|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
125.238.9.14
In Reply to: RE: A stark reminder as to how much our schools have been dumbed down.... posted by regmac on September 26, 2014 at 07:36:11
..... that the issue is one of self-motivation and personal responsibility. And those character traits must be carefully developed in kids by good parenting, fine schooling, and a decent government/social network (with parenting being far and away the most critical of all.)
Sadly, though, all three (good parenting/schooling/governance) are sorely lacking in today's America.
Yet we can all point to pockets of success, even in the most adverse of situations and circumstances. And that means that for motivated and responsible people, opportunities still abound. Which, in turn does provide some hope for our collective future.
But the odds are stacked against today's western youth, especially America's, as the media is there to hypnotize and mesmerize them on a minute-by-minute basis, and these powerful institutions of information control don't disappoint one whit. Kids and young adults in the USA and most other western nations, are being made into passive observers in life, infinitely more now than was ever possible in human history previously. And this frightening trend will only get ever more intense and focused. Mind control is everywhere, euphemistically called 'advertising'. Always has been, but never on this scale, or with this depth of subliminal reach and reinforcement. We are in uncharted waters, socially and psychologically. (Bernays, however, would be mighty proud.)
Thus, to take back our kids, we must first take back their minds. And that means being strong, being contrary, being involved, being concerned, being tough, hell, just BEING A GOOD PARENT! And that is where so many families slip up: discipline and reinforcement of critical character development is simply not happening,. And this is not good news, as these very character traits are indispensable foundations to any nation's long-term success. Lose them and you lose the future.
Not so much in the Third World, though. There they don't have it anywhere near as easy as their American fat-cat cousins. So they are HUNGRY. Hungry for success, for a better life. Hungry for what Americans take for granted everyday: opportunities. ANY opportunity.
This hunger requires third world parents and their kids on a daily basis to tightly focus on and fight for a better life, which in turn inevitably requires those key qualities of self-discipline and self-control. Apparently, many third world parents are fully aware of this, and enthusiastically pursue such a course with their children. And it shows in their relative scholastic achievement levels, versus American kids.
Parents MUST push their kids, if they love them and want what is best for them. Push them hard. Push them to be responsible; to be thoughtful and creative; to be honest, just and fair; to be strong and decent with good self-esteem; and most importantly, to be hard working. Sadly, just the opposite is happening in most American households today, which does not bode well.
America is in full-on decadence mode currently, while these hungry kids in these 'developing nations' are kicking some severe ass, education and motivation-wise, and America's unrivaled international dominance is clearly in their collective cross-hairs.
Competition is getting tougher and tougher. We'll see how America fares in the decades ahead.
But forget the government or the media or the church or the schools. How YOUR kids come out is entirely up to YOU and the amount of HARD WORK you are willing to put into being a parent!
It's all up to us. And we have only ourselves to blame if it all comes tumbling down around us.
Follow Ups:
I can't recall any leader who speaks for the public good. All I hear is leaders who pander to special interests. The major social issues today really are nothing more than hot topics to keep the public eye off the ball, dividing us, while others divide up the spoils. We have State and Local governments promoting for financial rewards alcohol consumption, gambling and smoking. Concerned parents and the interests of good people have been lost in the divisive political environment. The special interests and extremists are being rewarded, and the common hard working American is paying for everyone else's party.
What I'm saying here is the stats bares out the fact that profits are higher, the rich are richer, the poor poorer and the common working American is falling farther and farther beyond in providing security for the family.
It's an environment where the public good has been forgotten.
Give me rhythm or give me death!
I could not agree with you more.Anecdotally, I see parents regularly missing the opportunity to raise their children well. Every day, in the grocery store or other public environment, kids are mis-behaving and their parent only pays lip service to discipline. Last weekend, I decided to go to the store fairly early on Saturday. Wow, was that a mistake! Every poorly behaved kid in town was there with a parent who doesn't know the meaning of the word "parent".
