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

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Are we raising the stupidest generation in American history?  The statistics that you are about to read below are incredibly shocking.  They indicate that U.S. high school students are basically as dumb as a rock.  As you read the rest of this article, you will be absolutely amazed at the things that U.S. high school students do not know.  At this point, it is really hard to argue that the U.S. education system is a success.  Our children are spoiled and lazy, our schools do not challenge them and students in Europe and in Asia routinely outperform our students very badly on standardized tests.  In particular, schools in America do an incredibly poor job of teaching our students subjects such as history, economics and geography that are necessary for understanding the things that are taking place in our world today.  For example, according to a survey conducted by the National Geographic Society, only 37 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 can find Iraq on a map of the world.  According to that same survey, 50 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 can’t even find the state of New York on a map.  If our students cannot even find Iraq and New York on a map, what hope is there that they will be able to think critically about the important world events of our day?

Sadly, almost every survey or study about high school students that gets done shows that most of our students are not even receiving a basic education.

For example, the following comes from an article posted on MSNBC….

Just 13 percent of high school seniors who took the 2010 National Assessment of Educational Progress — called the Nation’s Report Card — showed solid academic performance in American history.

So only 13 percent of our high school seniors are proficient in history?

That doesn’t sound good.

So what does that mean exactly?

Well, there have been some other surveys and studies that have quizzed U.S. high school students about specific historical facts.

The following are some of the absolutely amazing results of a study conducted a few years ago by Common Core….

*Only 43 percent of all U.S. high school students knew that the Civil War was fought some time between 1850 and 1900.

*More than a quarter of all U.S. high school students thought that Christopher Columbus made his famous voyage across the Atlantic Ocean after the year 1750.

*Approximately a third of all U.S. high school students did not know that the Bill of Rights guarantees freedom of speech and freedom of religion.  (This is a topic that I touched on yesterday).

*Only 60 percent of all U.S. students knew that World War I was fought some time between 1900 and 1950.

Even more shocking were the results of a survey of Oklahoma high school students conducted back in 2009.  The following is a list of the questions that were asked and the percentage of students that answered correctly….

What is the supreme law of the land? 28 percent

What do we call the first ten amendments to the Constitution? 26 percent

What are the two parts of the U.S. Congress? 27 percent

How many justices are there on the Supreme Court? 10 percent

Who wrote the Declaration of Independence? 14 percent

What ocean is on the east coast of the United States? 61 percent

What are the two major political parties in the United States? 43 percent

We elect a U.S. senator for how many years? 11 percent

Who was the first President of the United States? 23 percent

Who is in charge of the executive branch? 29 percent

Some have criticized the survey results above because they came from a telephone survey, but the truth is that they are not some sort of an anomaly.  Many other surveys have produced similar results.  It doesn’t take a genius to realize that a large percentage of our high school students are as dumb as a rock.

The following is from an article written by reporter Mark Morford in which he described his conversations with a longtime Oakland high school teacher that was nearing retirement….

It’s gotten so bad that, as my friend nears retirement, he says he is very seriously considering moving out of the country so as to escape what he sees will be the surefire collapse of functioning American society in the next handful of years due to the absolutely irrefutable destruction, the shocking — and nearly hopeless — dumb-ification of the American brain. It is just that bad.

Now, you may think he’s merely a curmudgeon, a tired old teacher who stopped caring long ago. Not true. Teaching is his life. He says he loves his students, loves education and learning and watching young minds awaken. Problem is, he is seeing much less of it.

Later on in that same article, Morford tells us that the high school teacher even admitted that very few of his students even know how to put a sentence together….

It gets worse. My friend cites the fact that, of the 6,000 high school students he estimates he’s taught over the span of his career, only a small fraction now make it to his grade with a functioning understanding of written English. They do not know how to form a sentence. They cannot write an intelligible paragraph. Recently, after giving an assignment that required drawing lines, he realized that not a single student actually knew how to use a ruler.

It is not that our students do not have the capacity to be great.

It is just that they have learned to be incredibly lazy and our schools do not challenge them at all.

One study found that 55 percent of all U.S. high school students spend 3 hours or less per week preparing for class.

Other nations require their students to work far longer and far harder.

And they get much better results.

Today, American 15-year-olds do not even rank in the top half of all advanced nations when it comes to math or science literacy.

