jpinMilwaukee wrote:cavfancier wrote:jp, I have to take issue with your assertion that the bigger problem is "a generation of lazy, unmotivated people who expect everything to be given to them." I do think there are a lot of people who are like that, but you have made a sweeping generalization about US society, based on a few statistics most likely based on a relatively small number of people.
Actually I've made sweeping generalizations about the US society based off of my experiences with said generation... and granted it isn't like this everywhere but after moving to Wisconsin I was amazed at the amount of people that have
NEVER read a book unless it was required by school. Even then they would do the cliffnotes version. This sin't simply the school system failing them it is an unwilliness to learn.
But point taken about generalizations.
That is pretty amazing jp. It's hard for me to grasp, having grown up in an urban centre with good schools, with a family of professionals for whom education was absolutely key. My father continued the practice of his father of encouraging us to look something up when we had questions. The experience of doing that was indeed more rewarding than if we had been spoon-fed the answers. My mother has been an academic all her life. Her mother was a champion debater.
I think you might be on to something, but I'm just wondering why this unwillingness to learn is so prevalent these days, and I maintain that it is a complicated issue. You can blame the media, social conventions i.e. it's not 'cool' to read, go to school or do homework, or you could blame urban decay, and the crap kids go through at school these days, with increasing violence and peer pressure, but ultimately, it's a combination of many things.
As a young 'un, I played viola in the high school orchestra. We went on an annual trip to America, different cities each year, to play at other schools. I had the wake-up call of my life when we went to New York and played at a school with armed guards and metal detectors. The odd thing was, the students were fantastic, and loved the show. We spent time with them, they showed us around the city, and were great kids in general.
A few years later, I read that the principal of that school was stomped to death in the cafeteria. Still, those kids we played for, I'm sure some went on to do great things. IMO, the strength of a nation depends on the few who do try.
It's also possible that the students who couldn't find the US on a map probably assumed that the entire map was the property of the US, so they got confused. :wink: What amazes me, just from observation on A2K, is how so few students know how to use Google. I happen to have relatives from Belarus FreeDuck, so that was pretty funny. Apologies in advance for the length of this post.