On the other hand, a couple years ago, a kid in the store came around a corner and almost walked right into me. He was about 8 or 10 and wearing a Taekwondo uniform. He said: "Excuse me, sir, I'm sorry". I was dumbfounded! I tracked down his Mom, and told her what a well-mannered kid he is. She thanked me profusely. Turns out, he goes to the same TKD school that my son had gone to, so I totally got why he was so polite.
One more story. Several years ago, I noticed the local middle school parking lot was full on a Saturday. So, one day I asked about it. Turns out, it's Chinese students going to school - on Saturday - with their parents along! They call it "Saturday school".
:)
Edits: 09/27/14
was two let our two boys take Karate. Taught them discipline and respect beyone measure. Both are second degree black belts and, thus, fairly secure in the abilities to deal with personal threats. And, as a result, the have both become rather gentle souls.......
"Man is the only animal that blushes - or needs to" Mark Twain
.
Everything you said was true and backed up the sorry state of affairs currently, at least in my own experience as well.
Yes, self discipline is a critical aspect of character development, and TKD and other rigorous physical and mental training techniques can and do provide great assistance in character building. Sports are often maligned, but I personally think sporting is excellent, as long as a win-at-any-cost attitude is strictly avoided, and helping kids achieve personal growth and betterment is the watchword for the coaches and others in charge of helping the youths.
It's ALL about attitude and hard work, isn't it? And parenting is one of the HARDEST things we do as a species. Which is why the ever-softening masses in the USA are doing such a piss-poor job of things. They are turning away from hard work, and embracing self-pleasuring, and messed up kids are the result. A result that simply does not have to be. But change requires effort, and that "E" word is anathema to much of America's populace presently. Very sad, indeed.
And lastly, my wife and son are 100% full blooded Chinese, so I know EXACTLY where that last paragraph came from. My Dog! These asians work their bloody asses off! Well, I know that I'm very lucky to have one as a wife, and a great step-son as well. They inspire this lazy Gweilo every day with their hard work ethic and boundless energies. I couldn't be more impressed ---or in love! :-)
Yes, it would appear that all the very well-paid shills and dupes in the Western media simply have no clue how fast and far behind America's youth is being left.......
(Or America, for that matter.) :-(
Yes.
Are American universities still the ones people from all over the globe flock to?
Yes.
Is American medicine the world's gold standard?
Yes.
Do our leading universities have a surplus of excellent candidates?
Yes.
Now, there is a reason American students do worse when compared to students in other developed nations: we have a far larger poverty per capita population.
Compare scores of middle-class American students to other nations' and we do very well.
The internet, Facebook, Flickr, and many other recent tech inventions---- foreign?
No.
American.
The only depressing thing in sight is conservatives' America bashing.
Tin: "Now, there is a reason American students do worse when compared to students in other developed nations: we have a far larger poverty per capita population."
Non sequitur. The point is we are spending more **per capita** on education than any country in the world, yet our public school system continues to put out a lousy product. Qualitatively, it's akin to GM and Ford during the 1970s/80s.
Snippet: "The United States spent more than $11,000 per elementary student in 2010 and more than $12,000 per high school student. When researchers factored in the cost for programs after high school education such as college or vocational training, the United States spent $15,171 on each young person in the system — more than any other nation covered in the report. ...The United States routinely trails its rival countries in performances on international exams despite being among the heaviest spenders on education."
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-education-spending-tops-global-list-study-shows/
Tin: "Compare scores of middle-class American students to other nations' and we do very well."
Wrong again. (You put out an alarming amount of misinformation.)
Snippet: "To give you an idea of how competitive American schools are and how U.S. students performed compared with their European counterparts, we gave parts of an international test to some high school students in Belgium and in New Jersey.
"Belgian kids cleaned the American kids' clocks, and called them 'stupid.'
"We didn't pick smart kids to test in Europe and dumb kids in the United States. The American students attend an above-average school in New Jersey, and New Jersey's kids have test scores that are above average for America. Lov Patel, the boy who got the highest score among the American students, told me, 'I'm shocked, because it just shows how advanced they are compared to us.'