So how do we expect to compete if this continues?

If we would just challenge our students and require more out of them we could do so much better.  What most public schools are doing right now simply does not work.  The following is from a report that John Stossel did a few years ago entitled “Stupid In America“….

I talked with 18-year-old Dorian Cain in South Carolina, who was still struggling to read a single sentence in a first-grade level book when I met him. Although his public schools had spent nearly $100,000 on him over 12 years, he still couldn’t read.

So “20/20″ sent Dorian to a private learning center, Sylvan, to see if teachers there could teach Dorian to read when the South Carolina public schools failed to.

Using computers and workbooks, Dorian’s reading went up two grade levels — after just 72 hours of instruction.

His mother, Gena Cain, is thrilled with Dorian’s progress but disappointed with his public schools. “With Sylvan, it’s a huge improvement. And they’re doing what they’re supposed to do. They’re on point. But I can’t say the same for the public schools,” she said.

It absolutely amazes me how millions upon millions of our students can get all the way through high school without ever learning how to read, write or speak at a functional level.

Instead of producing the leaders of tomorrow, our education system is producing a bunch of sheep that are trained to take orders and that are pretty good at taking multiple choice tests.

If you want to get really depressed about the future of America, just watch some of the Jaywalking segments that Jay Leno does.  Yes, it is funny to watch as he demonstrates how little Americans actually know about world events.  But it is also a sign of how far our education system has fallen.

If Americans cannot even answer basic factual questions about our own government, then how in the world will anyone ever be able to persuade them to think critically about the Federal Reserve, the economic crisis or about our corrupt political system?

Our children are the future of this nation, and right now that future is looking quite bleak.

So what do all of you think about the U.S. education system?  Do any of you have any education horror stories to share?  Do you believe that our schools have rapidly gone downhill?  Feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts below….

Read more at The End of the American Dream


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    Total 47 comments
    • Decode the World

      Like everything operated by unions, the lowest common denominator is lowered even further.

    • Anonymous

      What do you expect when you pump kids full of fluoride, BPAs and all sorts of other toxic chemicals and drugs? I was raised way out in the country, drinking clean well water and eating home cooked food, most of which we raised ourselves. Sometimes I feel like I’m walking around in a world full of brainless zombies, and the only reason for it, I think, is the toxic environment we are forced to live in now, because the teachers are there, the books are there… Why aren’t they learning?

    • davidharm

      I bet most people think that George Washington was the first president of the United States that is wrong but that is what we were all told when there was at least 25 before him. I do see what your getting at. That is because today they are taught to pass tests not to know all the material just enough to pass the test. Teachers no longer think it is there job to teach

    • Barbie Chaos

      LOL … I don’t know the answers … I know who the first president was..

    • VLPR

      I am from Finland and not even that highly educated (about an equivalent for your collage drop out), and even i know the answer for most of those questions.

    • VLPR

      College*. I wish this comment section had some sort of edit tool or something.

    • building 5

      no wonder most public school teachers have they’re own children in private schools.

    • Anonymous

      Chris Kitze… we need to get back to the days of the robber barons right?
      Did you learn about that in high school?

      See… people like you are who he’s talking about.

    • Norry

      And that was about american history!
      I would guarantee a similar test on world history would be a disaster !
      We had a show called “The Chaser”,in one part of that show the reporter was in New York asking people in the street some extremely basic questions about different subjects.The skit only ran for 2 or 3 episodes, the replies given to the reporter were so off base and so stupid,very funny at first, but by the third episode it became frightening to think people are that stupid!
      Insular to the Nth degree I would say. One glaring example of this is “The WORLD Series” (baseball I believe) !
      So being ‘THE’ world power when it comes to killing people,it is a little scary at times to think this same country has so many people with their heads inserted up their back passage !

    • badgirlpinto

      My 11 yr. old grandson, much to my surprise and dismay, knows nothing about the geography of the United States let a lone the world. Meanwhile hes on the honor roll so it’s not because he’s not smart. It’s because they aren’t teaching them geography, not in his Florida middle school they’re not. I recently bought a globe.

    • Anonymous

      we have a similar situation here in Kanada where the mantra is “no teacher left behind” – unions protect the unproductive – and these clowns can easily make $100 K a year.

