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It's Official: American Adults Are Dumber Than Average
Submitted by Michael Krieger of Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,
The study is called the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies and it tested 166,000 people aged 16 to 65 in more than 20 countries. It found that in math, reading and problem solving, American adults scored below the international average.
I can’t say this is surprising, after all, the public allowed the big banks that destroyed the economy to gift themselves trillions in the aftermath of the financial crisis with barely a peep in response. You don’t have to be a problem solving genius to figure that one out. Finally, there is some proof behind our long-held suspicions.
From the Associated Press via the New York Post:
WASHINGTON — It’s long been known that America’s school kids haven’t measured well compared with international peers. Now, there’s a new twist: Adults don’t either.
In math, reading and problem-solving using technology – all skills considered critical for global competitiveness and economic strength – American adults scored below the international average on a global test, according to results released Tuesday.
Adults in Japan, Canada, Australia, Finland and multiple other countries scored significantly higher than the United States in all three areas on the test. Beyond basic reading and math, respondents were tested on activities such as calculating mileage reimbursement due to a salesman, sorting email and comparing food expiration dates on grocery store tags.
Not only did Americans score poorly compared to many international competitors, the findings reinforced just how large the gap is between the nation’s high- and low-skilled workers and how hard it is to move ahead when your parents haven’t.
Yes, it’s called feudalism.
The study, called the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies, found that it was easier on average to overcome this and other barriers to literacy overseas than in the United States.
Researchers tested about 166,000 people ages 16 to 65 in more than 20 countries and subnational regions. The test was developed and released by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which is made up of mostly industrialized member countries. The Education Department’s Center for Education Statistics participated.
Americans scored toward the bottom in the category of problem solving in a technology rich environment. The top five scores in the areas were from Japan, Finland, Australia, Sweden and Norway, while the US score was on par with England, Estonia, Ireland and Poland. In nearly all countries, at least 10 percent of adults lacked the most basic of computer skills such as using a mouse.
The above is somewhat surprising given the amount of time Americans spend glued to their iPhones for Facebook updates about what their cousin ate for breakfast. I can tell you one category in which Americans surely beat all global competitors. The art of mercilessly stampeding into one another like animals at Wal-Mart on Black Friday to purchase plasma televisions. That that world.
Full article here.
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it's not 'Dumber'
It's 'dumberer'
sheesh, literary standards, ppl
it's not official either because the official is just as stupid so lets just call it an educated guess
Armed Texans to meet at the Alamo October 19th:
http://americandictators.blogspot.com/2013/10/a-call-to-action-historic-open-carry.html
Everyone knows that Hertz is better. And they have handy cars where you don't need arms, so they're more inclusive and stuff. Duh. Whatever. -American.
In nearly all countries, at least 10 percent of adults lacked the most basic of computer skills such as using a mouse.
It's true. Years ago while a brother visited and I told him to move the cursor over the icon and he waved the mouse in the air like an incantation.
When did Obama bleached his skin?
"how hard it is to move ahead when your parents haven’t"
Oh, please.
Post hoc, ergo propter hoc is not a sound proposition of logic.
Sorry. "After this, therefore because of this."
America. Fuck yeah!
Yeah we dumb, but...
WE'RE EXCEPTIONAL, GODDAMMIT!
VERY good - you're expanding your vocabulary. But the word you're looking for is 'special'. 'Special' students get on the little school bus and go to a 'special' school.
Exceptionally Ignorant! And our God is Sarah Palin.
Even Dumber than merkins are the people who graduate from our US Univesities.
Look up the TOP 10 Universities in the entire World and tell me where they are located. Yes, they are in the good ole progressive USSA. Get in line bitches!
*most of them are in the USA.
Cal tech, MIT etc. are great schools, but don't really benefit the average unfortunately. It's the American caste system.
"benefiting the average" Yes. Great point! That explains schooling in progressive merka's caste system. I'll give you a +1 to help build confidence. The next response will be a little more challenging.
Most of our politicians come from the "top" universities. Looks like Yale, Stanford, Harvard, et al is in the business of producing junk.
Yeah but,...........
One can get MIT on line for free. Did you ever look at the freebie course offerings from MIT?
I have given a card with the free offerings online to my employees and anyone that will accept a card as a passout.
