I helped my kids with their homework all through their school years and their cirriculum was ridiculously easy compared to mine little fella. Using non-existent words doesnt make you seem "intelligent".
"i really doubt that most adults could find iraq on a map" I was thinking the same thing. but then again, i live in america and i'm assuming you do too. in my experience the US public has proven to be significantly dumber than the rest of the industrialized world. I dont think its much of an "age issue" or a "generation issue", i think its more of a cultural thing, and right now america has the most embarrassing public on the globe.
1. logically, it should make you question your assumption that we are better educated now than 50 years ago when you yourself admit that people you know do not seem to have much knowledge. 2. You claim more people are educated but again, you also claim so many are not knowledgeable. This also points to education accomplishing less and not more these days 3. It is easier to get into college now. 50 years ago, we did not have open enrollment policies.
The author was in no way slamming the ways in which we learn; he was using actual studies to determine whether our intelligence is suffering as a result. The truth is that although our generation has the greatest access to information @ lightning speed, we choose to use it for social networking & little else.
You'd have read about the alarming number of college graduates entering the workforce with subpar reading & writing skills, & the billions of dollars our country spends every year sending students to remedial classes in community colleges because they're not adequately prepared for college upon high school graduation.
FYI, the educational standards are NOT higher than they used to be - it's only the different methods of learning that have increased. if you'd actually read the book (which I wouldn't expect of someone your age), you'd have read that college-aged kids nowadays don't have the education that a high school student had in the 1950s.
You keep saying the standards are higher for our generation, but you don't cite your source; instead you say "I keep hearing this, I keep hearing that", whereas the author cites numerous studies to support each & every one of his statements. What you're saying makes no sense - you contradicted yourself at least 3 times in this video. You'd give an example of our ignorance, & go on to explain how that makes us the smartest generation. Really? On what basis?
You keep saying the standards are higher for our generation, but you don't cite your source; instead you say "I keep hearing this, I keep hearing that", whereas the author cites numerous studies to support each & every one of his statements. What you're saying makes no sense - you contradicted yourself at least 3 times in this video. You'd give an example of our ignorance, & go on to explain how that makes us the smartest generation. Really? On what basis?
SERIOUSLY, YOU AMERICANS CAN'T PICK OUT IRAQ ON A MAP?!
WTF is up...?!
I'm from sweden, we have tests in school where you have to name every country on a world map... And unless you have about 50% correct you have to do it again...
Americans are in general stupid if you ask anyone in Sweden...
Thanks, Sweden. We'll announce that and everything will be great from now on. Good job.
America and Sweden are pretty comparable in terms of the burden each of our populations puts on our education systems, right?
Thanks again, 'Merica
P.S.
Almost forgot, who the fuck asks anyone in Sweden anything, besides other Swedish people? Don't you guys make hot chocolate or some bullshit? Nah, you're not that cool. The Swiss, they give reputable answers to our questions...
have you read bauerlein's ("the guy in the book") book? your argument is invalid. i'm 17 years old and apart of the dumbest generation and i'll admit it because i know we are self-absorbed (i.e. this video, blogs, facebook, myspace, twitter) and we can only access information, not retain it (i.e. searching google for things, using wiki as a source). yeah you should probably read the book before you judge it to this extent.
i was born in 1970, i was not the war protester generation, my parents were and they were dumb as hell. i have worked with may under 30, and they , per say not all most have no concept of getting the job done . this is a problem the internet does not get you a job. but i wouldn't hire anyone under 30, due to the poor work ethic. so in many ways socially they are dumber. knowing stuff is one thing making it happen is another. and i know where Iraq, i went there 3 times with the army
i think there is a big gap between the old and the young that widens each day. How can you teach if you cannot even connect so someone or somethings teaching us and it aint Mrs. Farfinkle- lol
anyone can read about of a book, answer questions and get decent test scores. having a piece of paper saying you're educated doesnt mean anything. a huge part of being intelligent is having common sense, and being logical. school cant teach you that. i know someone with a full college education who cant even function in normal society, i, a 16 year old, constantly have to correct him and ive been out of school since 8th grade.