    • zgravity

      I did not go to a public school until I went to high school. In grammar school we were taught Ancient History, World History and American History as well as Geography. In high School I was considered a Genius by the teachers there because I went to a Catholic Grammar School.
      These kids today know nothing. Hell they don’t even know how to add and subtract without it being done for them. So much for those who say that we spend too much money on education and the union has a lot to do with this problem as well when you have teachers out the door of the school before the students.

      To be fair all the way around most of the parents, sometimes through no fault of their own, won’t or don’t take the time to start teaching these kids at a young age. Before they go to school. So there is plenty of blame to go around on this problem.

    • Shejustis

      Unfortunately the United States is one huge science experiment. We are the only industrialized country that is regularly being fed GMO foods (cause disease, severe allergies, cancer and more — proven in other countries, but we are not allowed to do the necessary testing). Additionally we have more than 78 pesticides that are a permanent part of our food supply – this is altering our body on a genetic level and starving our children’s bodies. They are being fed processed and nutrient deficient foods – their bodies are craving nutrition and telling them that they are hungry all the time – soooo we have a huge obesity and diabetes epidemic. We pump them full of heave metals as infants that stunt brain development. When we have a precicous mentally active child – the schools deem him/her to have ADD/ADHD as they are uncontrollable in the boring classroom environment and so we drug them to quiet them and further stunt their brain development and enthusiasm.

      We are developing an entire country of slaves. Infertility rates are somewhere around 70% – that is not an accident when you consider all that is being done in this experiment.

      AND – if you want to really know – our farm animals are sick and unable to conceive as well === somewhere around 90% of animals. It used to be that when an animal was slaughtered for human consumption – if they found disease – the entire animal was destroyed —- now they remove huge chunks of rotten flesh and continue to process these sick and dying animals for us to eat. YOU are what you eat!!! No wonder our children are struggling. If you want to judge them lazy etc….at least give them a real chance.

      EDUCATE YOURSELF>… stop being SHEEPLE – the cliff is infront of you and the others are jumping off – will you be next???

    • Anonymous

      its ok kids.

      you’ll all have a nice career in the military to kill our next enemy country.

      its even worse in schools when your smart because they will label you a “nerd” ect.. because this is now the status quo.

      very sad.

    • darkheart

      I would say fight for change but from what I see. even with a 70%vote for some law or change all it takes is one judge to say no.

    • Richard William Posner

      The failure of “public” services in amerika is the guaranteed result of decades of premeditated sabotage carried out by politicians at the behest of their elite kapitalist masters.
      The goal is the privatisation of absolutely all resources and services in order to provide more sources of “profit” for the kapitalist exploitation machine.
      The only purpose of profit is to ensure the dominance of those who take it over those from whom it is taken.
      The only purpose for “growth”, in the “economic” sense, is to enable ever fewer individuals to take ever increasing, unearned, wealth from the labour that actually produces it.
      The only purpose for the application of these capitalist principles is the totalitarian subjugation of the vast majority of humanity by a small and unspeakably malevolent group of inhuman psychopaths.

    • darkheart

      For those who care enough to see the history of how our schools devolved the book Dumbing us down, why johnny cant read or write well but feels really good about himself. The educational system is broke our masters in Washington, and in the state level as well like it that way. But the system broke itself by the educators taking over the parents and local governments responsibility and calling old practices by new names make failing acceptable

    • Odinski

      The powers that be, want it this way. wake up! Blue pill or Red pill?

    • O. Ryan Faust

      Thanks alot, I just wasted 3 hours watching Jaywalking youtube videos.

      (it was great fun though)

    • Diogenes

      While shopping at a grocery store I noticed a sign by the vegetables that read, ” .05 cents each.” When I called this to the managers attention, that this sign meant that each vegetable was priced at one-twentieth of a cent, he became very irritated and argued with me that five cents each was what the sign indicated. He insisted I did not understand arithmetic! I checked back a week later, and the sign was still there. Stupid is the new normal.

    • David

      Fluoride will make a dumb ass out of you!

    • WhatBox?

      “Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars” look it up, read it. A copy of it is no “Behold a Pale Horse” by William Cooper. “Silent Weapons for a Quiet War” speaks of all this and more 20 years ago. This was planed long ago, slow and unnoticed by the G.P. (general public).

      A generation will speak out, then is forgotten. The “outrageous” becomes normalized, and their children don’t know the difference, then the grandchildren don’t even know where the grandparents have given up or forgotten what the fight was about.

      Keep the people busy trying to survive, thrive, keep up, and consume products. Happy full bellies don’t fight the system.

      Place a frog in boiling water, and it will jump out. Place a frog in cool water and slowly turn the heat up, it will allow itself to be cooked.

    • Sid

      Most kind in the US are educated in taxpayer supported, government owned and operated schools. And even private schools have government interference in their operations.

      I rest my case.

    • Anonymous

      The dumbing down of the masses. I am a FORMER teacher and I can tell you that the curriculum is geared toward making obedient, just smart enough to get the job done, tax paying, consumerist, morons of the populace. The government, namely the Dept. of Education, knows the subjects that will spur critical, free and abstract thinking…and downplays their importance.

    • Anonymous

      I want to hope, that Dr. Ron Paul, who has delivered hundreds of the future generation, would look into education Toot-Sweet!
      I know, lofty hope, but at least with him, things can change.

      I was struck by the comment pertaining to ADD/ADHD. I and my son Brandon spent years fighting the schools, the set up meetings where I showed up and 8 other “Specialists’ were in the room. Brandon works on Mercedes Benz vehicles for a living in the family business, has had a 6 year relationship with a very nice girl, earns ok to get buy-take trips-buy sports equipment etc…rescued a dog also. He is a remarkable person. daily, charter school, christian schools, older woman teacher, younger woman teacher, older man teacher, younger man teacher we even had a gay man eacher one year. Brandon had a 132 IQ and still heard Ritalin!

      I didn’t listen. Mom was right! We always are! (:
      Schools haven’t been teaching kids anything for such a long time. We are in trouble, time to stop kidding ourselves.
      WAKE UP!!!

    • Anonymous

      Reading some of the comments posted here gives credence to the article

    • Richard William Posner

      Like the ones that are missing punctuation?

    • V

      I;m not against what most have said but I think the main responsibility lies at home, with the parents. I mean they are the PARENTS! That means it is their responsibility to ensure everything about their child. Still it is a shame to see our tax dollars buying no education for our children. That is why I see only home schooling as the sane option.

    • Fox Mulder

      This dumbing down is intentional. The government is getting exactly what they payed for. Mindless workers without the ability to think critically. This is why the feds are opposed to legalizing marijuana. Because it gives the user mental rationale. Alcohol on the other hand, makes you mindless. They’re okay with that.

    • vireo226

      Dumb people make better subjects.

    • Anonymous

      They’re not stupid. They’re uneducated. There’s a big difference between the two.

    • Outlaw_Wales

      The masses are also made to use the lack of knowledge as a mind destroying television tool. Remember the show “Are you Smarter than a 5th grader”. OMG, how many people could not even get past the 3rd grade questions on that show. The people at the network made millions because NO ONE ever Won the frickin’ game. LOL!

    • Outlaw_Wales

      Are you sure Joel?
      “politition” Really? c’mon man, you were doing so well until you flubbed that one word.

    • Anonymous

      I teach a science curriculum in a career technical education facility (i.e. vo-tech) and it involves STEM. The results in the story related to history are nothing compared to the results you would get if you tested students in STEM. Unfortunately, we are an elective course school so, if I make the material in the class too difficult, the students will not come. If I don’t get the appropriate number of students in the seats, the class is canceled and I’m out of work. Guess where this strategy leads? Most teachers dumb down the program to get the kids so they can stay employed. I will not do that and I will probably not get a contract next year due to lagging enrollment.

      Of course, the admin says I am not doing enough recruiting to attract the “bright” students. Bright students take calculus, trigonometry, physics, etc. in preparation for college. they don’t go to vo-tech.

      On the bright side, I find that ambitious students have parents that encourage and care about their child’s education. Remember, it doesn’t take a village, it takes just one person who cares.

    • Enigmanonymous

      I know the old standby is to blame the parents, and they are partially at fault, but they’re also victims of the system. Where a 55-60 hour week on salary with no overtime pay becomes the norm. Where mothers and fathers both have to work two jobs each to simply make ends meet. Where everything is becoming more and more expensive by the week, and the only thing not increasing is the workers pay forcing more hours and less time for life and family.