Learning now is out there for nothing other than a will to learn. The lowlifes and most all have some sort of free or already paid for internet yet hardly any will use it.
John Taylor Gatto knows why as he has written many books (several available online for nothing) that show and tell about the dumbing down of this nation that once had a huge thirst for books that would help themselves to be self educated. The modern system destroys the yearn to learn at the earliest age of the youngsters.
http://www.khanacademy.org/ is there for no cost and it uses any sort of encouragement to continue. What else can there be other than a destruction of the natural curiosity in children?
Get your children out of the curiousity destroying skool rackets.
As an employer I ask the poor bastards why they are so ignorant when the taxcows blew 120,000 dollars K-12 on their "education".
I offer them free use of dozens of CD format lectures on what they could not get in their thirteen years of public school. None have ever bothered to borrow any course even when they know that even a partial mastery could add much to their wage.
I spent in excess of 5000 to offer my employees entertaining ways of learning from superior instructors from basic arithmetic to advanced calculus.Of course there was history and art and what I would consider to be a basis for being a functioning human. I was wrong all of the way.
They only had to load it into a DVD player. Who killed that inquisitiveness?
One can get MIT on line for free. Did you ever look at the freebie course offerings from MIT?
The online courses are a good way to learn introduction to topics, but it's quite different than actually attending one of those institutions obviously. Not knocking the online courses at all, just saying you can't experience MIT online.
The modern system destroys the yearn to learn at the earliest age of the youngsters.
The answer is more & better teachers, smaller class sizes etc.
http://www.khanacademy.org/ is there for no cost and it uses any sort of encouragement to continue.
It's a good supplement, but a supplement..
They only had to load it into a DVD player. Who killed that inquisitiveness?
For most people that's not a natural way to learn, generally people tend to learn best from some degree of interaction with others.
You've probably had the experience of reading up on a particular subject and not understanding it, asking someone with knowledge in the area and having them explain in a few minutes what you couldn't sort out from hours of study. Who hasn't had that sort of experience? People are good at teaching each other, DVDs can't come close to that.
Some online resources probably come closer to the person-to-person learning but it still seems solidly supplemental.
I was sorely tempted to rag on you for being negative and arguementative. I was even wondering if you knew what common sense used to mean. Your "more and better teachers, with smaller class sizes" was especially hard to pass on. You can learn about interacting with others while you work and play, much better than when you are trying to learn. This is more true when those you are in class with people who cannot learn as fast as you can. The computer will let you learn as fast as you want to. It will let you divert to answer questions or fill in gaps and it can be more up to date than the classroom. As long as government and the PTB are involved in education, that becomes a choice that will cost more than it pays. The main question of the article, is who killed curiousity? The answer is that the schools themselves killed it. How will teachers and class sizes change that.
I don't buy it.
What you "get" by actually attending one of "those" universities is 1) a piece of paper that has a higher valuation in the marketplace 2) networking opportunities (pre & post education) not available to online students and 3) invitations to physical nerd keggers.
What you learn and take away from ANY education course is entirely UP TO YOU, regardless of whether the course is online or off.
Of course I'm biased- since I only got one hour of sleep b/c a wall streeter with an ivy league undergrad degree and an ivy league MBA and an ivy league law degree wasn't as knowledgeable about law or finance as he should be (or anywhere close to what I am).
BTW- if interaction is so important, there are a fuck-ton of lecture halls at Ivy League universities that should have been razed decades (or centuries) ago, and that's w/ even considering the issue of T/A's leading classes and lectures.
Not that that has ever stopped anyone from claiming so - e.g.: "carnivores developed long fangs/claws so they could better prey" or "giraffes developed long necks so they could reach high branches" you hear all the time from such luminaries as NatGeo, etc. (no word on basketball players developing long legs so they can slam dunk better, though).
"Computer? Computer? Hello, computer?" —Scotty from Star Trek
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9kTVZiJ3Uc
Dave: "let me just own a business, get some bridge financing and not be fucked by the Fed, okay?"
Yellen9000: "I'm afraid I can't do that, Dave."
If she agrees to open her pod bay doors let me know in advance so I can get lost in a hurry.
channelling Dire Straits...