"The Belgian students didn't perform better because they're smarter than American students. They performed better because their schools are better."
Disagree completely on all your points.China has displaced America. The Americans run the Federal Reserve greenback printing presses 24/7/365 to keep the moribund US economy barely alive, and then openly cook the books to be perceived as the biggest and best, but the truth is that the US and its economy is slipping fast and must turn to both fiat currency and neocolonialist warring and stealing in its murderously wild and flailing attempt to stay internationally dominant. Bloody pathetic! (And underscore the 'bloody' part, when it comes to Uncle Sam's 'humanitarian' interventions.)
The best and the brightest are NOT coming to the USA for schooling, they go to their own top universities in Tokyo and Beijing, where it is damn near impossible to get in, standards are so high and competition is so fierce. Those who do not cut it, go to the USA. Same for India, which has the most highly regarded engineering school in the world (move over MIT!)
American medicine? Don't make me sick (oh, I forgot; that's what American medicine is BEST at, isn't it?) Sorry, buddy, but you're way out in left field on that one. Here in New Zealand, we view American medicine as existing only to line the pockets of Big Medicine and Big Pharma, and thus the FDA and the AMAs frequent assaults on alternative and low-cost, effective care practices. Here, alternative care is embraced. And medical costs are incredibly lower here. A private MRI costs what, NZ$250? (US $197) Just TRY getting an MRI in the USA for less than US$200!! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Good luck there!
And do America's leading universities have a surplus of 'excellent' candidates? Well, not so sure about that 'excellent' description, but the fact facing kids coming out of American colleges and universities today is that they are not finding employment, despite possessing allegedly marketable skills. And you call that a sign of strength? I call that an OBVIOUSLY FAILING system.
But time will tell, won't it? We'll see who is right, and who is deluded by nationalistic fervor.
My prediction: more US wars of open colonialism and third world resource exploitation under the most obnoxiously obvious lies and pretenses. And all to keep yet another falling empire standing, and wallowing in mind-boggleingly bloody murderous hubris.
Glad to be a Kiwi, I must say.
(Although NZ being an unquestioningly loyal member of the "Five Eyes" is not too heartening, I must admit..... )
Edits: 09/27/14
.
I taught for a number of years and the issue of family structure/stability isn't always a predictor, at least in my experience.Wealthiness and doting parents could often be the cause of laziness and indifference, and on the flip side, children from "broken" homes would often be obsessive about neatness and grades.
A third issue is that many boys from "poorer" areas have a hard time reconciling their impossibly high standards of masculinity with enlightenment. "Real" men don't think, reflect or drink Chai Tea, (as Rove just recently intimated), real men drink Henney and simply "do."
And if you think the cell phone/video game obsession is bad over here, you'd be stunned to see immersed kids are in India/Asia.
Edits: 09/27/14
... that makes a kid what they are, as that would rarely, if ever, determine a child's future directly. I believe it is the specific type of personal interactions they experience growing up: the strong parental guidance and positive role modeling they receive (or not); the required attention to the child's deficits as discerned (or not); and the manifest parental strength and love to endure emotional discomfort for requiring compliance with rules designed to help, not hinder, the child's development into a healthy, reasonably decent, strong and self-confident adult. All these experiences (or not) as we grow up help shape us (hopefully) into confident, decent citizens (or whatever becomes of us at the end of our 'childhood'.) And that applies to all, rich or poor.
Therefor I agree that it is not an issue of "family structure/stability", but rather one of individual character and motivation and the willingness to engage in the very hard work of great parenting. And these are individual character challenges that many fall down hard at, rich or poor, sad to say.
I suspect that where strong parental mindfulness and well-thought out efforts are applied, most such parents get good results with their kids, anywhere in the world, and just about at any income strata.
And yes, the media is distracting kids all over the globe, no doubt about that!
Which doesn't bode well for ANYBODY, sad, to say......
Thank you for your thoughtful post.
Cheers!
WS
Post a Followup:
FAQ |
Post a Message! |
Forgot Password? |
|
||||||||||||||
|
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors: