"Dumbing Down" of America

My idea on America's dumbing down is because the general populous is getting lazy. It's a vicious circle that really has no end. Kids only do enough to get B's and C's in school. In order for the school system to look better they lower the bar and those kids start getting A's and B's. Then the next group gets B's and C's on the already "dumbed down" system. Once again the system is reformatted to be easier and more kids get A's. Guess what happens next. More lazy students.

This isn't only with the lower end of the intellegence spectrum. I help coach a math team and the questions are getting easier. When I first started they were giving middle school students Trig questions. The students didn't get it and i was forced to teach them all. Now, the toughest question I have seen on the most recent tests was a Pythagorean(sp) derived question. It was just an A squared + B squared = C squared substitution. But despite how easy it sounds, even the kid in the class that went to the semi-national competition didn't get it.

I cant believe that society is going like this. If we keep it up America wont have a standing in the world anymore.



And as a side note spelling and english are no-where near my best subjects, I am much better suited in Math and Science.

Oh, it's the same in Britain.

The "big brother" TV show is a classic representation of those who are, excuse my words, basically stupid. All they talk about is shopping, sex and more shopping.

And the youth get glued to it and ignore politics or anything that's important.

"politics is boring" are words I hear a lot. Yet, most of them don't understand how it works because the media is too busy filling their head with stories about Paris Hilton than the crackdown on our civil liberties.

No wonder people don't vote.

Watch Alex Jones "Terror storm", it shows have dumbed down people are in Britain. He asked a lady, in London, if she was willing to give up her rights to feel protected from terrorism...her answer was yes.

WHAT?!?!?

British news is basically filled with terrorism, global warming, crime, drugs and murder. I would say, our society has been deliberately broken in order to rebuild society.

I will use the words "mind control", creating the perfect society.

Hi Vin, most here have put up good comments as to the dumbing dowm of Ameria and as Resi said its just not America. but the real question is why, why after a very long period of economic growth, good education and increased liberties and freedoms do we now have a situation where many are spoon fed and believe the tripe.

Well my own theory is that when you want to wage war you cannot have a well educated and free populace, its as simple as that.

If you look at the success of any Empire the main building blocks are that you have a subservient and compliant population.

Think of India under British rule, how does one control 200mil people with only 10k officials and 60k troops, the answer was with fear. But once the Indians had fought for the BE in ww1 and 2 they reaslised they were strong, we wer'nt invincible.

In a nutshell the US know's its main rivals are Russia/China and the next war will be about resources, well its really already started. If people cannot think for themselves then somebody has to think for them and thats exactly what is happening.

Couple all that together with the fact that 80+% of Americans dont have passports, education standards are falling and most of the controlled media only talks about American issues you can see why it would be easy to mislead people into seeing the world only the American way.

There are going to be more stagd attacks, nore fear spreading, more war, the draft and all the rest of it. Americans have to realise that the world is not out to get them, that people around the world do not like its foreign policy, what they really need is to get out of that bubble, they have been a captive audience for far too long.

Ok, about the literacy, there's a gazillion people here that still spell like crap.
Maybe not like total crap, but still, crap. (eg.: the post above mine, has quite a few errors). And yes, with here I refer to ATS.

Onto the dumbing down of America / w/e / anywhere in the world.

NOT everyone is interested in ''intellectual'' stuff.
There are people that LIKE to watch shows that for you ''superior'' intellectual beings, have 0 fun factor at all.

Just like some people orgasm when they find a formula (or at least think they have found one) to create free energy, there are people that orgasm at the sight of Brad Pitt on tv, or at the sight of the new clothing collection of designer x. /video game y / movie z.

Not everyone is interested in research, studying all night long, gaining supreme knowledge.

And just like that not everyone is interested in going to the beach, having fun, flirting with girls, having sex, etc. etc.

And just like that not everyone is interested in robbing banks / robbing people / raping people / mass murdering people.


Before you talk about what's nonsense or not, I'd create some figures with statistics about where the peoples interests lie, in what areas, etc.
Statistics.

When you are the only one that stands out above all other people, and are entirely different.

Then who is the weird one, they will claim you are, but a saying has taught us that maybe the masses are the weird ones.

But is that actually the case here?

However, that there seems to be a decline in certain areas, I will agree with.

[edit on 4/8/07 by -0mega-]

Originally posted by Skyfloating
the thing is, in the last 150 years, technology has sped up more than most peoples intellects can catch up with. So, you have infantile minds on the level of the year 1850, trying to cope with 2007-media. Its a bit overwhelming. They need some time to catch up with the changes. Id say that in overall people are more intelligent than they were 150 years ago. Give it another 500 years and they will be on the intellectual and spiritual level you are right now.

There is a lot of truth in what you say. Also, the example you gave about the introduction (" hi my name is ---- and i am takin ciminal justis i want to be a judge.") is sadly too common today, even here on ATS. How many times a day do you see the improper usage of there, their, and they're? Students these days do not have a handle on even the basics of their native language.

As far as technology goes, television was the most powerful invention in our history. It had the potential to be a powerful tool for education and for the advancement of literacy. But it has turned into a wasteland of 30 minute sitcoms, and sessions of American Idol and Survivor. That is, when it is not selling the latest toothpaste.

Computers? Forget about it. Most people's knowledge of computers stops at video games and what the hot colors are in iPods. Another huge waste of technology, imo.

But in the end, what sells is what people will buy.

Originally posted by Sky Eyes


But seriously, I have noticed, and been quite dismayed, with the truth herein. I am currently in the unfortunate position of being enrolled in one of the online Universities that have become quite popular for the working person. All I can say is that I am not impressed with the caliber of student that I am meeting. While there are those who can write a complete sentence and carry on an intelligent discussion, for the most part I am finding that the younger the student, the lower the intelligence, or perhaps a better word is knowledge.

Sky Eyes I feel you are right on the head of the nail here but i have another way to look at this issue.

I to am enrolled in an online college degree program with the University of Phoenix. I can absolutely second your statement as to the caliber of student that are in most of my classes. Many of my fellow classmates have not the ability to even think to use spell check before posting their assignments everyone sees. They use extremely bad grammar, they don’t follow directions, they go off topic and start chatting in many posts instead of staying on the topic of the instructor’s question. It’s pretty aggravating to have to deal with when I am looking for challenging discussions and critical thinking.

However, I also feel that maybe this is a result of the college accepting anyone who can get the loans to attend. They seem to recruit from everywhere these days. I often wonder if anyone is ever turned down because of his or her educational history. I have for years felt that the greed running rampant on this planet might be the main contributor to the demise of humanity. IMO this greed has corrupted our higher learning establishments and has created a dumbing down of America solely because more and more students are being accepted who simply by genetics are incapable of understanding anything other than the concept of turning on the TV. I do not hold to the Idea anyone can be trained. If this were true, our problems are solved. Many individuals just don’t have the ability to learn from mistakes and tune their minds.

Lastly I do believe the population has been for years conditioned to forego critical thinking and accept the answers which are spoon feed to them on a 24/7 basis. It reminds me of the Movie "They Live" from 1988. Directed by John Carpenter. The concept was that Aliens were keeping the population under their thumbs by subliminally training their minds to accept the status quo. They used a signal that blinded the population and in every media advertisements they would mask commands like OBEY, CONFORM, FOLLOW, ETC

The point being that Carpenter could have been warning us then that governments try to keep us in line by making us dependent on them to provide us with everything we need to survive.

I do think that America has been on this path for along time. Education IMO has suffered greatly over the years and has not advanced itself but has taken a step back.

I'm not an US-citizen but I know what you are talking about.

Even though we have quite many "idiots" around my homeland, the genral public is accually very well informed and real "dumb" people clearly stand out of the crowd. Knowledge and awareness is something you are supposed to have as a modern human, if you are not aware of the basic structures of the world you are considered a bit "off". I don't mean that we are all-knowing geniouses over here but we are very well informed and our media tries its best to keep the general public informed about the world and what is going on (but it is also severly infected with the "Paris Hilton-syndrome" something we love to hate, always complaining about how the tabloids have become so much worse in the later years, still we buy them and read every single word about the latest Lohan-scandal!). I would dare to say that every news broadcast consists of about 50-60% of news outside the country. We feel so safe here that the outside world is much more interesting to study.

To add a little spice, and I know this might sereiously offend some of you, most, if not all people I know who went to study in the US for a year or two all said something like: "man, they are stupid over there!". And with stupid they mean dangerously exposed to disinfo. In Russia, where I spent quite some time, the population are at least a little aware of the lies they were told during the Soviet era and how distorted their views have been. In the USA, this awareness is still to come I guess. Fox news channel is mostly considered a joke and only watched like some sort of comedy show. I don't think there is ANYONE who would believe what they say over here.

Originally posted by jsobecky

As far as technology goes, television was the most powerful invention in our history. It had the potential to be a powerful tool for education and for the advancement of literacy. But it has turned into a wasteland of 30 minute sitcoms, and sessions of American Idol and Survivor. That is, when it is not selling the latest toothpaste.