Warning lights are flashing down at BLS
Somebody slipped the truth and they threw him in the hole
There's rumors round the water cooler and anger in the town
Somebody blew the whistle and the employment rate came down
There's a meeting in the White house they're trying to trace the leak
There's leaking in the media there's a mole in NSA
Somewhere in the corridors someone was heard to sneeze
'goodness me could this be Monetary Disease?
The Greenspan was crucified for sleeping at his post
They're refusing to be pacified it's him they blame the most
The Ben's got rabies the Janet's got fleas
And everyone's concerned about Monetary Disease
There's panic on the tinfoil blogs truth is tied in knots
Some come out in foreclosure some with naught
Some blame the management some the employees
And everybody knows it's the Monetary Disease
The work force is disgusted downs tools and surf
Innocence is dead and experience leaves their turf
Everyone seeks disability and everyone agrees
That these are 'classic symptoms of a monetary squeeze'
On CNBC and Bloomberg they talk around the curse
Fundamentals are useless common sense is worse
History boils over there's an economics freeze
Economists invent words that mean 'Monetary Disease'
Doctor Bernanke declared 'I'm not surprised to see you here
You've got debt from too much spending, inadequate demand from too little credit
I don't know how you came to get that student loan debt
But worst of all young man you've got Monetary Disease'
He wrote me a prescription he said 'you are depressed
But I'm glad you came to see me to get this off your chest
Come back and see me later - next patient please
Send in another victim of Monetary Disease'
I go down to Wall Street's Zucotti I'm thunderstruck
They got free speech, tourists, police in trucks
Two men say they're Jesus (er...Fed chief) one of them must be wrong
There's a protest singer singing a protest song - he says
'they wanna have a war to keep us on our knees
They wanna have a war to keep their factories
They wanna have a war to stop us buying Japanese
They wanna have a war to stop deflation Disease
They're pointing out the enemy to keep you deaf and blind
They wanna sap your energy incarcerate your mind
They give you Pax Americana, lite beer, USA Today
Long weekend Carnival cruise and Sunday pigskin
Meanwhile the first Jesus (Ben) says 'I'd cure it soon
Abolish monday mornings and friday afternoons'
The other one's on an inflation strike she's (Janet) QE'ing by degrees
How come Fed chiefs give us Monetary Disease
Heh, pretty good riff H-B!
^+100. Very cool.
"In nearly all countries, at least 10 percent of adults lacked the most basic of computer skills such as using a mouse."
Old people don't use computers. So what.
old people aren't used in the stats anymore. They only appear in the "old dudes who need money" chart.
Sheep so mesmerized by their gadgets and their need to feel connected that they have no situational awareness.
..not real smart when driving a car or when a crazy guy with a .45 walks by you a few times.
http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Absorbed-device-users-oblivious-to-danger-4876709.php#page-2
..but the good news is that it was California and the magazine was under 10 rounds (likely 8).. so the danger is lessened because you probably can't conveniently carry more than a couple dozen or so 8 round (drop free) magazines for that piece.
I don't think I've ever seen the people around me so "connected", and yet so oblivious. A coworker was recently watching a video touting the newest icrap. He was so giddy, I thought he might have to relieve himself at some point. Pathetic.
WTF
Proof positive that Americans are dumber than rocks:
EVERYBODY IS CONCENTRATING ON THE CELL PHONES AND DISTRACTION…
NOT ONE FREAKING WORD ABOUT THE FACT THAT IF THERE WAS AN ALERT CITIZEN CARRYING ON THE TRAIN, HE COULD HAVE TAKEN THE ACTOR OUT THE MOMENT HE RAISED THE .45 TO THE BACK OF THAT POOR 20 YEAR OLD’S HEAD.
I would rather take the chance of something going wrong with the aforementioned scenario than to sit by and watch a kid get executed.
It certainly would send a message to the rest of the predators who have free reign now.
But , what the hell.. the .gov solution proposes there should be an alert citizen with a legal pair of scissors who would have had real good luck going up against a purposeful, hate filled nut with a .45.
oh.. and don't take your legal scissors to the airport.. they will confiscate them.
They are meeting in the basement of the Alamo.
My relative was in the pile of ashes (along with the other defenders) that were gathered up and carried to the old church days after the battle. Texas should have never joined the U.S.
