OMG! (Oh my god) Our society will never survive.

[houstonscott]

I put this in Rural living as the last thread Today's high school seniors.....ouch. was here and this is along the same lines. Just had a survey phone call. Most of the time I just say not interested and hang up but this time my curiosity was piqued and I stayed on the line. The survey was initially about quality of rivers, streams and lakes and the environment in the Puget Sound area. I live in the Puget Sound area so it was at least regionally correct. I do not want this to go political which it could so please don't go there. This is more like the Today's high school seniors.....ouch. thread in which I could not believe the lack of knowledge/education of the individual on the other end of the phone.(the one conducting the survey) Now I am pretty certain that by law these folks have to be at least 18 (could be wrong) but by voice I would have guessed the young male (I refuse to call him a young man as that implies a level of growth and education that did not exist) was in his mid 20's. One of my answers was the EPA. He said: "What is the EPA?" My reply the "Environmental Protection Agency" with a up lift of voice inflection to try to indicate my confusion as to why I had to define the EPA in a survey about water quality. It does not matter what you think about the EPA; good, bad, or indifferent, it is a known acronym especially in the context of a water quality and the environment survey. Two questions later I said EPA again. His response was: "Now, EPA is what again?" At that point I said: "Now I don't want to be insulting but is this survey farmed out to someone in another country or are you here in the States?" (he spoke good English) Response: "I am here in Washington, I live in Seattle." Me: "And you have not heard of the EPA?" Response: "Not really" Me: "OK lets continue with the survey anyway." I am sorry, as I said; how can anyone not have heard of the EPA. Yes maybe not a roll-off the tip of your tongue familiarity but to stumble twice and and not know of it. WOW!:confused2: We as a society are done!:shocked::shocked: Put a fork in us. We are beyond the point of no return. When a young male who has supposedly reached adulthood does not even have a passing familiarity with the term EPA and then when defined as the Environmental Protection Agency there is still no recognition we are beyond hope. The education system has failed us and the young of the country. Where do we go from here? How do we recover? I think we have failed and do not see how a recovery from the decline of knowledge and education can ever be made.

Who's been running your school districts and curriculum since the late 1960's. Answer that and you'll have your answer. Here is latest from the same thinkers.


Is having a loving family an unfair advantage? - The Philosopher's Zone - ABC Radio National (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)


HS

 

[Buppies]

Again all is not the schools fault parents have a lot of culpability in this as well. Our son went to liberal college yet remains conservative. Not saying liberal is bad just saying blaming the schools is not the main problem a part yrs but not the whole problem.

Ask a young person today how you get ahead in this world, the answer may surprise you

 

[bcp]

"Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise.

― Socrates, around 400+ BC

 

[CalG]

well done rtimgray!

 

[davesl708]

Have you ever watched "Waters World" on the O'Reilly Factor?
It drives the point home very clearly. The young are clueless about what is going on in the USA. They cannot answer simple common knowledge questions but can recite propaganda verbatim. When asked to explain their points of view they cannot.

Social Studies is no longer taught in schools. Government and or Constitution are not taught either.

I have a seventh grade textbook for Government classes published in 1936 by the State. It clearly warns voters from reelecting career politicians. That would never be taught in todays schools. We had to come to class with current event topics and discuss them in class.
Ask a student today what a current event is and they will think it is a trick question.

 

[KiotiKowboy]

I don't want to paint the "concept" of public education unfairly. The problem lies in who controls the content and methods of public education. By default, that is government - state and federal. In my opinion, completely removing federal control of local public schools is mandatory as a first step to reclaiming a quality education.

The fed is always looking for ways to create a population of functional peasants ... smart enough to function but too ignorant to question government intentions and authority. Right now, you see a national uprising against Common Core - for good reason. Before that, there was Outcome Based Education. Earlier, there were other attempts to assert federal dumbing down movements.

