Basic intelligence in America.(rant)

[5thHorseman]

Kichi has a nice ass. Happy birthday yesterday btw.

I love the anti euro stuff that comes out of republicans. Especially those with euro names...... Wait thats all of of them.

All of the founding fathers were influenced by euros, in fact one in particular was from a small town 15 miles from where I live.

[jonb]

The below is not funny, it is long and I doubt if it would change anyone's views, this thread seems spent anyway, so it is best not to bother with this and pass on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U

[CliveStaples]

Kichi has a nice ass. Happy birthday yesterday btw.

I love the anti euro stuff that comes out of republicans. Especially those with euro names...... Wait thats all of of them.

All of the founding fathers were influenced by euros, in fact one in particular was from a small town 15 miles from where I live.

You'll see Kant and Locke's fingerprints all over the founding documents of the United States.

But having a shared ancestry (ethnically as well as philosophically) doesn't mean that our paths haven't diverged in the meantime. The idea that we should somehow refrain from having negative opinions about Europe based on our shared heritage is...well, kind of racist.

However, I'll note that I've seen conservatives and libertarians (neither of whom necessarily identify as Republican) criticize Obama for perceived weakening of the Special Relationship with Britain, as well as his perceived neglect/abandonment of allies to placate Russia. So it's not like everyone to the right of Keith Olbermann is somehow a Ron-Paulian isolationist.

The religious in our country see education as an anathema, so conservative parents and politicians focus on making religion come first when it comes to what we teach ourselves. Being educated is being demonized by these conservatives as something wicked and evil, and the best way to keep the credulous from becoming non-credulous is to make them afraid of learning.

Do you have proof for any of this? It seems like complete speculation. It certainly doesn't characterize how my conservative parents feel about education. Note: certification is not the same as education; many college degrees aren't worth having. And both my parents have graduate degrees; I'd be surprised to find out that they think education is "wicked and evil".

[Violet]

Why do the homework if the teacher already told you how it was done?

Fond memories of my ninth grade Algebra class, where I would endure my classmates' unceasing inability to understand basic (albeit totally useless) mathematics that the teacher just presented them with on the whiteboard... whilst I listened to music and filled in the answers on the homework he gave us. I used this homework as a learning process, where if I got a problem wrong I asked him the reason it was wrong, and actually gained from the process. I remember some of the students who would receive their corrected work back and throw it in the trash on the way out without so much as a glance at their score XD Hilarious really, since most of the class was failing

I remember that I did my homework in that class, one of two classes where I did any homework at all. Always did it in the class, and enjoyed it sometimes. If I didn't feel like it, I didn't do it. Just like all of the other classes I took ^_^

Luckily for me, I did well enough on tests to pass in most subjects, most semesters

And college was not as I expected, but nearly just as pointless as highschool. Only thing I learned from communication class was that I can't bring myself to lower the level of the language I learned in highschool honor's english. I liked both of my teachers in that class Had the hots a bit for both of them. They were fun ^_^

---

Oh, and school sucked for me. Hated it since about the first or second week of kindergarten, according to my mother.

---

And I'm pretty stupid. So just throwing it out there from one of the younger generations

[Ryantology]

I don't know if it means anything, but I do tend to find that when I speak to kids just graduating high school today, as opposed to those who graduated with me in 2000, they seem if not more intelligent, at least more informed and more receptive to science in particular.

Perhaps the issue is not that people are getting stupid, but that our system of 30 kids in a classroom following a pre-made study plan and spending the entire year essentially studying for the finals is simply no longer adequate in 2012. There are so many ways of learning independently and proactively today, I can't imagine the classroom can possibly appeal in comparison. I know that I've learned so much more, about so many things, on my own than I ever did while in institutional education. I was always a pretty disinterested student.

[Faith No More]

Do you have proof for any of this? It seems like complete speculation. It certainly doesn't characterize how my conservative parents feel about education. Note: certification is not the same as education; many college degrees aren't worth having. And both my parents have graduate degrees; I'd be surprised to find out that they think education is "wicked and evil".

When I said this, I was specifically thinking about Rick Santorum's position that colleges are idoctrinations for the left, and his "statistic" that 62% of students that enter college with faith leave without it.
http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2...ida_au.php

The fact that he has a decent size following would mean that plenty of people agree. I know there are other examples out there. This one, however, was what I had in mind when I said that.

[downbeatplumb]

There was a US state that tried to reduce education funding because it led to "lack of faith" this was only a week or so ago but can I find the link.....

[Tiberius]

But before you buy the tickets to come home have you thought about the food?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7G1nZzrA...ure=fvwrel

No idea who thought all those types of food were standard for Britain, but really only the Steak & Kidney pie, Marmite, and Scotch Eggs are eaten often over here. Stuff like black pudding and jellied eels you will struggle to find even at supermarkets.

Also, a doner kebab is Turkish.

[jonb]

No idea who thought all those types of food were standard for Britain, but really only the Steak & Kidney pie, Marmite, and Scotch Eggs are eaten often over here. Stuff like black pudding and jellied eels you will struggle to find even at supermarkets.

Also, a doner kebab is Turkish.

Being a lower class element of English society living in Essex, jellied eels are available in most pie an mash shops, But Tiberius being of the more sophisticated elements of society I doubt would even know of these cafes existence.

Your Englishness must be under question if you have not eaten a kebab on the way home from the pub. It is one of the rights of passage into citizenship.

[downbeatplumb]

I have eaten 1 nice kebab and several hundred stomach turning ones.

Black puddings are readily available at most supermarkets.

I have never seen a jellied eel though, sounds repulsive.