We can fix that mistake. If Texas leaves OK will leave at the same time, and then the entire midwest will follow, since without TX and OK, we'll get a string of sociaist tyrants in DC. Not that TX and OK are libertarian paradises, but post-secession, they might be.
If Texas leaves OK will leave at the same time, and then the entire midwest will follow
Please dear Gawd let this happen.
Amen to that!
Lord, is this an option? It sure sounds good to me!
Before you know it, the Federal deficit will start to come down (what with all the moocher red states other than Tejas no longer taking more from the Fed than they contribute in revenue), American average IQ scores will rise suddenly, and New Mexico will have to "build a fence".
Post secession, Texans wil soon be know as Mexicans.
So was mine. Andrew Kent, with the Gonzales Alamo Relief Force.
I may have to go to Texas for that event.
RP
The rest of the US would agree with you. If Texas had never joined the Union would we have gotten W and Cheney? Without LBJ would we have lost Kennedy and had Vietnam go on for another decade?
I think the US is TOO BIG and TOO 'powerful'. Most of the world would likely agree. If you broke the US up into 'rational' divisions, or never had the expanded US, you'd likely have far more productive nation states focused on their own prosperity (and inherent strengths) instead of the behemoth we have today that is failing economically but bullying the rest of the world. The Middle America manufacturing belt woud never on its own agreed to 'free trade' and the Agricultural Midwest wouldn't be so dependent on big government subsidies - and 'aid' to the rest of the world (while using up ever scarcer water and consuming barrels of oil in prodiucing that food). The Old South.....? The Middle Atlantic and New England on their own would never have let Wall Street get so out of control (and couldn't on their own afford to bail failed banks out). California would likely be split wiht the north going to the Pacific Northwest and the South going to the desert states - or would the latter be part of a larger Mexico (as they were originally - and would that Mexico be far richer having benefitted from California's gold? Utah is a Mormon theocracy. Idaho, Wyoming, Montana and the Dakotas could be their own libertarian state. Florida would be part of a capitalist Cuba (no Communism ther without the big bad US) and Texas would be free to drill for all the oil they can find. Alaska would be a bit different without all the Federal jobs - though probably a big oil producer (for good or bad). Hawaii could could revert to or have continued as an independent monarchy (no US no 'Pearl Harbor?'. no US in WWII (or WWI for that matter). A bunch of smaller countries would likely have stayed out of it all completely. And a bunch of smaller countries would NEVER have racked up the total debt that the larger US has.
That depends on if we had a Monetary Union like the euro. Europe does not appear to be the center of wealth and freedom right now.
Am I missing something? This is a good thing?
Talk about being dumb, I actually voted in the last 11 presidential elections.
Like that was worth the effort. I voted for the Republicrats.
Talk about being dumb, my neighbor said he saw me and my wife running around
naked in our bedroom last Saturday night.....I told him that he was really dumb
because I wasn't even at home last Saturday night. What a bozo.
Well, you really showed her -er- she showed you ... no, wait ...
its moster dumberest. lern to rite.
its moster dumberest. lern to rite.
Yous don need ter reed n ryte to be a world bully boy.......
booyah or sumpin.......
Fluoride, bitchezz. but my teeth are tuffer.
Not that I expected anyone to RTFA, but:
Maximum score for each of the tests was 500. On one test, the bottom was Spain, scoring an average of 250, or 50%. High scorer on the same test was Japan, scoring 296, or 59%. 59%='D', at least when I went to school.
When everyone is getting a "D", for anyone to point fingers and say "so and so is dumberer (or smarterer)" seems kind of pointless.
Me fail English? That's unpossible!
http://youtu.be/8iSD9lPVY6Q
Can't read or write, but let's shout out all our opinions on the guilt or innocence of total strangers:
http://www.fakenation.info/please/top-five-modern-american-show-trials
Yep, has to be the Disney Syndrome...
Uh, look who the President is.
Test.
Fail.
Epic.
While white South Africans were fleeing the country from Jacob Zuma and Robert Mugabe, Americans were voting for a Barack Obama.
The problem is that Americans have forgotten that you can take the man out of Africa, but you can't take Africa out of the man.
It's ok. President Camacho will find Joe and he'll help us. Too bad we're hooked on Brawndo
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, Brawndo.