      Then they get home after long, extremely stressful days at work, and either have to cook dinner (or more often buying the only cheap-ish thing left fast food) and have to immediately start preparing for the next day at work and give as much attention to their children as they can manage.

      The whole system we have is totally broken, and it looks to be that it’s only going to get worse.

    • mashj50

      Unfortunately it’s all by design, listen to what award winning educator John Taylor Gatto has to say on the subject. His conclusion was that the public education system was originally conceived by Satanic Industrialists, such as J.P.Morgan,Carnegie and other at the turn of last century. It’s mission to dumb down the population,limit diversity and innovation to a select few and convert the rest into consumers of products for profit. The plan has worked spectacularly well with football watching couch potatoes coming out the intellectual slaughter houses in their millions for many decades now. Don’t delude yourselves that it’s all just happened. It’s an evil agenda by a select few to keep the scum at the bottom,which requires constant effort as scum by it’s nature always tries to rise to the top.

    • Bruce Deitrick Price

      Excellent. Should give ways to improve, for example, 1) Don’t trust anything developed by our Education Establishment. 2) Get rid of as many of the “progressive” ideas as possible–Whole Word, Reform Math, Constructivism, Cooperative Learning, Self-Esteem, Relevance, Multiculturalism, so-called Critical Thinking, No Memorization, Common Core Curriculum, etc…. After several years of studying all these things, I tend to think there is nothing going on in the public schools that is actually intended to enhance education. All the gimmicks are aimed at social engineering, not intellectual engineering. We need to turn this around.
      Bruce Deitrick Price

    • Creators choice

      When people have children it is their responsibility to guide, educate, discuss and stimulate them. My father use to read to us when we were little, I fell in love with Edgar Allen Poe at a very young age. This sent me straight to books, as a child I read book after book, science, foods, fiction and non-fiction.
      My daughter reads, my grandson reads, we love information. Now a day you have the library at your finger tips. Instead of learning something, anything, they are busy gossiping on facebook, twitter, etc. Boring…what a waste.
      I see young children with cell phones, I see parents with their children and their children are on cell phones…no one talks, no one has discussion, it appears to me that parents are lazy. Too lazy to cook REAL food let alone discover the poisons in the packages that they give to their children, their families, too lazy to spend time with their children, too lazy to guide them.
      I too live on a farm, I am damn tired at the end of the day but I read, I learn and I thrive. I question everything…but then I was trained that way…I have meet many over educated idiots…they might as well have blinders on because they simply do as they are told and parrot back what was told to them…non thinkers. Sad.

    • One Who Knows

      Well…

      Chris Kitze on Tuesday, January 10, 2012 8:16 (A for bringing to light corporate reality)
      Anonymous on Tuesday, January 10, 2012 8:25 ( I give you an A, well done. Don’t forget the youths Cellular and Gaming preoccupation)
      Posted by davidharm on Tuesday, January 10, 2012 11:28(Grade undetermined at this time, give me one researchable presidential name prior to George Washington)
      Posted by Barbie Chaos on Wednesday, January 11, 2012 4:51 (Yes?)
      Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, January 11, 2012 8:13 (A+ Bull’s-eye, you get it! Hope you support Ron Paul!)
      Posted by VLPR on Wednesday, January 11, 2012 5:28 (Not fair, Europeans live natural healthy lives and have a good family values, that is cheating! A+)
      Posted by VLPR on Wednesday, January 11, 2012 5:40 (College*, what? edit, yes. C+)
      Posted by building 5 on Wednesday, January 11, 2012 6:28
      (no wonder most public school teachers have their own children in private schools is a correct answer but…that doesn’t explain why America’s public schools are purposely dumbing down our children into sheeple! B++)
      Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, January 11, 2012 9:27
      Businessman who used questionable practices to become wealthy. It combines the sense of criminal (“robber”) and illegitimate aristocracy (“baron”)(We need to get back to the days of the robber barons, What? We do live live in this era, always have. Good observation! B)
      Posted by norry on Wednesday, January 11, 2012 10:02 (Can not argue with that, Americans spend more time memorizing sports trivia than understanding their loss of civil rights by the “Patriot Act” President Obama for signing, the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which effectively endorses war without end and makes indefinite military detention without charge or trial a permanent feature of the American legal system. A+ for bringing up an important point! Tyranny!)
      Posted by badgirlpinto on Wednesday, January 11, 2012 10:08 (Well done! You get it! A++, do not rely on Schools or the US Government to educate your Grandchildren or protect your family! Hence, you wouldn’t have the 1st Amendment without the 2nd!)
      Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, January 11, 2012 10:24 (An enthusiastic A++, your insight and response is excellent!)
      Posted by zgravity on Wednesday, January 11, 2012 10:35 (Yes, you are correct parents need to take the responsibility themselves! A)
      Posted by Shejustis on Wednesday, January 11, 2012 11:21 (What can I say? You can come take care of my children anytime, you get it A+++)
      Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, January 11, 2012 12:46 (Well done, you see the dark side of the sheeple and the strength of “Peer pressure” to follow and to “do as your told”, scary. A for you)
      Posted by darkheart on Wednesday, January 11, 2012 2:32 (Good observation, may I add an evil President can also destroy/misguide the country through his actions, again…”Patriot Act” by Bush and President NObama for signing, the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), bad news for Americans! (Well done! A)
      Posted by Richard William Posner on Wednesday, January 11, 2012 3:21 ( Your content is Spot on! May I suggest you read about Ron Paul and his dedication to preventing that exact scenario! A+ on content! C on grammar/punctuation)
      Posted by darkheart on Wednesday, January 11, 2012 3:53 ( You too see how, big government has taken the responsibility away from the parents/family and is dumbing our children. A for you!)
      Posted by Odinski on Wednesday, January 11, 2012 4:35 (Short and sweet! Well done! A+)
      Posted by O. Ryan Faust on Wednesday, January 11, 2012 5:09 (A+ Great example of “Dumb Down” your joking, right?)
      Posted by Diogenes on Wednesday, January 11, 2012 5:33 (I got ya, it will require patience, lets walk with store managers first before we run, they scan and read the screen, digital world they don’t deal with %’s or count back change anymore. B+)
      Posted by David on Wednesday, January 11, 2012 6:30 (A++, you did your homework and research regarding concentration camps in Nazi Germany in WW2)

      Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, January 11, 2012 7:15 (Oh my God, you read it!!! “Behold a Pale Horse” by William Cooper, you win!!! Valedictorian AAA+++) A MUST READ!!! Well done!

      Posted by Sid on Wednesday, January 11, 2012 7:26 and Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, January 11, 2012 8:13 (Bullseye, hope you research Ron Paul and his stance on the current education system. A+ for you both!)
      Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, January 11, 2012 8:17 (you hit too close to home, no comment except…the higher the IQ the more they will try to medicate you! You are a threat to the sheeple mentality and see outside of the box, very dangerous to the few in power; I commend your diligence and courage. A+ also)
      Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, January 11, 2012 10:26 ( Yes, these excellent postings do give hope, A for recognizing the difference.)
      Posted by Richard William Posner on Wednesday, January 11, 2012 11:52 (Hey professor, comprehend the point being made and try not to judge the spellling. C-)
      Posted by V on Wednesday, January 11, 2012 11:56 (Home schooling, YES, and socialization in private/public schools also, smarts are no good unless they can be conveyed socially to others in society. B+)
      Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, January 12, 2012 12:21 ( I do not advocate Marijuana but you are completely correct, alcohol has destroyed more families in one year the THC in history. A+ for the stoner :)
      Posted by vireo226 on Thursday, January 12, 2012 3:37 (and sheeple to manipulate! A)
      Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, January 12, 2012 7:05 (You are correct, big difference between the two! A)
      Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, January 12, 2012 7:28 (TV? Hmmm…good observation, a tool for mind control and a huge contributor! Please do not forget Gaming and cell phones! A+)
      Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, January 12, 2012 7:38 (Come on Professor, it’s the point being made not the finite details of communication. C-)
      Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, January 12, 2012 8:19 (Please do not give up on the broken system but continue to educate one soul at a time, thank you teacher! A++)
      Posted by Enigmanonymous on Thursday, January 12, 2012 12:55 (Wow, couldn’t agree with you more but I am bias, you sound like my life and daily perspective. A+, extra credit? How can we change the deep seated grove?)
      Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, January 12, 2012 1:24 ( interesting perspective, I was a member of the “Carnegie” education system and studied his old school concepts for many years, enthusiastically. looking back introspectively and after doing research on both J.P.Morgan & Carnegie I found more manipulation and lies than honorable insight , one must agree with your conclusion. A also, well done)
      Posted by Bruce Deitrick Price on Thursday, January 12, 2012 2:58 (Bruce, do not stop, teach others, continue on speaking and writing your thoughts, they are refreshing! A+ well done.)

