Dumb As A Rock: You Will Be Absolutely Amazed At The Things That U.S. High School Students Do Not Kn

reply to post by Realtruth


I do agree that some of the stuff I was told about was utter rubbish. They are still teaching kids the sanitized version of U.S history, such as Columbus being the first to discover America, the Thanksgiving story, etc.

That's why it's important to do independent studies to develop a more balanced view of world events and history.

It is possible for someone to eschew conventional schooling and still be successful in life. However, I know people who are gifted that cannot find a job because they did not pay attention in school and were not able to reap the benefits of their talents.

reply to post by Mijamija


That's the problem with today's school system, though. Kids are not interested in what's being taught, therefore they will get poor grades from not paying attention.
Take it from someone who knows personally about this subject. I failed every class I was in and left school when I was 14 because I was bored, didn't pay attention, and was not interested in the subjects being taught. Now, since I'm actually interested in what I'm learning in college, I've only gotten 2 B's out of the classes I have taken and have a 3.86 GPA.

reply to post by celticdog


Hey Celtic dog, did you ever try reading Faulkner? What about the poetry of Eliot? Did your teacher take the time to expose you to those guys? I hope he or she did, but if they didn't then they lost out on a great way to connect with you and encourage your writing.

Your teacher could have turned you on and opened you up to something that would have possibly helped you craft your writing style. All it would have taken was a few minutes for her to write on the back of one of your essays...."go to the library, check out Faulkner and come and tell me what you think of it"

I had a teacher that made me learn Plath and I was so confused as to why, now I know why. But teachers so often fail to do these little things with their students that could make all the difference in the world.

You say your mind gets ahead of your writing, well just keep writing...jumbled, disjointed, confused, it doesnt matter...do not beat yourself up over it, let it flow or not flow....just get the words on the paper...keep writing...please, you will find your method...don't give up, write on napkins during your lunch break....writing is a part of who you are, don't ever let anyone or anything keep you from it.

Originally posted by Mijamija
reply to post by celticdog

 

Hey Celtic dog, did you ever try reading Faulkner? What about the poetry of Eliot? Did your teacher take the time to expose you to those guys? I hope he or she did, but if they didn't then they lost out on a great way to connect with you and encourage your writing.

Your teacher could have turned you on and opened you up to something that would have possibly helped you craft your writing style. All it would have taken was a few minutes for her to write on the back of one of your essays...."go to the library, check out Faulkner and come and tell me what you think of it"

I had a teacher that made me learn Plath and I was so confused as to why, now I know why. But teachers so often fail to do these little things with their students that could make all the difference in the world.

You say your mind gets ahead of your writing, well just keep writing...jumbled, disjointed, confused, it doesnt matter...do not beat yourself up over it, let it flow or not flow....just get the words on the paper...keep writing...please, you will find your method...don't give up, write on napkins during your lunch break....writing is a part of who you are, don't ever let anyone or anything keep you from it.

I have to agree here, celticdog, keep writing. Let your ideas come onto the paper until you've finished. Once you've done that, then you can go back and edit through so it's a proper paper, article, biography, or whatever you're writing about. That's what I have to do. I have to first get my idea's on paper, then edit it in the proper way.
Keep going and you'll find something that works for you. Not everyone does something in the exact same way.

reply to post by ofhumandescent


Honestly, I have to agree with them. I have been seeing plenty of people using hypocrisy within this thread where they complain about youth today being uneducated when they don't even know how to properly spell or use proper sentence structure.

If you would like to complain about something, you're allowed to by all means, but don't participate in what you're arguing about. Meaning, if you're complaining about someone not spelling properly, make sure you spell properly to prove your point further.

Originally posted by Believer101

Originally posted by tomten
reply to post by Jean Paul Zodeaux

 

History is one of the most important subjects.
Without it, you're much higher risk to repeat previous mistakes.

Answer me this:
Are the dates of the historic events the most important, or are the what happened and why the most important?

History is not just dates.

And I haven't said that either.

History is what we can learn from the past.

Originally posted by Believer101
reply to post by tomten

 

They may not know when it was, but they know what happened and why it happened. Is the date really that important? I mean honestly, would you rather have a kid tell you only the date of when Columbus sailed here rather than why?

There's is nothing in the information, saying that the kids know why!
Where did you get that from?

That's a poor opening statement because rocks aren't dumb. Rocks aren't smart either. Rocks don't have common sense though, I think you could use that

Now we know why it's so easy for the government to trample on the constitution. Only 26 percent of US high school students know what the Bill of Rights is? Only 28 Percent know that the Constitution is the supreme law of the land?

Gee, now we know why the public education system in the US exists. It exists to pump out mindless robots who know nothing about their Constitutional rights so they can be taken away from them.

While I can agree that knowing EXACT dates is rather inane for History, knowing approximate dates (such as within 50 years) for modern history, is pretty important in order to frame the information, and give it context.

That said, these (original post) particular questions involve US and World History (modern), a subject which is highly lacking in today's curriculum. In fact, I barely recall learning much about it in class. I learned it more on my own as it interested me, and especially in College.

In school, for World History, we mainly focused on ancient history, and for US History, it was more about the founding fathers and the Constitution.

Modern history is largely missing from a lot of curriculums, and that is rather insane, as this information is the most relevant to the issues we face today.

reply to post by Believer101


I think kids have a ton of stuff on their minds and things like owl pellets are not thrilling or relatable enough to hold their attention.

But kids love attention....and if teachers were to give the kids attention and show how learning can be a good thing that will help them in life, I think it would go a long way. Teachers often suffer from an enthusiasm problem, they want the kids to come to school bright eyed and bushy tailed and eagerly lap up knowledge...when the kids don't, then the teachers get discouraged and give up. It is up to the teachers to find ways of overcoming those problems and find ways to get kids excited about learning.

My favorite classes were the ones where the teachers really got into it, and wanted to share with and NOT lecture the students. Even some math classes were bearable because I had teachers who made it fun and interesting for me. I also had some bad run ins with teachers who put me down and I was not too eager to excel in those classes...but in spite of the teachers being degrading and dismissive to me, I still tried my best cause that was how I was raised. In algebra I did not even bother to try because I just did not care.

Maybe so many kids just no longer care to learn? I do not know, as I said this subject is so multifaceted and overwhelming there are so many factors at work.

I am happy you are kicking ass in school and enjoying learning....that is how it should be for everyone. I am also happy even though you quit at a younge age you had the ability to bounce back and get involved again. I know when I went back to school the second time it was because I wanted it for myself....not because I was forced to do it, and the second time around I gained so much more out of it.

Originally posted by tomten

Originally posted by Believer101
reply to post by tomten

 

They may not know when it was, but they know what happened and why it happened. Is the date really that important? I mean honestly, would you rather have a kid tell you only the date of when Columbus sailed here rather than why?

There's is nothing in the information, saying that the kids know why!
Where did you get that from?

Educated guess. Just like you guessed that teachers teach nothing nowadays because a few kids may not know the exact dates of historic events.

reply to post by Mijamija


Younger kids, yes, but teenagers could really care less about attention from instructors. Nowadays, it's all about who has the latest iPhone, who's wearing what, who slept with who, and all that ridiculous stuff.
Now, getting teachers more involved with students may help, though. If the classes were smaller, that would be beneficial, as well as longer class times. My classes in high-school, for the short time I was there, was barely an hour and a half. That is definitely not enough time to give the kids the information they require for that day according to the curriculum, and give them individual attention and help.
If the classes in high-school were set up the way mine are today in college, 4 hours a day on only one class, and not very many students, it would be easier to personalize things based off of those kids in class and give them individual help and attention.

As I've said before, kids aren't interested in learning about things that don't pertain to them. I knew I was never going to use algebra later in life, as I hate math, so I didn't pay attention to it. In my classes now in college, I care and absorb all of the information given to me as I'm going there for myself and paying for each hour I'm in class.

Thank you. I've always enjoyed enhancing my education, but when it came to high-school, I didn't care enough as I knew most of the information given I would not use later in life.

reply to post by Starchild23


Actualy yes I did. My kids and I talk about pretty much every thing. Even she thinks it's absurd. So what the heck are you lalking about.

Did you think to ask your daughter what she wanted?
Nope, all you talk about is, "Omg, that isn't the way you're supposed to do it because that isn't the way I do it!"

So, before you pass judgement you should think to ask and inform yourself about the situation. You're probably a teacher that think he/she knows everything. What would you do with out your teachers edition? You're as ignorant as everybody else.

See, I can make ignorant assumptions too.

Originally posted by Believer101
reply to post by Mijamija

 

That's the problem with today's school system, though. Kids are not interested in what's being taught, therefore they will get poor grades from not paying attention.
Take it from someone who knows personally about this subject. I failed every class I was in and left school when I was 14 because I was bored, didn't pay attention, and was not interested in the subjects being taught. Now, since I'm actually interested in what I'm learning in college, I've only gotten 2 B's out of the classes I have taken and have a 3.86 GPA.

That's funny..
..I was total opposite.
I knew how to Read and Write, and Calculate, when I was in Pre-school.
In 2'nd grade, I had to do 3'rd and 4'th grade Math, because I did all the 2'nd grade calculations the first week in school.. :-)
I basically knew most of the stuff they teached in school up to 5'th grade, before there was anything new for me to learn...

reply to post by Flavian


I totaly agree. I think I mentioned it before on this site. In hiogh school history class we were talking about the finer points of the discovery of the Americas. In passing I asked the teacher if we were to talk about the genocide on the native american. He got mad right away and told the class there was no such thing. So, I asked him about Chistopher Columbus. How come he was praised as a great man when he killed thousands of un armed wolmen and children. I got detention. Real history and real subjects are not tought in school. Only what they want you to learn. I think it's a damn shame.

Originally posted by Zaanny
reply to post by YouAreLiedTo

 

I can tell you what happened....

Lawyers

technology that gave us the ability to be even more lazy.

Originally posted by Believer101

Originally posted by tomten

Originally posted by Believer101
reply to post by tomten

 

They may not know when it was, but they know what happened and why it happened. Is the date really that important? I mean honestly, would you rather have a kid tell you only the date of when Columbus sailed here rather than why?

There's is nothing in the information, saying that the kids know why!
Where did you get that from?

Educated guess. Just like you guessed that teachers teach nothing nowadays because a few kids may not know the exact dates of historic events.

I didn't say that either.. (You need to pay attention what you read).

The WW1 was a 50 year time-span. That's not an exact date.
The time span 1900 -- 1950 even breaks in to The WW2 time!
If the kid had any kind of history sense, they would not get wrong on that question.

And the Columbus time.
That's even more crazy that they got it wrong.
How can they even think that it was in 1750's? When it was in the end of the 1400's?
It's a terrible long time wrong.

The kids need to know, approximately when things happened.
Else they can't sort out Action and Consequence's.

We can still beat china in pop culture trivia.
I worked with a high school girl and I would always quiz her. She couldn't name one country in Africa lol.