It has electrolytes!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkGP7s0SGtY
He did this gem just a month or so ago..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0azojPPRhw
We are so screwed..
Counts, Washburne, Dewey,.. 1925 seeding progressive destruction in the education system.
“competitition among individuals in school – was wrong”
“time to look for a model of the collective school for a new society”
“the family was an old agricultural unit.. and the factory mattered more”
“the best models might be found abroad” (ed. In the new success of the Soviet Union)
“the school must promulgate social change, not respond to it”
-The Forgotten Man, Amity Shlaes, pp 67,68
FF 90 years… VOILA ! fundamental transformation… hope for change .. because Obama.. yada yada yada
Karl Marx in 2016!
Many Americans are in an altered state. My old boss bragged about medicating her teenage son so he would just sleep all day and not bother her. The schools medicate the kids for having too much energy.
I'm in an altered state myself at the moment.
Sometimes I think the only way I can take the reality of the world today is to be in an altered state.
Sucks that nothing does it.
I think the only amount of alcohol that can get me drunk is one shot less than what will kill me.
Never give up (trying to get drunk)!
Never surrender (to sobriety)!
"Never give up"
I taught a 3yr old last week how to use a compass. She's fascinated by what she's learning and serioulsy knows how to use it (find her way back from where we went). She will be one of our future leaders.
If she is lucky. I would teach her to use that compass to hide. Otherwise, she might be flayed by the swords of the ignorant.
Yes, she's fortunate. She lives and was given to us by grace, she was discarded by her parents. The Lord watches over her.
Reminds me of an old army saying......the most dangerous thing in the whole army is an officer with map and compass.......
Lot of truth in old sayings.........
That makes sense.
We have the exact same saying in the Aus Army. Must be universal. :-)
*edited for double post
SSRI Stories - Antidepressant Nightmares
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https://www.rxisk.org/Default.aspx
"RxISK is the first free, independent website where patients, doctors, and pharmacists can research prescription drugs and easily report a drug side effect — identifying problems and possible solutions earlier than is currently happening."
"My old boss bragged about medicating her teenage son..."
Your "old boss" is accurate.
'Murkin 'Ceptionalism.
Fighten' terists since, you know. Forever. numero uno!
Exceptional!
Exceptionalism in our personal lives is yet to be determined and will be redefined. Lets see who's who when called upon by mother hardship. Talk is cheap, jealosy and false bravery wil be tested.
I blame the lack of metric system in US.
Ha, easy powers of ten make designing things simple. Designing in inches is a genious exercise.
Try making a CAD model using standard measurements. Remembering the decimals for 5/128 of an inch is a bitch.
In reality, today's CAD doesn't give a flip what unit you choose, and most 'parts' (esp electronic) have dimensions stemming from the 'English' units but metri-sized to metric callouts on drawings.
K A T
D A W G
M U N Y
perfect. we need to protect those precious craniums then. pedestrians to wear helmets while walking. lol. http://youtu.be/8cBn7ok8pCw
Umm...ya think?
Must be how Yellen and Bernanke got the top job at the Fed.
I looked through Yellen's background. I didn't find one day of working any real job. Just like Bernanke she has never worked at a real business, or ever had to make a decisions about budgets, purchasing, setting margin, working in capital costs, designing, engineering, or labor.
So if she has no experience in anything other than academic situations that do not exist in the real world, how can she be qualified to make decisions that affect real business?
The answer is she isn't qualified. Her job is not to help business, but generate wealth for those who wish not to work for it.
Instead of talking about the glass ceiling for women in top levels of finance, let's talk about the glass ceiling for goyim. Think about the story if a non Jew was appointed to the top level of the Fed. Jesus Christ it would be a sign of the apocalypse.
Several of the Austrian school proponents have written extensively over the past 100 years about how the intellectual class acts as the honor guard and protectorate of the political classes theft and corruption.
I went to college with this supposed intellectual class. I was amazed at the stupidity of anything requiring common sense.
Like I said on an earlier thread, she's a very bad liar. Not only was she with the SF FED from 2004-2010 (during the entire housing bubble), she was also with the Clinton Administration in 1999 (Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors) when Brooksley Born (head of the CFTC) sounded the alarm on derivatives.
She didn't see it coming? Bullshit. She ignored the warnings from day one.
