This article in The Week magazine points out that not only are
American school students falling behind the rest of the world,
--- but American adults as well.
Any thoughts or comments?
America has fallen way behind in the smarts department - The Week
Comparing USA head-to-head with Finland, for example, make very little sense. Apples to oranges.
I am puzzled, however, by France being consistently at the bottom in all categories, and Korea not being near the top. Something must be wrong with their methodology.
Meh, I don't put much stock in "people polls". You shouldn't either.
from OP article
It may be a little different than assumed
"...it's not necessarily that America's kids are getting dumber, or that America's education system is precipitously crumbling. Rather, the study says the age-based drop-off is because proficiency "has risen so much faster in so many other countries across successive generations.""
We're not getting worse, others are just improving faster.
Who makes up these friggin guidelines?
This article in The Week magazine points out that not only are
American school students falling behind the rest of the world,
--- but American adults as well.
Any thoughts or comments?
America has fallen way behind in the smarts department - The Week
Sadly, yeah. I read that article and concluded something similar.Seems to me the 'smarter' our devices, the dumber we and more lazy we become. JMHO
View attachment 67154844
People smarter than you. :laughat:
You could examine the article and/or that article's source material. Then you wouldn't have to guess.Actually it seems Finland divides students (after elementary school) into vocational or academic classes, something we no longer do here.
lolAnd the 500 pound gorilla in the room that what nobody has mentioned is the changing demographics in the USA. The proportion of people from lower intelligence groups such as blacks and Latinos has been steadily on the rise in the US for quite some time now.
Of course that's irrelevant.lol
You realize that the US has not gotten worse despite the "rise" of "lower intelligence groups", yes?
First of all, the stats say nothing about "the rest of the world" because the overwhelming majority of the world wasn't included. Furthermore, to discount the quickly changing demographs in the USA as a cause for a lack of progress is incredibly naive and unscientific.The US has stayed the same while the rest of the world improved.
If there had been a notable decline in our scores, would that have been relevant since it would support your point?Of course that's irrelevant.
My apologies. I was writing casually. Please amend my earlier comment to apply only to the countries under discussion.First of all, the stats say nothing about "the rest of the world" because the overwhelming majority of the world wasn't included.
If you will note I haven't discounter it yet.Furthermore, to discount the quickly changing demographs in the USA as a cause for a lack of progress is incredibly naive and unscientific.
We put a massive financial disincentive between the student and continuing education. Is it any surprise that intellectual development and curiosity are lacking?
I doubt that social promotion existed 100 years ago, and I doubt that modern public schools demand mastery of the basics to anywhere near the degree they did 100 years ago.Dragonfly said:Generally speaking, the education system in America has not changed over the last 100 years.
So it's no surprise that we're falling behind.
I doubt the evolution controversy accounts for a significant part of any gap in average intellectual attainment.Dragonfly said:Also, when you consider how many people still want to remove science from science class and replace it with religion.....well....'nuff said there.
The percentage of US adults with at least a BA has nevertheless been rising steadily since the 1960s:
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, 2011
If it was only as essential then the graph depicts a positive correlation between cost and graduation rates, rather than the expected negative correlation. That is, more people rather than less are graduating despite cost increases.that's because it's as essential for good employment as a high school education was 30 years ago.
34%-66%still, according to your link, we're talking 30 percent. that means seventy percent aren't getting a college degree. like i said, there's a serious financial disincentive.
South Korea, however, is top of the league table when it comes to producing too many over-educated workers. The number of college graduates in excess of the job market’s demand is estimated at about 50,000 a year, compared with an annual supply shortfall of more than 30,000 high school graduates, according to the labour ministry.
If it was only as essential then the graph depicts a positive correlation between cost and graduation rates, rather than the expected negative correlation. That is, more people rather than less are graduating despite cost increases.
34%-66%
The following cite puts it at 41% as of 9/2011:
Washington Post: U.S. falls in global ranking of young adults who finish college
On the surface it looks like something is seriously wrong with US performance because it is so far behind the world leader, Korea, which has a 63% graduation rate- 50% more than the US. However, highly wired and industrialized Korea has a yearly surplus of 50,000 college graduates, so we are far from straightening out all the numbers and issues here:
Financial Times: South Korea pays heavy price for education
(from link):
Although that position is plausible and intuititive, it is not reflected in the data I cited.that's because there is a lot more pressure to get a degree, since it's much harder to get a job without one. the factory jobs are gone, and there's no industry waiting to absorb non-college graduates. many more would probably elect to go to school if the mountain of debt incurred was not a factor.
The Korean Labor Department is better placed than we are to comment on the economic effect of Korean college graduation levels. It says that from an economic standpoint there is a large college enrollment surplus whose economic effect is about 1-2% value subtracted per year. (I think that’s right- link is now behind pay wall).no nation pays "a heavy price" for education. there is no "surplus" when it comes to intellectual development.
The analogy is unsuccessful because a high level of fitness can be attained without going to the time and expense of gym membership.that's like saying that we had better not lower the cost of gym membership, because then too many people will be in shape.
Good book-reading habits can provide abundant private-life intellectual stimulation.college isn't just for access to the labor market; continuing education is weightlifting for the mind, and we all benefit from that.
Sadly it can be several times $30k.we're on the cusp of some serious problems, and we need as deep of an intellectual pool as we
can produce to solve these problems. if a lot of the kids are saying "**** this, I’m not going thirty grand in the hole," then that does not bode well for America.
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