Thus goes the tale of old dead white men.
Really, beyond basic reading, writing, and arithmetic, most other thing we teach in our K-12 public schools are trivial or niche. I mean if you know how to read there are literally tens of thousands of books about the founders.
Sure, if you are going to be a historian or a politician it maybe helpful to learn about the founders in K-12, but at best that's just going to be names, places, dates, because when we get into motivations and outcomes, the nuance of the issues the founders faced, things can get really political.
We didn't even deal with American history when I was in school, not the Revolutionary War, not the Civil War, and nothing more modern than the Civil War, it was all about human history and the start of civilizations.
That was 40+ years ago, and a fat lot of good any of it ever did me outside of high marks in my school grades.
Todays world is not shaped around ancient civilizations, it's shaped by propaganda in print, on the radio, on the TV, and on the internet, hell, Goebbels would be proud, not that I expect 90% of the people to know that name, what he did, or why it even matters.
How many graduating high school seniors can even find Germany on a map?
They likely couldn't even find their ass with a map, unless GPS tagged it for them.
You do know that GPS is a mapping device as you referenced,
it functions as the advance of technology, people don't really need "paper maps" in everyday life. The same as we no longer need pony rider messenger or the telegraph, one can call anyone in the world in any place from a cell phone.
Not many people walk around with a paper personal phone book anymore. Many people no longer even carry business cards, they simply give someone their phone number or email address. One can ask,
how many here have hand written and mailed a letter over the past few decades? We can now use a number of programs to see who we are talking to in real time. People don't use slide rules to technical design work, they can use Auto-Cad Systems, that generally have very accurate measuring capabilities with very close tolerance.
- So, why would anyone pass judgment on the younger generation, because technology has given them advanced means and methods to do things.
Many of the older people talking down about the young people, don't go out anymore and hitch a mule to a plow, nor do they strap a horse to a buggy to get around, and they don't have to worry about pully a knob to engage the choke on their vehicles to start it in cold weather. Many have not put water in their car's radiator since they had the car in today's society. Vehicles can parallel park without touching the steering wheel.
- We should not under-estimate young people, just like we did not want to be under-estimated when we were younger by the older people who fought against or did not understand change.
I do agree that K-12 is basically design for "Introductory" presentations, it is always up to the individual to invest to research the areas they have interest to know more. I did it all through school, I actually enjoyed reading Text books, but I never took all of them at their word, except maybe Math, and now I find that even that was a one dimensional system based method, because people now use many methods to calculate and they are discovering more methods.
I doubt that we will go back to a Sun Dial as a means of telling time, when one can wear a digital watch that does that along with take pictures, make calls, process text messages, check the blood pressure, and much more.
The Paradigm has changed, we cannot expect nor should we expect that thing will stay as they were in times before. Everyone likes to think their Generation of Youth was the Greatest, and it was for them at the time of their youth, but so will the same be true for each coming generation.
Adapting and Adjusting to Change is a Natural Process, plants, animals and human all go through it, only Humans try to fight against it, where animals and plants adapt themselves to the natural flow of change. We even have humans who try to fight against the simple changing of the Seasons, and certainly we have people willing to die to avoid facing and adapting to the changes of civilization and the societies within it. Such types only waste their lives fighting as if they are fighting the blowing wind, or acting pissed off because the water in the river does not stand still. Everything that is alive changes, and even that which is not can too change, by the conditions impact on its existence.
If the creation of humans was not about change, no one would ever grow beyond the point of birth.
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