America's school system is DOOMED>

Hard to believe that folks could be so ignorant of their nation & its most important History. As a Canadian school child I learned the answer to these questions around fifty years ago and knew the answer to every question asked. Seems we Canucks get better American History and Geography lessons about the United States of America then you do. Maybe Gramps is so freaken smart because the ACLU & the teachers unions hadn't gained a foothold & set about destroying education before Gramps was educated.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=37922&page=3&viewID=1478528

Prrof that these youngsters (under 50) better start listening to us old geezers. Grandpa answered every question with even thnking about it.

Pathetic

Yes it is pathetic but it is also dangerous for the people of the United States to be so uncaring of their History & it`s foundations.

Hard to know where you are going or how you will get there if you don't know where you are from or where you have been.
"any choice you make will get you there" Most don't like to be bothered by making choices because that makes one accountable and repsonsible for the choices one makes.

Bryce

T be fair, Mira, how many people were interviewed that knew all the answers? It wouldn't be very entertaining to show all of them, though.

I'll bet Jay could go to Nova Scotia and get some dumb answers, too.

You don't have people ignorant of their history in Canada?

And to be fair he was conducting the interviews in California.lol

What is it about US kids not knowing history that you think is dangerous?

He's not talking about people not knowing history, he's talking about illiterate and ignorant people, and if they are registered voters they are dangerous, just look what happened in the last election, including the primaries.

I think I'll let him answer the question himself.

She may have been mean, but I sure learned a lot from my social studies teacher. I think I missed one, though.

Didn't like my answer, huh? Hit a nerve?

Exactly why we home-school our 5 kids.

sgs, not knowing history is very dangerous. "Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it." This doesn't mean everybody needs to be a historical scholar, but there are basic and simple historical facts that everyone should know.

Personally I think that WHY we broke away from England is pretty important tidbit of information. Learning history is not just names and dates in a textbook. Its learning how and why important things happened. Also, wisdom is gleaned from others' mistakes, but only if we take the time to learn from them.

An attitude that not knowing simple history is harmless is a scary one indeed.

The thread is about people not knowing about the revolution. Are you saying that if the young - middle aged don't know this history that there might be another revolution?

Hawkeye, my question was to Mira Trapper. Why would you presume to answer for him?

The topic of the thread is that our school system is doomed, and a video supporting that view was presented. Personally, I thought it was pretty good evidence of the poor quality of our education system.

If enough people don't know the reasons for the revolution, then the freedom that so many worked, fought, sacrificed, and died for can be lost. If you go back and study world history you can see it time and time again.

While I believe they should, at least to some extent, I'm not gonna pick on someone for not knowing names and dates. However, when people don't know WHY we fought and risked everything for our freedom, that worries me. And yes, you never rule out the possibility of another revolution. Do you really think the British saw the first one coming?

I agree. Frankly, it amazes me that that there are people who don't even know that we fought for independence from the British.

I work in a junior high school. I've talked to many an eighth grader who can't remember what they were taught two hours ago.

I new every one of those except what year it was. I do know though that it wasn't in the 1900's HAHA

Dang that was bad. I can't believe that they didn't know who we fought agianst.

If you read what I wrote it would be obvious that Hawkeye and other posters knew what I meant. ``Those who don`t know history are bound to repeat it. In fact a revolt is already taking place in America for the same reasons as King George lost a country. Taxes & huge deficits`::: Saber rattling isn`t the only revolt that takes place in a society.


In fact your country is already getting warnings from Moody's that you can not continue to keep your triple A borrowing rate with the trillion-dollar increments that are being racked up. Your social programs continue to build towards 20 trillion dollars so that you are becoming more dependent upon China then America was to King George. If the trend continues you will see the same revolts as Greece is facing.In fact some left-wing union types are already offering violence as a remedy for cutbacks in wages . Not knowing your history and how the free market rose out of those ashes has been one of the greatest obscenities in the Modern US of A. If Hawkeye had been wrong I would have said so but I applaud his ability to realize what I pointed out in the thread previously. Seeing how he knew where I was coming from makes me wonder why you never caught the historical reference of my post. He had no problem, nor have others who caught my message as evidenced by other posters on this thread.