Back in the 20's they had ROTC in High School as only the priveledged got that far. Everything, including accounting and most career training had to be covered in HS, as only the very well off got any college at all. That didn't change till the 1940's due to the GI Bill. High School was serious shit! Otherwise you went to work at 12-14. The Child Labor Act wasn't passed until 1916 and was overturned two years later, until the 1938 Fair labor Act set minimum work age at 16.
we are now 25th in the world in math! so in your realizations sweetheart, you might want to come to terms with what that means. I understand your emotion on this, and I know not every kid in this generation is stupid, this goes without saying- but yes, we are in fact talking about the general group.
This generation under 30 IS the stupidest in US history. I don't know where this kid gets his information, but SAT scores peaked in 1962. They went down slowly through 1975 and then began to really fall throughout the 1980's and 1990's. This happened despite the fact that the test was "dumbed down" twice. It's true that scores are up a bit recently but remember they are up from a very low floor. This is why generations must be judges against other generations. Leave the SAT alone.
It is worth pointing out that money spent per student has doubled when adjusted for inflation. Seriously with the access to information that we have today we should be producing a generation that exceeds all previous ones but they don't. Instead we are getting a group of young people who piss most of their time away and a group who uses todays advantages and excels at a remarkable rate. The distance between these groups is mind blowing.
you are missing the point OvertheHills, i mean come on we have the highest standard of education and 52 % of high school students picked nazi germany, Facist Italy, or Imperial Japan as our ally during WW2 instead of USSR. and not to mention most of of generation X are lazy and still live with their parents...
Laziest generation? Most entitled generation? Probably. Definitely not the dumbest generation though. I think one could see a trend here - with every generation, the old guys from the generation before come out of the woodwork and complain about how stupid everyone is and how the world is going to end because of stupidity. And so far, they've all been wrong. They're still wrong. It's a lot easier to see the flaws in something than it is to find the strengths.
I disagee. Standards aren't high enough. Although you're probably right that our standards are rising. To that I would have to say, "finally (what took us so long?)."
you dont get to piggy back on the fact that economic, technilogical, and social infastructure. you are all a waste of flesh. you should all have been aborted
To answer one of your questions: clubs and forums during the 1700's.
A large oversight that people often make is the disregard for the standard of education. Todays standard is far in excess of that just 10 years ago. So we can assume that 30 years ago the standard was much lower than that of 10 years ago. A larger percent of people have been enrolling in post-secondary education as well. That being said, this 1978-present generation is unequivocally not the dumbest, but perhaps the smartest.
Good vid. I disagree with the general premise however.
Standards are, by most accounts, NOT higher than in previous generations.
Interestingly though...because of the Flynn Effect, IQ tests must constantly be re-normed because of the increase in the mean IQ score for about the last century.
There's a difference between cultural decline (which I think is a distinct phenomenon) and a decline in mean cognitive ability. While one (culture) is declining, the other is actually increasing (IQ).
If you haven't wikipedia'd the Flynn Effect yet, you should.
I'd be interested in your opinion on the reasons for it.
It's true, we can literally say to our parents and grandparents..."chances are, I'm smarter than you." :)
But again, only in a very limited sense. They're still more cultured, don't use the word "like" every other word, and can probably name more state and national capitols than we knew existed.
I think the Flynn Effect comes about because of all the standardized testing these days. Which refutes my point that test scores have been rising.
But calling my parents generation more "cultured" than mine is ridiculous. Older generations have a way of looking down upon the younger generations, believing them to be wild and crazy compared to them. For example, Elvis was seen as very provocative during his time, yet by today's standards, he might be considered conservative.
I think what happens is that the zeitgeist shifts, but the older generations still view the world from their older zeitgeist.
Also, I am skeptical of your statement that older generations can name more state and national capitals. That, and being able to name state and national capitals is not a sign of intelligence. It just means they have memorized different things than me. My parents cannot tell me what charge electrons have. This just means they are ignorant of that fact, not stupid.
Yeah, what we learned was Anglo-centric and strongly "patriotic" -- not necessarily accurate. We had to memorize that state & state capitol stuff back in third grade. But History went back to the Greeks and Romans. Geography was world geography due to WWII and the cold war. English was much more rigorous (both comp and lit) and involved a heck of a lot more reading than what I see my neices and nephews doing. All this was watered down in the 70's to admit "cultural diversity".
I think the older generations are more crazy (punks, hippies ect), this generation seems somewhat conservative, stiff and posed when it comes to "wild", so no, I wouldn't agree with "believing them to be wild and crazy compared to them", quite the opposite actually
Development of intellegence is a function of nutrition, enviroment and general health. It has been increasing for generations - just as average height has been increasing, life expectancy has been lengthening and the average age of puberty has been dropping.
What has been decreasing is general knowledge and standards of education. A modern college degree is roughly equivalent to an eighth grade education from the 1900's in terms of math, literacy , geography, and history.
Algebra was part of grade school curicula in the 20's (read Robert Heinlein's memoirs for confirmation) and most college students don't take calc even today. BTW my grade school math texts (from when I attended parochial school in the sixties) covered polynomial algebra all the way to basic Calculus.
We never got past complex polynomials, but I found the higher level textbooks that covered calc when I was helping nuns clean out the storage rooms when the grade school closed.
A parochial school, being a religious school, would have to be private. Therefore, their standards could be much higher than the contemporary standards.
Also, considering I don't own Robert Heinlein's memoirs, I could not validate your claim about the curricula in the 20's. That and I have been searching for a source that agrees with the claim that standards have fallen since the 20's. I could not find such a source.
The texts we used at St. Ann's back in 1969 were from the early 60's. They were standard National Math Education Foundation Texts provided by the PA State Board of Education as part of a program to sneak money to the perenialy underfunded catholic schools by providing free textbooks. This was in the middle of the baby boom (when there was no room for all those peak of the baby boom students in the public school system. They were nothing special.
@massivereader first depending on what you are going to school for you might not have to take calculus, but for people like me entering the wide field of engineering i have to take 3 or more calc classes. when i went to high school only two years ago complex polynomials were learned in 9th grade. sure there will always be dumb kids and smart kids but in general my generation will become the most creative and innovative people to apply ourselves.
@thoraxe39 No doubt about it! If you have been reading the posts here, you will have discerned that my thesis is NOT that the current generation is any less intelligent or talented than any other. Due to improvements in nutriton and health care they are likely more intelligent. What is wrong is that they are being poorly served and not challenged sufficiently by the educational establsihment, which is more concerned about making those "dumb kids" feel good about themselves.
Our expectations have increased, but our grades increase and get inflated. I don't think we should judge our intelligence based on test scores after shit like "No Child Left Behind".
Also I do remember the author acknowledging that you shouldn't base this entire generation just on tv shows which probably do take the worst of the worst, out of context.
I didn't read the book but in the first free pages he does claim to use quantitative data instead of just qualitative and common sense.
True, we're not as stupid as the media portrays us to be, but they HAVE worked on dumbing the masses down.
Maybe you live in an area that hasn't been affected or a smart area, but where i live, people sure do seem dumbed down, my parents have even pointed this out, you DO realise, however, they have been working on doing to use for many MANY years!
Intelligence is culturally cultivated as well as inherent. The inherent intelliegence of humans has remained the same since the begining of time, but looking at our society, it sometimes makes me think that cultural influence has much more of an impact than genes.
I think that we as a culture have gotten very lazy with our minds. As far as I'm concerned, ignorance and stupidity are the same fucking thing.
First of all, conventional education makes you ignorant. Telling a country's history from its perspective is retarding. Also, inteligent in what way? School smarts is different from book smarts, and book smarts is different from internet smarts. But the internet is a double-bladed sword...in a lot of ways. So entertainment is everything, or information is everything. Inteligence is a natural human function, something tought, but wisdom is not, its learned alone somewhere... in nothing.