Some how I think I attended University with some of the same assholes you did, and you likely went a decade before I did. Those assholes are still there, and I drove them all nuts whenever I could.
I loved Macro-Econ and pointing out the fallacies in that whole school of thought. I still passed everything with a 4.2 GPA all the way through. My strategy was to to stun them them with polite honesty and well elaborated and formulated logic at every turn. Never be disrespectful to any of them no matter how rude and vile they would become, and I had some of those in the future intellectual class get rather vile and make threats of physical action against me. I never once had to raise my voice, as simply sitting there and smiling patiently to wait for their temper tantrums to end worked much better that anything else. One thing I learned from my experience is that the majority of the people there simply want to be heard out with their thoughts in a complete manner. Letting them be heard and then politely correcting them was the most efficient and effective way of bringing them over to understanding why what they are presuming is false or flawed.
You cannot maintain purity of thought with outside pressures and influence that the real real world imposes. To create utopia you must stay outside of this reality. Their challenge is to get all of us living there as well and it seems to be working for a substantial number of people. It is we people, the ones still insisting that 1+1=2, that are the problem. Once that has been dealt with, all will be right in the world.
Tell me something I didn't know.....
The ABC song is really just Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.
And Green Day's "Brain Stew" is really just Chicago's "Twenty-five or 6 to 4"
and bah bah black sheep,
fun fact - nursery rhymes can all be played without using black notes
I have to say, all of you told me something I didn't know.
dat's raycissss
Woohoo!!!! What did I when?
Floride in the water !! the Nazis knew the effects it was "great" for encouraging a pliant mass of people. and who imported a huge number of them??
Or is it lead plumbing, and drinking cups?
Programming on TeeVee starting in the fifties maybe?
It is with routine that I axe myself, rightly, why this articles are need be so offensive, you know, to me. I am insulted at you.
Time to declare "War" on dumbness! It has worked so well with all those other things we have declared "war" on, I am sure it will work here too. /sarc
What would we call the .gov three-letter agency in charge of the "War on Dumb"?
Dept of _________
Let's seem we've got so far DOE, DOC, DOJ, DOD, USDA ...
You din't put em in alphabet order.
Oh d'oh.
That means the agency to deal with it would have to be the D.O.A.
"Department of Asininity" because even though I didn't think that was an actual form of the word, it is but mostly because it has enough syllables that anyone who has to say it will sound ridiculous and foolish. If they have a sibilant "S" they will hiss and lisp.
But mostly I like it because of what the initials stand for: Dead on Arrival.
Fuck, the TV is telling me to buy real estate in Belize.
I don't think stupid is enough to explain life in America.
Every time I see dumb shit in this country, I look at real estate abroad.
Rebels don't run. They stay and fight.
That's why I just look......
Find us some good help while you are looking. Some of them thar Swedish chicks could help.
dup.
As I said before, Idiocracy will be looked back as brilliant, much like Orwell's 1984 and Huxley's Brave New World.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icmRCixQrx8
You don't have to wait for history to look back on it. Just walk down the street and see Idiocracy in the present.
There are many ways for an enterprising young person to profit from these govt idiots and sheep. The govt will never be able to hire people smart enough to keep this shit wagon going. That is where a young entrepeneur has opportunity. Find an essential service, work a few years to master the craft, call your own shots. Initiative required. Skill and confidence come with time.
I can confirm the stupidity of Americans. I let myself get talked into giving a weekly night class in a foreign language. There is a cultural center here that is trying to promote the Scandinavian languages, as many people are of Swedish and Norwegian heritage. I told the managers that I could easily teach the Swedish class, but that I did not want to do it, because in my experience, Americans are too stupid to learn even basic beginning foreign languages. They insisted, as they could find no qualified Swedish teachers. So, like a fucking fool, I let them talk me into it. I prepared my lesson plans, and worked hard to make them idiot proof, and made them to give very easy and small amounts of the basic grammar and a small and simple vocabulary list. My goals were very modest. Last night was the first class, three hours long. I handed out prepared study guides, I did everything up so a 5 year old could follow the program. Well, I almost caused a riot. These people fucking flipped out when I handed them a list of words to learn. But wait, I began a simple hour lecture on how Swedish nouns work, how to decline them and the different kinds of nouns. Simple stuff, again, they went fucking crazy! They actually got mad, they didn't know they were going to be lectured on grammar! This all sounded like work! They came to have fun and be taught Swedish. I finally got mad, I told them that if they could not learn the simple grammar rules of Swedish nouns, presented in the most simple manner, then they were hopeless, they might as well all go home.