Actually Nova Scotians were taught these lessons in American History ,Hawkeye. I would certainly expect our univercity and community collage teachers to be able to answer as well as Gramps.

exactly the point I was making Bryce. Seems some folks don`t think that understanding history makes for a greater ability to not repeat its mistakes. Knowing the heroes & villains of History and what preceded or followed their input into history weakens the following generations.

SO were we, Mira, but I guess some people had other things on their minds, like pot and booze.

Ah yes,the Timothy O`Leary , Ward Churchill generation.

"I agree. Frankly, it amazes me that that there are people who don't even know that we fought for independence from the British.

I work in a junior high school. I've talked to many an eighth grader who can't remember what they were taught two hours ago." sgs



to be fair.. umm whos fault would that be???

To your point. We have folks that think allowing Hitler or Stalin types to take over nations has been defeated before so we shouldn`t go to war to curtail such tyrants,today. The History of such death & destruction by the likes of the Code Pink people shows a head in the sand mentality that refuses to accept the lessons of History or never learned those lessons to begin with.

This is one of the most dangerous things to date. Some just can't seem to understand how a company survies and thrives. The goose that laid the golden egg story would apply if they would think about it.

Drifter

It seems we have a group of highly educated idealogues & philosopher egg heads who think profit is a dirty word. Unfortunately they are taking over the Supreme courts , the Universities and the Nanny State Government.

I was wondering if you saw the danger as being history repeating itself, as LDS said. The question then becomes what part of history. If it is the revolution, I'm not all that worried. While I doubt that there is any violent revolution that could bring down the US government, a revolution in mindset and thinking would be more than welcome.


I don't know. On whom would you lay blame?

The problem is (as I see it) the teachers unions. Most of the money for education is for staff salery, benifets etc. Schools are also poorly design for boys. I actually thought about starting a summer boys program called "Man School" where boy's would be taught skills that I think men aught to know how to do.
Drive a stick shift car
Change a tire
Change a light bulb
Use an ax/spilting maul
Plant a garden
Learn to fish
Learn to use a fire arm.
Fill out a check and balence a check book.
Saddle a hourse.
Basic carpentry
Basic wiring
Basic pumbing
Basic masonary
Martial Arts
Start a fire
Tie 20 different knots
Use hand tools
Use a map and compass
Basic small engine maitenence and repair
etc, etc
butcher a fish and animal to cook

How does anyone expect to get anywhere in life without some basic core skills is beyond me. I do small jobs on the side and the prices I charge, well most on here would throw me off there place, probably with a shotgun pointed at me. 95% of the time they probably could do it themselves but either don't know and more likely want to try. I built a guy a dog run and dog house. I charged him $2500 for labor plus the cost of materials. In about 10 hours one day and 4 another I finished it. This guy was glad to pay it... But what I guess he dosn't realize is that he will work a week and a have at his job just to pay me. It just blows me away how lazy people are in this country.

There is pleanty of blame to go around unfortunatly. Our forefathers handed us a new country with some great ideals and a pretty good set of rules. Personal greed has set in and allowed to turn into a cancer on our country. It has come in many forms and at all levels.

Pet projects that one could not afford were soon funded by the excess taxes collected as politicians became corrupted oweing favors. Once that trend started the stink drew in more vultures. We turned our collective heads as it was easier then face it. It has snowballed to the point we may have to revolt to reclaim our country.

God was replaced in our lives by the god of green, silver or gold. This was a real turning point in our country. Life was made easier for each generation by parents wishing for a better life for their children. Soon it snowballed into the wife working outside the home to make ends meet and their children raised by a stranger. The results are what we see now and I for one don't like what I am seeing.

THE EASY ROAD IS SELDOM THE RIGHT PATH is a saying that comes to mind.

Drifter

BRAVO DRIFTER!!! What a True Patriot!