I was watching a few vids on the author of the book in question and found that just by his demeanor alone can be perceived as pretensious. Albeit, many of our peers may not be able to locate Iraq on a map, or name the supposed organization(s) that we're currently fight in the Middle East; a good handfull(or two) are creative, in one way or another. My take on the issue, All humans (my self included); no matter from what background or preparation in life - are stupid.
I am not completely sure of where I stand on this issue, but I think I would agree that the standards are much higher. I home school, so I don't necessarily have to live up to whatever precedent is set for the children in public schools, but you see test scores rising in the home school population.
One must not expect to succeed if the bar of expectation is set to a level where failure is almost always the only option. Foundational learning isn't set before complex learning. That is a mistake!
Assuming that you're a part of a different generation, I'm sure plenty of your peers would make some of the same comments. However, we're not a more intelligent generation. Such a thing simply cannot exist. When it comes to intellect, I'd say that all generations across the boards typically have the same amount of intellect. Great vid though :)
I've noticed that a lot of people who claim that they are just being honest are actually pretentious douchebags who use the "honesty" claim as an underhanded tactic to win an argument based solely on their demeanor. Not their actual reasoning skills.
Oooo, Ad Hominem and other irrelevant comments! How very intellectual!
No, calling you a douchebag doesn't improve the argument, but that doesn't mean that the first part of his statement "excuse me for being informal" is any less meaningful.
"The guy in the book" is just a way of saying "the author of the book." If you wanna call us lazy, that's fine. But don't call us dumb. There's a distinctive difference between the two.
The purpose of my original post was to point out that if you are going to point out that you're not dumb (and I do believe you are intelligent), at least make a video showing you are not all the book describes your generation to be.
I don't believe the younger generation is dumb. I believe the are more resourceful than any other generation.
Well, it depends. If you're making the video to "prove" something you're wildly misguided-no one's going to be convinced by a video like this unless they're really on the fence. And diplomacy and tact, while arbitrary, help in an actual discussion. But this isn't a discussion. It's the release of one's feelings on a given issue-more like a monologue. I can understand why people might consider it stupid, but they're stupid for doing so. It's laziness, not stupidity.
I helped my kids with their homework all through their school years and their cirriculum was ridiculously easy compared to mine little fella. Using non-existent words doesnt make you seem "intelligent".
ForestSongUnLTD 2 months ago
"i really doubt that most adults could find iraq on a map" I was thinking the same thing. but then again, i live in america and i'm assuming you do too. in my experience the US public has proven to be significantly dumber than the rest of the industrialized world. I dont think its much of an "age issue" or a "generation issue", i think its more of a cultural thing, and right now america has the most embarrassing public on the globe.
BeLiketheSquerrl 1 year ago
1. logically, it should make you question your assumption that we are better educated now than 50 years ago when you yourself admit that people you know do not seem to have much knowledge. 2. You claim more people are educated but again, you also claim so many are not knowledgeable. This also points to education accomplishing less and not more these days 3. It is easier to get into college now. 50 years ago, we did not have open enrollment policies.
madmoderatemuslima 1 year ago
Are you seriously believing this? Standards are better now is bullshit.. Go to Facebook, NO ONE under 30 can spell.
tmw196374044 1 year ago
Only me. who recently turned 30. Have been a great speller for many years. Americans are dumb, but some exceptions..like myself.
IHABC8 1 year ago
The author was in no way slamming the ways in which we learn; he was using actual studies to determine whether our intelligence is suffering as a result. The truth is that although our generation has the greatest access to information @ lightning speed, we choose to use it for social networking & little else.
AngelSees 1 year ago
You'd have read about the alarming number of college graduates entering the workforce with subpar reading & writing skills, & the billions of dollars our country spends every year sending students to remedial classes in community colleges because they're not adequately prepared for college upon high school graduation.
AngelSees 1 year ago
FYI, the educational standards are NOT higher than they used to be - it's only the different methods of learning that have increased. if you'd actually read the book (which I wouldn't expect of someone your age), you'd have read that college-aged kids nowadays don't have the education that a high school student had in the 1950s.
AngelSees 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
You keep saying the standards are higher for our generation, but you don't cite your source; instead you say "I keep hearing this, I keep hearing that", whereas the author cites numerous studies to support each & every one of his statements. What you're saying makes no sense - you contradicted yourself at least 3 times in this video. You'd give an example of our ignorance, & go on to explain how that makes us the smartest generation. Really? On what basis?
AngelSees 1 year ago
You keep saying the standards are higher for our generation, but you don't cite your source; instead you say "I keep hearing this, I keep hearing that", whereas the author cites numerous studies to support each & every one of his statements. What you're saying makes no sense - you contradicted yourself at least 3 times in this video. You'd give an example of our ignorance, & go on to explain how that makes us the smartest generation. Really? On what basis?
AngelSees 1 year ago
Shut up kid.
einsteinslies 1 year ago
SERIOUSLY, YOU AMERICANS CAN'T PICK OUT IRAQ ON A MAP?!
WTF is up...?!
I'm from sweden, we have tests in school where you have to name every country on a world map... And unless you have about 50% correct you have to do it again...
Americans are in general stupid if you ask anyone in Sweden...
Wqube 1 year ago
@Wqube
Thanks, Sweden. We'll announce that and everything will be great from now on. Good job.
America and Sweden are pretty comparable in terms of the burden each of our populations puts on our education systems, right?
Thanks again, 'Merica
P.S.
Almost forgot, who the fuck asks anyone in Sweden anything, besides other Swedish people? Don't you guys make hot chocolate or some bullshit? Nah, you're not that cool. The Swiss, they give reputable answers to our questions...
mutefx 1 year ago
have you read bauerlein's ("the guy in the book") book? your argument is invalid. i'm 17 years old and apart of the dumbest generation and i'll admit it because i know we are self-absorbed (i.e. this video, blogs, facebook, myspace, twitter) and we can only access information, not retain it (i.e. searching google for things, using wiki as a source). yeah you should probably read the book before you judge it to this extent.
tiarequeen 1 year ago 2
Thank you for your research and opinion, you just gave me the answers for my final exam... a textual analylis on this book our teacher made us read.
delcosty 1 year ago
i was born in 1970, i was not the war protester generation, my parents were and they were dumb as hell. i have worked with may under 30, and they , per say not all most have no concept of getting the job done . this is a problem the internet does not get you a job. but i wouldn't hire anyone under 30, due to the poor work ethic. so in many ways socially they are dumber. knowing stuff is one thing making it happen is another. and i know where Iraq, i went there 3 times with the army
patrickpapka 1 year ago
i think there is a big gap between the old and the young that widens each day. How can you teach if you cannot even connect so someone or somethings teaching us and it aint Mrs. Farfinkle- lol
tgirlgo 2 years ago
education has increased and intelligence has decreased.... seems to me.
topheramazz 2 years ago
you obviously have to read the book.
ruthieness 2 years ago
People under 30 are stupid!! Your generation sucks!!
violin99 2 years ago
anyone can read about of a book, answer questions and get decent test scores. having a piece of paper saying you're educated doesnt mean anything. a huge part of being intelligent is having common sense, and being logical. school cant teach you that. i know someone with a full college education who cant even function in normal society, i, a 16 year old, constantly have to correct him and ive been out of school since 8th grade.
fracture6661 2 years ago
technocological....lol
beto579 2 years ago 2
When he claims dumbest education he does not necessarily mean performance in school.
Your quotes about education are unquoted and do not have back-up.
In adition the dumbest generation deals with obsession with celebrity and technological culture.
bazza2005 2 years ago 7
Back in the 20's they had ROTC in High School as only the priveledged got that far. Everything, including accounting and most career training had to be covered in HS, as only the very well off got any college at all. That didn't change till the 1940's due to the GI Bill. High School was serious shit! Otherwise you went to work at 12-14. The Child Labor Act wasn't passed until 1916 and was overturned two years later, until the 1938 Fair labor Act set minimum work age at 16.
massivereader 3 years ago
we are now 25th in the world in math! so in your realizations sweetheart, you might want to come to terms with what that means. I understand your emotion on this, and I know not every kid in this generation is stupid, this goes without saying- but yes, we are in fact talking about the general group.
erfreaka25 3 years ago
This generation under 30 IS the stupidest in US history. I don't know where this kid gets his information, but SAT scores peaked in 1962. They went down slowly through 1975 and then began to really fall throughout the 1980's and 1990's. This happened despite the fact that the test was "dumbed down" twice. It's true that scores are up a bit recently but remember they are up from a very low floor. This is why generations must be judges against other generations. Leave the SAT alone.
juscurious 3 years ago
It is worth pointing out that money spent per student has doubled when adjusted for inflation. Seriously with the access to information that we have today we should be producing a generation that exceeds all previous ones but they don't. Instead we are getting a group of young people who piss most of their time away and a group who uses todays advantages and excels at a remarkable rate. The distance between these groups is mind blowing.
EasyEs 3 years ago
you are missing the point OvertheHills, i mean come on we have the highest standard of education and 52 % of high school students picked nazi germany, Facist Italy, or Imperial Japan as our ally during WW2 instead of USSR. and not to mention most of of generation X are lazy and still live with their parents...
TheMightyDamo 3 years ago
i totally ahree with u dude
heyitsadam666 3 years ago
Laziest generation? Most entitled generation? Probably. Definitely not the dumbest generation though. I think one could see a trend here - with every generation, the old guys from the generation before come out of the woodwork and complain about how stupid everyone is and how the world is going to end because of stupidity. And so far, they've all been wrong. They're still wrong. It's a lot easier to see the flaws in something than it is to find the strengths.
wackyned 3 years ago
I disagee. Standards aren't high enough. Although you're probably right that our standards are rising. To that I would have to say, "finally (what took us so long?)."
UnhealthySalad 3 years ago
you dont get to piggy back on the fact that economic, technilogical, and social infastructure. you are all a waste of flesh. you should all have been aborted
mpower6428 3 years ago
I get to piggy back on my English education.
Spalg 3 years ago
Well said, I agree, this book made me furious.
TwirlingWood 3 years ago
To answer one of your questions: clubs and forums during the 1700's.
A large oversight that people often make is the disregard for the standard of education. Todays standard is far in excess of that just 10 years ago. So we can assume that 30 years ago the standard was much lower than that of 10 years ago. A larger percent of people have been enrolling in post-secondary education as well. That being said, this 1978-present generation is unequivocally not the dumbest, but perhaps the smartest.
Bradsonnette 3 years ago
Good vid. I disagree with the general premise however.
Standards are, by most accounts, NOT higher than in previous generations.
Interestingly though...because of the Flynn Effect, IQ tests must constantly be re-normed because of the increase in the mean IQ score for about the last century.
There's a difference between cultural decline (which I think is a distinct phenomenon) and a decline in mean cognitive ability. While one (culture) is declining, the other is actually increasing (IQ).
falsificationism 3 years ago
Wow, I didn't know IQ was increasing. I wouldn't have guessed that, but it makes sense.
Overthehills4547 3 years ago
If you haven't wikipedia'd the Flynn Effect yet, you should.
I'd be interested in your opinion on the reasons for it.
It's true, we can literally say to our parents and grandparents..."chances are, I'm smarter than you." :)
But again, only in a very limited sense. They're still more cultured, don't use the word "like" every other word, and can probably name more state and national capitols than we knew existed.
falsificationism 3 years ago
I think the Flynn Effect comes about because of all the standardized testing these days. Which refutes my point that test scores have been rising.
But calling my parents generation more "cultured" than mine is ridiculous. Older generations have a way of looking down upon the younger generations, believing them to be wild and crazy compared to them. For example, Elvis was seen as very provocative during his time, yet by today's standards, he might be considered conservative.
Overthehills4547 3 years ago
I think what happens is that the zeitgeist shifts, but the older generations still view the world from their older zeitgeist.
Also, I am skeptical of your statement that older generations can name more state and national capitals. That, and being able to name state and national capitals is not a sign of intelligence. It just means they have memorized different things than me. My parents cannot tell me what charge electrons have. This just means they are ignorant of that fact, not stupid.
Overthehills4547 3 years ago
Overthehills,
Yeah, what we learned was Anglo-centric and strongly "patriotic" -- not necessarily accurate. We had to memorize that state & state capitol stuff back in third grade. But History went back to the Greeks and Romans. Geography was world geography due to WWII and the cold war. English was much more rigorous (both comp and lit) and involved a heck of a lot more reading than what I see my neices and nephews doing. All this was watered down in the 70's to admit "cultural diversity".
massivereader 3 years ago
Older people also create Zeitgeist, it's not just resrved to a certain agebracket
hzvkj 2 years ago
I think the older generations are more crazy (punks, hippies ect), this generation seems somewhat conservative, stiff and posed when it comes to "wild", so no, I wouldn't agree with "believing them to be wild and crazy compared to them", quite the opposite actually
hzvkj 2 years ago
Overthehills,
Development of intellegence is a function of nutrition, enviroment and general health. It has been increasing for generations - just as average height has been increasing, life expectancy has been lengthening and the average age of puberty has been dropping.
What has been decreasing is general knowledge and standards of education. A modern college degree is roughly equivalent to an eighth grade education from the 1900's in terms of math, literacy , geography, and history.
massivereader 3 years ago
Unless you show me that they were teaching Calculus to children in the 8th grade in the 1900's, I'm going to be calling bullshit on you.
Overthehills4547 3 years ago
Algebra was part of grade school curicula in the 20's (read Robert Heinlein's memoirs for confirmation) and most college students don't take calc even today. BTW my grade school math texts (from when I attended parochial school in the sixties) covered polynomial algebra all the way to basic Calculus.
We never got past complex polynomials, but I found the higher level textbooks that covered calc when I was helping nuns clean out the storage rooms when the grade school closed.
massivereader 3 years ago
I'm sorry, but I'm still calling bullshit.
A parochial school, being a religious school, would have to be private. Therefore, their standards could be much higher than the contemporary standards.
Also, considering I don't own Robert Heinlein's memoirs, I could not validate your claim about the curricula in the 20's. That and I have been searching for a source that agrees with the claim that standards have fallen since the 20's. I could not find such a source.
Overthehills4547 3 years ago
Believe what you like, no one can stop you.
The texts we used at St. Ann's back in 1969 were from the early 60's. They were standard National Math Education Foundation Texts provided by the PA State Board of Education as part of a program to sneak money to the perenialy underfunded catholic schools by providing free textbooks. This was in the middle of the baby boom (when there was no room for all those peak of the baby boom students in the public school system. They were nothing special.
massivereader 3 years ago
@massivereader first depending on what you are going to school for you might not have to take calculus, but for people like me entering the wide field of engineering i have to take 3 or more calc classes. when i went to high school only two years ago complex polynomials were learned in 9th grade. sure there will always be dumb kids and smart kids but in general my generation will become the most creative and innovative people to apply ourselves.
thoraxe39 1 year ago
@thoraxe39 No doubt about it! If you have been reading the posts here, you will have discerned that my thesis is NOT that the current generation is any less intelligent or talented than any other. Due to improvements in nutriton and health care they are likely more intelligent. What is wrong is that they are being poorly served and not challenged sufficiently by the educational establsihment, which is more concerned about making those "dumb kids" feel good about themselves.
massivereader 1 year ago
i learnt calculus in 7th grade ..
ShazzanSuperChicken3 3 years ago
Our expectations have increased, but our grades increase and get inflated. I don't think we should judge our intelligence based on test scores after shit like "No Child Left Behind".
Also I do remember the author acknowledging that you shouldn't base this entire generation just on tv shows which probably do take the worst of the worst, out of context.
I didn't read the book but in the first free pages he does claim to use quantitative data instead of just qualitative and common sense.
Nethaven 3 years ago
Well, we lack people like you.
True, we're not as stupid as the media portrays us to be, but they HAVE worked on dumbing the masses down.
Maybe you live in an area that hasn't been affected or a smart area, but where i live, people sure do seem dumbed down, my parents have even pointed this out, you DO realise, however, they have been working on doing to use for many MANY years!
DihDin 3 years ago
is you stoned
blazerrips91 3 years ago
I wish.
Overthehills4547 3 years ago
Intelligence is culturally cultivated as well as inherent. The inherent intelliegence of humans has remained the same since the begining of time, but looking at our society, it sometimes makes me think that cultural influence has much more of an impact than genes.
I think that we as a culture have gotten very lazy with our minds. As far as I'm concerned, ignorance and stupidity are the same fucking thing.
WhereAreYouArienette 3 years ago
First of all, conventional education makes you ignorant. Telling a country's history from its perspective is retarding. Also, inteligent in what way? School smarts is different from book smarts, and book smarts is different from internet smarts. But the internet is a double-bladed sword...in a lot of ways. So entertainment is everything, or information is everything. Inteligence is a natural human function, something tought, but wisdom is not, its learned alone somewhere... in nothing.
phvalue323 3 years ago
agreed, the author of that book is an ignorant bigot prick trying to peddle propagadna to the equally ignorant above thiry generation
EsotericArsonist 3 years ago
TAA has blocked me, asshole
TheReasonWhyGuy 3 years ago
I was watching a few vids on the author of the book in question and found that just by his demeanor alone can be perceived as pretensious. Albeit, many of our peers may not be able to locate Iraq on a map, or name the supposed organization(s) that we're currently fight in the Middle East; a good handfull(or two) are creative, in one way or another. My take on the issue, All humans (my self included); no matter from what background or preparation in life - are stupid.
ictinus101 3 years ago
I am not completely sure of where I stand on this issue, but I think I would agree that the standards are much higher. I home school, so I don't necessarily have to live up to whatever precedent is set for the children in public schools, but you see test scores rising in the home school population.
One must not expect to succeed if the bar of expectation is set to a level where failure is almost always the only option. Foundational learning isn't set before complex learning. That is a mistake!
ixsikxwitxit 3 years ago
Assuming that you're a part of a different generation, I'm sure plenty of your peers would make some of the same comments. However, we're not a more intelligent generation. Such a thing simply cannot exist. When it comes to intellect, I'd say that all generations across the boards typically have the same amount of intellect. Great vid though :)
mgrieves 3 years ago 2
yup. i agree. ^_^
hyperish1234 3 years ago
Stupidest... "The guy in the book"...... It's comments like this that make your generation look "stupider" :)
carlstips 3 years ago 3
Excuse me for being informal, you fucking douchebag.
Overthehills4547 3 years ago
Name-calling..... swearing..... wow!!!! You don't seem like a person who has the temper for an intellectual conversation.
Once again.. I am not trying to be rude. Just honest.
carlstips 3 years ago
I've noticed that a lot of people who claim that they are just being honest are actually pretentious douchebags who use the "honesty" claim as an underhanded tactic to win an argument based solely on their demeanor. Not their actual reasoning skills.
Overthehills4547 3 years ago
Oooo, Ad Hominem and other irrelevant comments! How very intellectual!
No, calling you a douchebag doesn't improve the argument, but that doesn't mean that the first part of his statement "excuse me for being informal" is any less meaningful.
"The guy in the book" is just a way of saying "the author of the book." If you wanna call us lazy, that's fine. But don't call us dumb. There's a distinctive difference between the two.
Theycallmetomu 3 years ago
The purpose of my original post was to point out that if you are going to point out that you're not dumb (and I do believe you are intelligent), at least make a video showing you are not all the book describes your generation to be.
I don't believe the younger generation is dumb. I believe the are more resourceful than any other generation.
carlstips 3 years ago
Well, it depends. If you're making the video to "prove" something you're wildly misguided-no one's going to be convinced by a video like this unless they're really on the fence. And diplomacy and tact, while arbitrary, help in an actual discussion. But this isn't a discussion. It's the release of one's feelings on a given issue-more like a monologue. I can understand why people might consider it stupid, but they're stupid for doing so. It's laziness, not stupidity.
Theycallmetomu 3 years ago
Right...
adeadlysniper 3 years ago
@carlstips at least he's trying.
satyratron 2 months ago