SwiftVets.com

[Me#1You#10]

Read it and weep. This is what 40 years of liberal-dominated control of our education system has wrought. It's a wonder they can find their way home from school... (emphasis mine)

[kate]

[I B Squidly]

I used to relieve A School recruits from duty muster if they could answer simple questions like "How many states in the Union?". Typical answers were: 47, 48 or 51. Telling this ludicrous result to others at the NCO club one laughingly blurted, "Of course, everyone knows there are 52!" Well, I'm glad they weren't QuarterMasters but I see things haven't improved.
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"KILL ALL THE LAWYERS!"

-Wlm Shakespeare

[Anker-Klanker]

And only a few weeks ago there was this high school GEOGRAPHY teacher who was caught on tape ranting about George Bush. I believe his excuse was (Alan Coolmes, and all Dem/Lib commentators, sez with a straight face) that he was teaching social geography.

It's the liberal way: don't teach facts; teach them the social meaning of facts (according to Marx/Lennin/Mao/Castro/Chavez, etc., etc.).

[dusty]

And we are paying good money for this level of teaching incompetence.
Not to mention the resulting future mistakes that will be made by having a great no. of people be.....what can only be termed.....illiterate.

Dusty
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Left and Wrong are the opposite of Right!

[Snipe]

"Where's Paris?"

"Like Dude, I heard that She's in Malibu."
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Tin Can Sailor

[jwb7605]

My granddaughter was doing a report on Sweden.
Since I've been there, she decided to "interview me".

It was apparent that she didn't know where Sweden was, and didn't really care. But she had a map, which included Lithuania.

So I decided to tell her that's where Lithuanian batteries were made.

he he he he ....

After 30+ minutes of learning that Lithium and Lithuania were actually different, I then informed her that contrary to popular belief, Sweden was nowhere near Switzerland, either.

30 more minutes before she discovered I was correct.

My granddaughter (a) knows something about battery technology, (b) more than she intended about (European) geography, and (c) still fact checks me, for some reason.

My theory is that if you want somebody to learn something, you've got to challenge them enough to discover things for themselves.
Apparently our existing school system doesn't do that.

[GenrXr]

[USAFE5]

Where was thepoll done - Red or Blue states?
How high was the percentage of immigrants?
These factors can sway the outcome in such a fashion as to present the worst scenario.

Th questions in this poll as with political polls can (maybe was) be scued to defame the US.
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"The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I’m here to help." Ronald Reagan

[LimaCharlie]

Unfortunately in my experience, I believe this applies to most children and young adults of today educated in the American public school system and in it’s colleges and universities. I have been a supervisor and manager in the military, government, and large corporations for many years. Graduate engineers today rely on whatever their computer tells them. I have had to teach them basics on-the-job that a college prep high school graduate would have known forty or fifty years ago.

I have had young engineers proudly present a design or solution to me. With a glance, I tell them that it won’t work and gently walk them through why it won’t work. They are amazed and ask how I can glance at it and tell it won’t work. I tell them it is because when I learned it, you had to estimate it in your head, use a slide rule to calculate it, and prove it on paper. They enter some information in their computer and blindly accept any answer it provides.

I have advertised several times for entry level positions that require a high school diploma, clean arrest record, and a clean driving record. Hundreds of people apply and are quickly reduced to a few possibilities after background checks. Many people lie about their education, arrest records, and driving records. Many that pass the initial screening come in for an interview where you quickly realize they can’t read, write, or do simple addition and subtraction math problems without a calculator even with their high school diploma.

Hundreds of applicants dwindle down to two or three that are marginally acceptable and you choose the ones with a good attitude that seem eager to learn. I have hired people only to have them not show up for their first day on the job. When contacted, either they, a relative, or roommate have said that they accepted a job at a car wash or fast food restaurant and are working there. The job I had offered them was as a higher paid trainee leading to very well paid union positions that are virtually guaranteed for a lifetime of employment.

I believe education today is severely failing our future leaders and the people that will soon be paying my social security.
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I was going to become an anarchist, but they had too many rules.

[BuffaloJack]

Lima Charlie,
I've had similar experiences. I needed to send a young engineer of about 27 years of age to Heidelberg, Germany to attend a conference on computer transmission protocols for instrumentation. The day after I assigned him the task (and about 4 or 5 weeks before he needed to be there), he came to me with a AAA map of New York and Pennsylvania and said he couldn't find Germany much less Heidelberg.
I then had to instruct him in the basics of simple geography.
This happens because our education system teaches to the lowest common denominator.
Jack
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Swift Boats - Qui Nhon (12/69-4/70), Cat Lo (4/70-5/70), Vung Tau (5/70-12/71)

[I B Squidly]

Working in a map store I was visited by a couple of supervisors from American Express' Travel Office. They wanted a wall map of North America to help orient their agents. I showed them the large National Geo'. "That's not right!" they said. They wanted the one that showed the border Canada shared with Mexico!!!!. They wouldn't accept an explanation of the facts and decided against purchase. They thought it was a propogandist ploy and politically incorrect. Neither would they accept the alternative of Central America and Canadian maps as they still showed the US and showed it too large. They left in a huff saying they'ld find a shop that sold 'real' maps. Uh huh.
_________________
"KILL ALL THE LAWYERS!"

-Wlm Shakespeare

[LimaCharlie]

When you meet a new person, one of the inevitable questions is some variation of, “Where are you from?” I used to say I was raised in New Mexico. Now I am changing it to I was raised in the Southwest. I have long since lost track of the number of people who think New Mexico is part of Mexico. People have said, “It must be interesting/challenging to live in a foreign country.” I have been asked if the schools I went to used Spanish or English. These are educated professionals, teachers, and politicians.

Last week, I met a very recent political science graduate of an Eastern University working on a statewide political campaign. The inevitable question came up and I said, “I was raised in New Mexico very near where Route 66 crossed the Continental Divide.” I spent the next few minutes explaining that New Mexico is a state between Arizona and Texas and below Colorado. I then had to explain what Route 66 was and then explain that the Continental Divide is where rivers on the east side run into the Atlantic Ocean or Gulf of Mexico and rivers on the west side run into the Pacific Ocean.

I give up, I was born and raised in the Southwest.
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I was going to become an anarchist, but they had too many rules.

[I B Squidly]

Lima Charlie,

Thoreau, NM is almost another nation, Navajoland.
_________________
"KILL ALL THE LAWYERS!"

-Wlm Shakespeare

[jwb7605]

I used to enjoy telling Japanese people I was from Nebraska.
Some of them had actually heard of it. So they asked "what part".

I enjoyed explaining "South Sioux City. Sioux City is in Iowa, but North Sioux City is in South Dakota, and South Sioux is in Nebraska".

Also works fine with American Citizens.