Today, we have a young generation with no concept of just how much they DON'T know. They have been raised to expect/tolerate/support locker searches, backpack searches, entry door metal detectors, TSA violations, recorded calls and emails, "hate" speech laws .... and the list goes onnnnnnnnnnnn. I think it is safe to say, our founders would NEVER have rolled over for such broad abuse of government power. Our youth is incapable of understanding the danger of these things, the damage to their freedom and liberty, the threat to our way of life. Instead, they are conditioned to excuse such violations in the name of political correctness and/or promises of safety. Our youth is this way PRIMARILY because government uses its schools to indoctrinate them.

 

[Sodo]

Today, we have a young generation with no concept of just how much they DON'T know.

Lucky for them the older generation DOES KNOW all this stuff and is making good decisions ( not just for right now but for the long term!)

Back to the SUBJECT, Silvic, do you suppose the pollster was given specific instructions to simply ask the question and record the answer (and don't indicate any preference or interest)? I can see the value in that method, it depends what they are trying to study. Many folks never answer phone calls unless They recognize the caller ID, so right there is a certain subset of the population.

 

[Creamer]

A teenager not knowing what the EPA is does not surprise me. For all the hype about the environment the teenagers are more self-centered than they have ever been therefore their life is more centered around them than ever. They would know the latest ipad, ipod, ibook, etc. but their focus is not on the environment - look at their lifestyles. Who has their attention? It is all about that little screen and whatever is on there.

 

[rtimgray]

Just to reiterate, I feel that if parents/grandparents/extended family/friends/etc. are unhappy with what is being taught in public schools, then they should actively try to change it through established political means. If enough support can be gathered and demonstrated, I would wager that, eventually, change will come about. However, if not enough support is shown, then it may turn out that those that feel they are in a majority opinion may come to the (unwelcome) conclusion that it is indeed they who are the minority.

Even if one is unable to effect change in a school system, there is still a very active role that they can (and I feel should) choose to take in the educational process: talk to the children about "what did you learn in school today." Now I'm not going to pretend that I do this EVERY day with my children, but at least once a week we discuss the happenings at the local school house. I tend to indoctrinate my children with my own political leanings, and explain to them, as best I can, why I feel the way I do. I hope that I am a positive influence, and I believe that my influence can overcome any adverse opinions. However, what I hope more than that is that between myself, my wife, our church and family, and the school system (along with other activities) is that my children will develop the critical thinking skills necessary to take all of the information at their disposal, review to their satisfaction, and arrive at a conclusion that suits them, with the proper rationale to explain to me why they have made this choice. In the end, their choices and their views may not align perfectly with mine, but so long as they can give me a cogent and coherent argument, I won't be completely disappointed.

I just hope that they can choose wisely for me when they select my nursing home....my daughter keeps threatening to put me "in those crooked ones like we saw on 60 minutes" (that's an old Simpson's reference, if anybody catches that).

Good luck and take care.

 

[Silvic]

Back to the SUBJECT, Silvic, do you suppose the pollster was given specific instructions to simply ask the question and record the answer (and don't indicate any preference or interest)? I can see the value in that method, it depends what they are trying to study. Many folks never answer phone calls unless They recognize the caller ID, so right there is a certain subset of the population.

As I posted, I rarely respond to the polls but this one piqued my interest.
Yes Sodo I do believe they are most of the time instructed to ask the question and record the answer. That is the way it should be but the poll questions also have to be constructed in such a way that the answer can be given without being directed to the response/answer that is desired by the poll creator. A method that unfortunately is used in many polls to try to get the result they want.
This poll was clearly constructed that way in the first 5-10 questions. It then became slightly more appropriate in the question format style.

However if the answer to a non-multiple choice question is EPA; and the person asking the question can't record the answer because they have no idea what the EPA is and subsequently asks "What is the EPA" and then a second time two questions later asks: "Now, EPA is what again?"; that was my point to lack of awareness in this country. As someone else pointed out I bet they could have told all about some social goings-on and what was on "Entertainment Tonight."