The USA is no place to raise a child.

[John99]

“That’s the idea that knowledge is not something that teachers possess and give to students or teach students,” DeMarzio tolld CNSNews.com. “Rather, knowledge is a process in which students construct meaning for themselves.

very interesting.

"The average American is nearly illiterate when it comes to basic principles of American history, government and economics, according to a new report from the Intercollegiate Studies Institute – and politicians are even worse."

i believe an issue here is with discussing averages.

More than 2,000 people were administered a 33-question test this Spring on American history and our political and economic institutions. Of them, 71 percent -- college and non-college educated alike – got a failing mark, ISI’s Josiah Bunting III said, presenting the study at a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., Thursday.
“It can truly be said that we are suffering from an epidemic of civic ignorance,” Bunting said. “The extent of failure is pervasive, cutting across every segment of the American population.

“Young Americans failed, but so did the elderly,” said Bunting. “Men and women, rich and poor, liberals and conservatives, Republican and Democratic, white, black, yellow and brown – all were united in their inability to master the basic features of America’s constitutional form of government.”

that is a lot of ground to cover with 2,000 people.

[ili]

The U.S. is #1 in personal autonomy.

[TimeTraveler]

The U.S. is #1 in personal autonomy.

Proof=

[superstring01]

Proof=

Don't bother. His statement is like saying, "The USA is #1 in personal coolness." It's too nebulous to actually pin down to anything credible.

~String

[stateofmind]

Explain to me why this is a bad thing? If they are smart enough to make money playing video games, why is that a problem? We are the losers with the dumb jobs while they get to play video games for a living.

They aren't making money... they don't work and they're leeching off their family to feed their gaming addiction. It's an epidemic in South Korea.

[TimeTraveler]

They aren't making money... they don't work and they're leeching off their family to feed their gaming addiction. It's an epidemic in South Korea.

So if something is fun it's not "work"? Leeching off their family? If you can get paid to play, you should get paid to play.

Only a complete fool would prefer a job they hate. And no there aren't enough important jobs in the world for everyone so there is no reason why we shouldn't have more gaming jobs to be honest.

It's better to get paid playing video games than to not have a job at all, or work Walmart or whatever it is that you favor we do with the majority of workers.

Most workers have pointless jobs which serve no purpose and which does not better humanity in any way. If you must work a pointless job, why not do something fun?

[stateofmind]

So if something is fun it's not "work"? Leeching off their family? If you can get paid to play, you should get paid to play.

Only a complete fool would prefer a job they hate. And no there aren't enough important jobs in the world for everyone so there is no reason why we shouldn't have more gaming jobs to be honest.

It's better to get paid playing video games than to not have a job at all, or work Walmart or whatever it is that you favor we do with the majority of workers.

Most workers have pointless jobs which serve no purpose and which does not better humanity in any way. If you must work a pointless job, why not do something fun?

Lol, no man. These kids aren't making money... no one's getting paid here...

[Psyche]

Public schools are a totalitarian nightmare masquerading as education; I don’t hesitate in relaying that my experience while growing up within their concrete borders was an emotional hell. Early on, probably as early as grade 1, I understood that school would destroy me. That may sounds melodramatic but I think any child that experiences trauma early in life is extra sensitive to the predatory, dissociative nature of schools. On an unconscious level, I got that school is the mechanism by which society force feeds its invalid, authoritarian, collectivist trip into the helpless young minds of the nascent generation. What I saw as routine was utter indifference to the damage that the school structure and its pedagogues inflict on children.

Being young, I remember having my curiosity about the world actively dismantled by the soul sucking, undifferentiated blur that characterizes the school experience. They tell you where to you to be. They tell you what to read. They tell you what’s important. They tell you if you don’t obey than you are stupid or lazy or both. They herd you around with all the other children like animals. They keep you under surveillance at all times. They give you homework to pass the surveillance duties on to your parents, along with report cards which come to dictate the nature of your relationship with them. They regulate your mind and body, insist on absolute conformity at all times, and do it all with pious sanctimony that is frankly, sociopathic. All told, like any society orchestrated through priestcraft, they set up electric fences in your brain that shrinks the entire universe into a tiny classroom full of tiny people.

So what’s the real lesson?

You don’t exist.

If a child does not want to sit at a desk for six hours a day, taking orders from some guy, or some woman, it does not mean that he is stupid and lazy. It means that the school is stupid and lazy. Here you have this young and eager mind forcibly confined and made to do menial exercises all day as if his thoughts, feelings, and desires, are completely irrelevant to his “education”. You cannot blame the person who is there involuntarily for the failure of the system that compels him, to be educated. It's a trap, and its not an accident.

That the origins of the modern system of compulsory education in 19th Century Prussia is scarcely, if ever, acknowledged in polite society, is rather chilling. After familiarizing myself with the author and former award winning Schoolteacher John Taylor Gatto, there is no way I can never look at schools the same way again. The Underground History of American Education is a wonderful chronological scholarly take on what the actual intent of the original educationists who imported the Prussian model was, while Dumbing us Down and Weapons of Mass Instruction meticulously breaks down the psychodynamics of the school environment to show how toxic they are to the development of fully functional human beings. This is why I think people who focus on test scores and graduation levels and how America stacks up to the rest of the world are completely missing the point, though it is relevant that even by compulsory schoolings own standards it fails abysmally. The point is to really dig deep and look at it from an existential perspective.

Here is a great quote from the essay, A Short Angry History of American Forced Schooling

"The secret of American schooling is that it doesn't teach the way children learn -- nor is it supposed to. Schools were conceived to serve the economy and the social order rather than kids and families -- that is why it is compulsory. As a consequence, the school can not help anybody grow up, because its prime directive is to retard maturity. It does that by teaching that everything is difficult, that other people run our lives, that our neighbors are untrustworthy even dangerous. School is the first impression children get of society. Because first impressions are often the decisive ones, school imprints kids with fear, suspicion of one another, and certain addictions for life. It ambushes natural intuition, faith, and love of adventure, wiping these out in favor of a gospel of rational procedure and rational management." - John Taylor Gatto

[spidergoat]

Public schools are a totalitarian nightmare masquerading as education;

Well said. My experience was similar, and I have Asperger's Syndrome, which no one recognized. I'm a big believer in the educational philosophy of Summerhill. It's a UK school where everything is optional. You are not required to go to any classes. There are few rules and no grades.