Drifter, while I agree that personal greed is one of the biggest, if not the biggest problem we face, I'm not sure I see the connection to eighth graders not remembering what they have been taught.

There have always been greedy people but it was a trait usually looked upon with disdain. It was sometime in the 70's, the "yuppie" generation, where it started to be generally considered not only OK but desirable.

It's not just personal greed but business and corporate greed too.

Greed is a sin on every level and destructive to the individual and society as a whole.

Without what you call greed there would be no free enterprise, which is okay if you are feeding from the public trough, but without free enterprise who's going to fill your trough?

How would a lack of greed result in no free enterprise?

Example #2, and these are not all under 50ish types. There are plenty more examples if you would like me to go on.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seYUbVa7L7w&feature=related

Nobody wants to take the risk of starting a business without a reward factor, the more profit the bigger the risk.

I'm what I am sure you call greedy, when I am fishing I want to make as much money as I can, I won't say, "well, I've made enough money for one day, I guess I'll stack the gear and go home."

Anyone can conduct business in a way that is not greedy. Charging what your service or product is worth rather than as much as you can possibly get out of your customers, can make a person a good living.

When no amount is ever enough, you're sick with greed.

sgs wrote........
I work in a junior high school. I've talked to many an eighth grader who can't remember what they were taught two hours ago.
_________________________

Well then they weren't taught !

You may have learned your history but spelling appears to be a different issue.

So I omitted the O in to, it wasn't a spelling error, it was a typo.
I learned to spell to and too and two in the eighth grade. The third time through.

one more reason to homeschool

I love the kid at the end. Steel, let me know when your next class is

Great Idea SteelTrap,
Maybe you could call your school------------
THE BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA

They don't teach combat....

Fair enough! I've found that people, young and old, usually don't retain what has no relevance for them.

However world History ,the system of governments and how they were formulated is always relevant as it is the basis for taxes & the economy of nations.

Taxes and the economy of nations probably have less relevance to an eighth grader than you think.

Jay was not questioning 8th graders but gramps seems to have done a much better job of retaining his Historical references then his offspring or they were never taught those lessons to begin with.

Why did you change goal posts ?? You referenced young and old don`t retain info that you felt held no relevance to them & then only made note of eight graders in your comment to me!

Blaming unions for the fact that people don't know who the 1st president was is not going to solve the issues. It is really hard to have youth today from 8-18 years of age get into history and civics when their 26-42 year old parents don't know the answers or want to know history.
When you look at who was over extended in credit cards, loans, leases and mortgages you will find that most are younger baby boomers and down, maybe history is just one of many subjects they have not learned well enough. I feel that not knowing basic history is a real sign of how disconnected we have become from most of life other than the show bizz type stuff.
After all we NEED TO CREATE REALITY SHOWS in this country now for people to watch and then actually judge on how they deal with CREATED REALITY instead of living in reality.

Bryce

Sorry, sloppy on my part.

Punching the time clock is all it is, they do not care if you get anything out of it, they just want you to get the diploma so on some chart it says that they had a high passing percentage. I will be a junior next year and see it. Our school has a room for the kids that don't try "credit recovery" as they call it, not a room for the special needs, but literally for the kids that don't put forth any effort, so when they fall so far behind they can go make up a semester in 3 weeks. It is kind of hard to learn anything when they show up 2 hours later than us and leave an hour earlier than us and have smoke breaks all day long, they even bring pillows in to nap, it sure sounds like a real, advanced learning envirement to catch up on what they "missed" while they thought they were cool refusing to do work, just my look from the inside i guess

ketchikan, just think, those are the people who you will have to choose from when you hire somebody one day.

yeah, it is teaching them a real work ethic

Or vote for someone.

America is doomed

I'd still rather be here than anywhere else.

I tell you what also burns me. When illlegals or legal immigrants fly the flag of their home countries'. If it was so great there, why are you here? My ancesters came here, and I know where they came from, but you won't see the flag of that country flying at my house...