Politics: The Dark Ages edition

[UofMfan]

Originally Posted by Linus

I went through the blog and what comes to mind is a question of what happened to the education system here? Why are basic grammar skills (and this seems across all generations based on the pictures) lacking? I think it's sad when a nation cannot debate within itself when the basic mechanism for discussion is lacking as well.

Originally Posted by AtLastHome

'Bout sums it up!

Something that is driving me nuts about the tea bag stuff is when I see people from western states in the mix. Fergoddessakes, idiots, other than the original 13 colonies, the rest of the US was NOT coloni!zed by England and was not subject to what the original teabaggers were bringing to bear with taxation without representation! Get a clue!

Sometimes, I want to gather these idiots up, and give them a US history class! Hummm.. but, I guess the literacy deficit would get in the way of any learning occuring there....

From Wikipedia:

The country has a reading literacy rate at 98% of the population over age 15,[5] while ranking below average in science and mathematics understanding compared to other developed countries.[6] In 2008, there was a 77% graduation rate from high school, below that of most developed countries.[7]

The poor performance has pushed public and private efforts such as the No Child Left Behind Act. In addition, the ratio of college-educated adults entering the workforce to general population (33%) is slightly below the mean of other developed countries (35%)[8] and rate of participation of the labor force in continuing education is high.[9] A 2000s study by Jon Miller of Michigan State University concluded that "A slightly higher proportion of American adults qualify as scientifically literate than European or Japanese adults".[10]

Competitiveness

The national results in international comparisons have often been far below the average of developed countries. In OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment 2003, 15 year olds ranked 24th of 38 in mathematics, 19th of 38 in science, 12th of 38 in reading, and 26th of 38 in problem solving.[97] In the 2006 assessment, the U.S. ranked 35th out of 57 in mathematics and 29th out of 57 in science. Reading scores could not be reported due to printing errors in the instructions of the U.S. test booklets. U.S. scores were far behind those of most other developed nations.

This is why sometimes I find it bothersome to conduct any sort of challenging discussion on here when all I get thrown at me is erroneous information supplied by the US school system. Of course there have been exceptions to this, and for that I am grateful.