn't mean that a blind "throw money" Democratic approach is a better idea.

If you want to fix ANY problem, you can't do it blindly, and both the "Spend more money" Dems AND the "fire more teachers" Republicans just made the mess worse.

No one has proposed directly investigating why schools aren't getting the job done, instead various political interests have sought ways to push their own agendas, using schools as the "football" in their political games.

Ar~~~~tha mighty lord of Myth lore shows up again~~~~~lord give me the power of calium.....unless there will be millions of dumb there won't be dawn!!!!!~~~~~~~~~~