Computers? Forget about it. Most people's knowledge of computers stops at video games and what the hot colors are in iPods. Another huge waste of technology, imo.

But in the end, what sells is what people will buy.

What's even more ironic is the fact that some of these sitcoms actually mock the American culture and most of the people watching them don't even know it. (Simpson's) for one.

The writers of these shows must be laughing as they write the blatant insults and innuendos. It's funny how people actually laugh at these shows, sitcoms, movies, etc, when all the while they are laughing at themselves.

Originally posted by Raud
And with stupid they mean dangerously exposed to disinfo. In Russia, where I spent quite some time, the population are at least a little aware of the lies they were told during the Soviet era and how distorted their views have been. In the USA, this awareness is still to come I guess.

The majority of Americans have an inherent distrust of the government however they aren't aware of the specifics; names, dates, places, etc.

However at the same time they believe in the Myth of America where everything is basically ok and a lot of the bad stuff (if not all of it) is merely caused by a very few bad apples.

This and Americans tolerance for corruption leads people to believe we are all just having the wool pulled over our eyes however this isn't true.

It's the ability to hold two opposing views as true simultaneously. The government engages in bad conspiracies (many people question JFK) but this isn't some "big thing", it's just some lose cannons, or something else less ominous than a full blown government conspiracy - or so some peoples thinking goes.

[edit on 4-8-2007 by discomfit]

If you become familiar with Noam Chomsky’s work, for instance, he shows the deep historical roots of the “dumbing down” that we see today in the West, particularly in the English-speaking countries. Ideological indoctrination, AKA mind control, goes back to the very beginning of civilization, when slaves had to be conditioned to accept their status.

www.ahealedplanet.net...

Because humanity went from egalitarianism to kleptocracy when the transition was made to civilization,

www.ahealedplanet.net...

violent coercion was the primary way to amass wealth at the expense of others. The most ruthless and successful became royalty. The English were the first upcoming power to permanently undermine the power of royalty with their civil wars of the 1600s, culminating with their Glorious Revolution.

www.ahealedplanet.net...

The rulers’ ability to rule with force became increasingly constrained, and then controlling what people THINK became more important. Mass mind control has been evolving ever since, and is a science in the West. Political discourse 150 years ago in America was vastly more intelligent than what we see today. Whatever one thinks about the Founding Fathers, they were bright boys. There are many fronts on the dumbing down of America.

Fluoridation may well be part of that process:

www.ahealedplanet.net...

as is the “news”

www.ahealedplanet.net...

the “history” that students are taught:

www.ahealedplanet.net...

and so on. However, however stupid Americans seem, a lot of it is intentional:

www.counterpunch.org...

What all those mindless ideologies have in common is that they are egocentric and elevate the believer over his/her fellows. I call them mind-crutches, because they cripple the mind:

www.ahealedplanet.net...

If we collectively wake up enough, we can turn it around, but enough of us have to care enough.

Wade


[edit on 4-8-2007 by wadefrazier3]

This is my first post to this site.

I've seen the dumbing down all around me, the news, the TV shows, and what's popular with "Today's Kids"

I'm a person who grew up in the late 60's early 70's, I see myself as being pretty smart.

Even with all the pop-culture i've been exposed to over the years eatting away my brain cells

Todays kids are into whats "Kewl" and "Hip" they could care less about what's happening in the "Real" world.

It's crazy to see that a lot of these kids who should know how to spell seem to spell like AOL types used to back when the 'net was a new thing, namely what I call "Lame Speak" they called it "Leet"

I've seen more and more people use numbers in place of perfectly good letters, what's up with that ?

It's like someone ripped out all the letters from their keyboards, hum, how about we rip the numders off their keyboards instead ?

Reading, Writting, forget that, check out my new cell phone I got. Why are they given these things when they can't even read and write yet ? Heck some have computers before they even know how to use them.

Sometimes I hate being as old as I am and haveing to fix my sister's kids computers because they did something to screw them up, it's useualy something simple they did to mess them up, I tell them what they did and how to avoid it, yet I have to fix them again sometime later with the same problem they had the first time.

Then agin seeing the manual for Windows go from a few hundred pages to a leaflet it's no wonder they mess up the computer so often.

Me, I learned DOS.

- W -
* Why can't today's kids learn anything ? Because they aren't teaching them anything *

Dumbing down america...LOL. I am canadian and from what i see americans( the majority anyways) are total idiots when it comes to something outside of thier country. If NWo is in charge they do not have much work to do. Americans for the most point are complete idiots.