Bad experience. Americans, these fuckers are stupid. They get mad if they are expected to memorize, study and listen and take notes. And most of these fuckers had college degrees! I demanded that they pay me the full salary, even if all the students drop out. Because I worked many, many hours preparing lesson plans for dummies, lessons that a chimp could follow and learn. But not these Americans! No wonder nobody in this nation can speak a foreign language.
I am really pissed off at wasting so much work on this class. I want my pay, if they are too stupid to learn, that ain't my fault.
You should have passed out iPads loaded with reruns of the Muppets.
Dubbed in Swedish.
They mad 'cause the Swedes got all the gold, yo. In Venice, Switzerland and stuff. Locked up in pole vaults. Word.
I see where you went wrong ... ever taught a small creature like a bird to do something using the 'clicker' (reward associated with sound) method?
An Introduction to Clicker TrainingDogs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC367wKGi4M
Birds:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6z-yiDIjn2s
So, start small, and work up ...
We'll just import Indians who can speak Swedish. Who's stupid now?
They are not dumb, its the subject matter. Thanks to all the intelligent ZH'er comments I just looked up twerking and did a fascinating 5 minute course in it. That twerking girl instructer got over 16 million hits and she can twerk me anytime. And besides what is a noun anyways?
We've probably seen nothing yet. Wait until the current crop of smart phone addicted citizens have plugged all the holes left by the departure of the last of the classically educated segment of the population. Katy bar the door, it ain't gonna be pretty.
The human experiment is going to be declared an evolutionary failure. Probably sooner than anyone expects. Then again, if enough of the species survives the outcome might be completely different next time around. If somehow the human race everywhere else in the world had been exterminated, native Americans would still be living in a relative paradise today. True, there wouldn't be any NASCAR, Football, or footprints on the moon, but they'd still have an unlimited number of centuries to mosey their way to a higher level.
You should have built your curriculum around Sven and Ole jokes.
Jack - Ya shoulda worn your Lapland reindeer skin outfit with your Sami bow and arrow. These people want feckin' entertainment at class if they are missing their their favorite TV show.
Make them eat lutefisk, Jack.
"US score was on par with England, Estonia, Ireland and Poland. In nearly all countries, at least 10 percent of adults lacked the most basic of computer skills such as using a mouse."
I feel a Pollock joke coming on.....
To be fair, my 92 year old grandmother can't use a mouse.
But she can play Beethoven on a piano and sew almost any garment from her own designed patterns.
I'm pretty sure the mouse made people stupider.
The mouses made me smarter.
Shoot, my two cats and dog know what to do with mouses.
"Mice", honey, the plural for 'mouses' is "mice" ...
I miss the DOS C prompt. You had to THINK and know basic commands to get a computer to do something. Now.......
Real hardcore computer users do it with punchcards.
The glory days of "The Hollerith Machine" http://www.wang2200.org/docs/datasheet/2234A_HopperFeedPunchedCardReader_DataSheet.700-3525B.1-76.pdf 160 bytes per card, maximum read rate of 300 cards per minute (= 48K per minute)
Then along came paper tape - http://www.wang2200.org/docs/peripheral/2203_HighSpeedPaperTapeReaderRefManual.700-3191.11-73.pdf - 300 8 bit characters per second = 2,400 bits per second, or about 2k, so at 120k per minute, just over twice as fast as your stack of cards.
Remember audio cassettes - about 330 bits per sec (cheaper but far slower than "professional" paper tape readers), but the favoured storage solution for Tandy, Commodore, Sinclair, even the BBC B
and fast forward to now: USB3 - and 10 GB per sec. http://techreport.com/news/24157/new-usb-3-0-spec-to-hit-10-gbps-data-rate
All the "original" useful stuff was command line based - DBase, Supercalc, Wordstar. It worked, and worked well, but users were expected to LEARN how to use it (horror of horrors!).