      In closing, you are all excellent humans for taking the time to speak and write what you think, how you feel and express the core of you perspective self. Well done!

    • Anonymous

      What this article does not state is that this “friend” who was a teacher; taught inner-city black kids.

      The problem with America and the reason it can no longer reach its potential is because we are a multi-cultural, multi-racial, multi-HOGWASH society.

      We see the same trends in European nations, such as GB were the White race has been decimated with a flood of brown and black third worlders who NEVER contribute anything meaningful to White society but inevitably tear it down.

      Take your politically correct blinders off and WAKE UP!

      If you don’t think it was planed that way then you can count yourself among the “stupid” people.

    • Anonymous

      It’s not the kid’s fault. The US government is in control of criminals. “I don’t care as long as I get my money and power” – that’s the attitude.

    • Anonymous

      I object to this article! We in South Africa reserve the title to the “stupedest & dumbest” students ever. Nothing comes close to the stupidity of these imbeciles, especially the female students. Make no mistake, I love female persons, except female students. The SA government keeps on lowering the standards & the pass rate – to no avail. They still keep on failing…

    • building 5

      hey, They’re the, “Leaders of Tomorrow”-!

    • Richard William Posner

      Anonymous; multi-cultural, multi-racial, multi-HOGWASH society.

      Please crawl back under your rock and keep your disgusting and obscene racism to yourself.
      There is only one race; the human race. Period. End of discussion.

      “It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid, than to open it and remove all doubt.”
      Mark Twain

    • Monticello

      What does anyone expect when students take the founding portion of history in the 8th grade? What do you remember of 8th grade? Most of the questions above was centered around the founding/exploration/colonization portion of U.S. History. Yes, kids get that part in 8th grade.

      And yes, it is by design.

    • Anonymous

      When students worldwide are tested, the countries of Finland, Singapore, Korea often come out on top. But if you take the bottom 20% of American students OUT of the mix (talking now about the economic position of their parents, ie., poor Americans), then American students perform right up there with the Finns and the Singaporeans. How could that be? Well, the dirty secret is that poverty is a huge factor in US education outcomes.

      As for the Unions, Mr. Kitze, the Finnish education system has much more powerful unions than the US’s does. Teachers’ pay in Finland is closer to medical doctors’ and lawyers’ pay than in the US.

      And, to the posters on this site who can’t tell the difference between “there,” “their,” and “they’re,” or “then” and “than,” or “your” and “you’re,” please go get an education. Then, you may have some credibility. Then, you can speak meaningfully on the subject of the poor state of US education of which you all are like poster children.

      That said, when the US is compared to other countries on what might be called an entrepreneurial scale we come out near the top; only Israel is more friendly to innovative, independent, and vigorous economic thinking and acting. So all these Asian K-12 students that are taking tests and beating the pants off the Americans fall behind seriously when it comes to innovation in the workplace and larger economy. Those top Asian students, after college, end up working for college dropouts like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs and hundreds of other American innovators.

      So, it isn’t all gloom and doom. There are still lots of things going for the American way of local control with no national curriculum. Creativity is still valued in US schools, much more so than in Asian and European models. Americans enjoy a second chance. If you can’t get into a college of your choice, there’s always community and junior colleges where you can claw your way back from failure. In most of Europe and Asia, if you fail the college entrance, high-stakes testing regimen, that’s it: you’re not going to college, period, end of story.

      Asians are still beating the doors down trying to get into US colleges and universities. Why? Because they’re still the best. Why? Because they value independent, innovative, and creative thought more than their Asian counterparts. But if we keep funneling our national treasure to the 1% that already has more than they know what to do with, this will change for the worse (and is showing signs of trending that way already).

      Good luck, America!

    • darkheart

      why is it that the “bottom 20% of the students are doing more poorly than say students from poor countries say Hati or Jamaica??? See the book “Dumbing us down.” why Johny can’t read or write well, but feels really good about himself. A liberal or I should say a progressive education that teaches little and has no clear goals as well as a stagnate educational system who merely repackages failed ideas as new and bold

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