It's plain to just about everybody that we've been "dumbed down" systematically for decades.I came across this article discussing the decline in academic courses offered to students and such. It brings up several different factors (economic, social, political) of this on-going trend, and puts forth a few ideas on reversing it.

Of course, when attitudes like this:

As these less-demanding, nonintellectual courses proliferated, a new “movement” was born, the Life Adjustment Movement, a federally sponsored curriculum reform effort that began soon after World War II. According to Charles Prosser, the father of Life Adjustment, only 20 percent of American young people could master academic content; another 20 percent were capable of doing vocational subjects; and the remaining 60 percent needed courses in subjects like health and PE, effective use of leisure time, driver training, and knowledge of such “problems of American democracy” as dating, buying on credit, and renting an apartment.

are involved in the decision making process for school curriculum, it's easy to see how it happened. I must say I'm not surprised that Mr Prosser's program was "federally sponsored". It just shows that the PTB want us as dumb as they can make us.

I remember once reading Robert Heinlein's essays on the decline of civilization. At one point he compares what his father was required to know, upon high school graduation, to the average student of the day's requirements. Students in his father's day had to pass courses in multiple languages, several sciences, college-entry math, and much more. The comparison was not favorable to the new-school graduates.

I see, every day, people who can barely read past "Sally, Dick and Jane" (I guess that dates me), people who write like third graders, and cashiers who can't figure change without a computer. I may have mentioned elsewhere that I know a fella here who thinks a "thesaurus" is one of the monsters on Jurassic Park.

The question is, I think, how long until we're so dumb that no-one even realizes how dumb we are?

School districts actually get more funds for each child that is diagnosed with ADHD. So they are intentionally labeling children as having hyperactivity disorders just to get more money. Even parents can get paid for every child they have diagnosed. And once a child is diagnosed with this condition, it stays with them for life, which will cause problems for them getting employment, car insurance, etc.

The worst part of the whole ADHD scenario is that it's a condition that is completely treatable by feeding kids a healthy diet that is free from chemicals. ADHD was created by the medical industry in order to get kids on drugs, making them early customers so that by the time they reach adulthood, they're already dependent on prescription drugs. Plus, they've now killed two birds with one stone by also making complete brain-dead idiots out of them.

This is an alarming epidemic and unfortunately... people actually believe the spoon-fed crap that's being served to them from the government. They are allowing themselves and their children to be guinea pigs and turned into mindless zombies to die an early death (which decreases the population... another agenda of the government).

Here is the article that talks about the ADHD fraud:
Neurologist Dr. Fred Baughman talks about the fraud of ADHD and the poisoning of U.S. children

Hell, I am a Canadian, and I am disgusted by what I see going on in all aspects of "western" society. I am eagerly awaiting graduation this year, so that I can get out of the cesspool that my school is, and get a "real" education, preferably away from NA. Let me give you a few examples:|

A. My high school has Barely, BARELY the amount of classes it needs in order to keep itself open. Now, I live in a town of about 10,000 people, so this is understandable, however, the schools population is not the problem. The problem is that we have 4, this year possibly 5, "special ed" rooms, to cater to those people who should have been held back or expelled, but have not been. Lit 12 is now offered on a Bi-yearly basis, because the registration for it is so ridiculously low.

B. My high school, however, is sadly BETTER in one way than the one my girlfriend goes to in Kelowna, and her school has a population of approx 1400 kids. Why? Because although her school offers Honours classes, it also offers completely useless Ilk such as Hairdressing classes, Manicure classes, Weaponsmithing, etc. While I applaud the school for offering the slower students a chance to have training for something to employ themselves with in the future, the fact that the registration for educationally useless classes is almost twice what the number in even the basic science, history, and mathematics classes is, I worry.

C. An above poster mentioned having had the temptation to write his Senior thesis on the "dumbing down" of America. I bit the bullet and actually did so (I can upload it somewhere if you like), but out of curiosity, I did things that in a proper educational system would NEVER have gotten me the 95% it did. If you were a teacher, would you consider random quotations and observations from uncited sources on the Internet to be a proper bibliography worthy of 5/5? I wouldn't. Mine did however, and she is considered to be the best socials teacher in the school...

D. Sadly, one of the greatest failings of the BC education system is its merit system. Here, we give awards to the kids who can blindly spew forth what is shoved into them, but if you have lower grades and "insight" the teachers will just praise you to high heaven and then give the awards to the kids who are Rich and have prominent families. Sadly, giving rewards and merits to kids who achieve 95% in senior English is quite fine, but the education seems to not take notice that the same kids can read aloud at the third grade level. If it was one or two kids I could understand, but when 20+ can't read the English language worth S***, you start to get a little angry when the ones that can regurgitate information and are rich get awards.