I've still got the original manuals and floppies for SmartWare - a popular "Integrated System" in its day - which could comfortably provide a full suite of Office standard applications running on 32k of RAM and a 286 CPU (IBM PS2 Model 60). Still got the Linnet V22 modem we used to provide a "dial in" service for our customers - "secure" BBS system with Patient data on it too!
I've taught some basic command line stuff to my younger nieces and nephews just so they have some idea of what is going on behind the curtain. Funny thing is that they think it is super cool and seem to grasp the concepts right away. I think it is something that should be taught early on as part of basic computer literacy.
People are like deers in the headlights without their computers and mouses.
Don't like to be picky, but the plural of 'deers' is 'deerses'.
Boy do I feel stupid. You'd think that at age 47 I'd have learned how to properly conjugate my adjectives!
"I prefer the company of peasants because they have not been educated sufficiently to reason incorrectly."................Montaigne
Sample Questions:
"You have 100 Euro's and a chance to invest in Facebook or Gold, which do you choose?"
"Your Wife catches you with your Mistress, you tell her A. "I was buying lingerie for our 20th wedding anniversary and this Harlot seduced me" or B. "The President said this Woman was a terrorist and if I slept with her I could gain vital information against Al Queda."
It all depends upon the questions, the answers, and the scoring/statistical metrics.
Also, did they poll American's in D.C. or Wyoming?
"One bucket holds 5 gallons and the other holds 3 gallons. How many buckets do you have?"
Bucket? what are you talking about
Bucket - Definition: Bay area slang for an undermaintenanced vehicle. Also known as a hooptie. In gangster circles, buckets can also be rented by means of barter with crack cocaine or crystal methamphetamine. In this instance it is known as a "rent-a-bucket". Rent-a-buckets are primarily used in drive-by shootings and is usually a stolen vehicle. In the case of a stolen vehicle, the first part of this definition is is not strictly followed.
53?
Eight one-gallon buckets of organic soy milk from Whole Foods?
C - honey I have a iron clad prenup so shut up and make me a sammich
So the rankings go something like this:
Swedes, Finns, Australians, Japanese, Canadians, Norwegians
...........................
Americans, English, Irish, Estonians, Poles
...........................
Box of rocks, sack of hammers
...Americans, English, Irish, Estonians, Poles, Smart Phones, Toasters and Small Appliances, Anything at Absolute Zero, Frenchmen, Fed Chairmyn.
Studies comparing math, reading and problem solving skills of American adults with international averages must first consider America’s Mexican-born population and its influence on test scores.
“The Mexican population in the U.S. has grown 20 times its size since 1960,” according to Migration Information, “when about 576,000 Mexican immigrants resided in the country, or less than 6 percent of all immigrants living in the United States in that year.” In 2011, America’s Mexican-born population was 11,672,600 or 54.9% of America’s 21,245,300 immigrant population from Latin America, those Mexican-born growing to 28.9% of the 40,377,800 immigrants living in America.
Says M.I., “As a group, Mexican-born adults were less likely to be university graduates compared to all immigrant adults.
“In 2011, only 5 percent of Mexican-born adults ages 25 and older had a bachelor's degree or higher, which is substantially lower than the 27 percent share of immigrant adults and the 29 percent share of all US-born adults.
“In addition, 59 percent of Mexican-born adults had no high school or GED diploma, compared to 31 percent of immigrants overall and 11 percent of native-born adults. The share of the Mexican born who reported their highest educational attainment as a high school diploma, some college credits, or an associate's degree (35 percent) was lower than that of the native born (61 percent) and the foreign born overall (41 percent).”
Source: US Census Bureau's 1960-2000 decennial censuses, 2010 and 2011 American Community Surveys (ACS).
http://www.migrationinformation.org/usfocus/display.cfm?ID=935
NOTE: Latino Voices reports the current U.S. Hispanic population is “53 million strong,” saying “Hispanics represent great potential both politically and economically.” -- The Huffington Post | Posted: 09/18/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/18/hispanic-population-facts_n_3950673.html
It's sad, but true. Poverty breeds more poverty typically. Mexican immigrants find themselves working instead of learning.
Same goes for a lot of negros, same goes for all of the impoverished.
Americans became dumb, because most Americans are very apathetic and submissive!
Most truly smart people have zeal!