I may come across as a little pissed off at the education system, and I am. I see it as a highly stunted form of what we once had, and quite obviously trying its damndest to create a population of docile imbeciles. I was reading LOTR for the 2nd time in grade 3. My class was reading James and the giant peach. I was caught reading LOTR all the time, and I indicated that I preferred more advanced literature then what the school was providing at my grade level. What did they do? Advance me? No, they stuck me in the hallway. I was homeschooled for the rest of elementary school and found it the most educational time of my life.

One last thing before I go, as I am getting dangerously close to the word count. You would think, would you not, that the most intelligent and advanced students would get advanced a grade to get challenged? Sadly, this is not the case. I am in a group of 3 friends, where each of us is highly intelligent. I have never gotten less than 95% in history. But my family is quite poor. Their families are both REDICULOUSLY rich. They have both been advanced in classes all through high school. Me? I've just been more or less ignored by the teachers and administration. So, only the rich get an education fitting them, the rest of us? We can just be drones

[edit on 4-8-2007 by D.E.M.]

Reason: Rampant Materialism.

The only thing most people are concerned with is the ability to make money. You hear it all the time. If you took a poll and asked people if they would rather be rich or be smart I would wager that the majority would rather be rich.

It has reached a point where people don't even mind that they have no common sense. Al la Paris Hilton. People admire her! Why!?
Easy answer.

So people just occupy themselves with the act of obtaining money. If you can get by being a moron then why strive for anything greater?

Originally posted by xEphon
Reason: Rampant Materialism.

The only thing most people are concerned with is the ability to make money. You hear it all the time. If you took a poll and asked people if they would rather be rich or be smart I would wager that the majority would rather be rich.

It has reached a point where people don't even mind that they have no common sense. Al la Paris Hilton. People admire her! Why!?
Easy answer.

So people just occupy themselves with the act of obtaining money. If you can get by being a moron then why strive for anything greater?

Yes and that is the lovely result of the following:

1. The American education system that does not teach kids how to be smart, successful and earn a decent living.
2. The American economy where the cost of living increases, the salary level decreases, and people are surviving on maxed-out credit cards with huge interest rates.
3. A medical industry that loads us up with dangerous chemicals in the food, water, and personal care products which make people sick, forcing them on prescription medications that make them more sick and drain their bank accounts because health insurance no longer pays for medical necessities.

The middle class is quickly being squeezed out leaving the rich and the poor. Can you blame young people for wanting to be in Paris Hilton's shoes when all they see in their future is poverty?

Forgive me for my comments...no excuse...just being a jerk.

I am of the growing suspicion that the ever-increasing tuition rates in U.S. colleges and universities is being used to accomplish one of two things:

1.) Make higher education available only to the rich and, to a lesser extent, the poor. I say 'to a lesser extent for the poor' because, while there are lots of gov't grants and scholarships out there, they are not unlimited:

Every penny of the $340 million was distributed last year to 140,898 teens who qualified for help based on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, Reimers said.

Yet 50,000 eligible students were left empty-handed.

www.collegeparents.org...

The above article is dated 2004, so the year in reference is likely 2003.

2.) Students (graduates and drop-outs) inherit crippling debt. $50,000 is a number that gets thrown around a lot these days. Its pretty close to the mark for people I know who have graduated from college (4-5 year programs) in Michigan. Add on the 6.5% interest rate that these young people have when they consolidate these debts, and they are lucky to just be able to pay the interest cost each month to ensure that the debt doesn't increase any further. Better hope for a good job right out of the gates, though the job market for college grads in MI isn't all that great either. Here, we refer to the trend as a "brain drain" effect: reputable, high profile state universities give students a very good education, then those students leave the state to pursue careers/lives elsewhere in the country (or world).

Anyway, with K-12 public schools in the condition they are, I feel that college education is more important than ever before. Not necessarily to be able to get a good job or anything like that, but to learn how to critically reason, learn how to deal with tough issue, learn how to learn. These are things which I feel are altogether lacking in many areas of our nation.

A proposed change in the higher education model: EMANUEL, CAMP, BAYH INTRODUCE BIPARTISAN, BICAMERAL TAX BILL TO MAKE HIGHER EDUCATION UNIVERSAL

While noteworthy, I'll decline comment at this time, and just include the link for interest's sake.

I think the introduction from the movie "Idiocracy" paints a pretty good picture of whats going on today. I really hope that humanity wakes up and avoids going down this path.

[edit on 8/4/2007 by Kronik98]