Content is Dead

[jonb]

lush englishmen all look the same

[festive1]

That's a great story. Didn't Einstein have difficulty writing/spelling too? Anyhoo, the first teacher that tells me my kid isn't intelligent... I don't know what, but it won't be pretty and they had better hope my husband is there to contain me.

[Minimalist]

I still wonder how much the notion of today's kids being dumber is anything real.

"Dumber" is the wrong word. It is a question of motivation. I've heard far too many teachers complain that they are expected to be entertainers rather than educators because of the distractions which the world makes available. These kids can learn anything they want to learn but far too many seem to lack the desire to learn anything which is not INSTANTLY useful to them. Learning for the sake of learning is a foreign concept.

Then there are the parents. Many pay lip service to the ideals of education....as long as they don't have to do anything. In fairness, most are working longer hours than ever before and even if there are two parents in the household the odds are that both work. They have compartmentalized education into something that is the schools' responsibility - not their own.

[jonb]

That's a great story. Didn't Einstein have difficulty writing/spelling too?

It is surprising how many great people were written off. On the other hand so many child geniuses failed because they were promoted too quickly.
Leonardo Da Vinci missed out the part of his apprenticeship on mixing pigments and the chemistry of art. Which could well be why his paintings are now mere shadows compared with the work of his contemporaries.

[cratehorus]

Public school has become nothing more then day-prisons for kids, education in all of our countries suck because the wealthiest can afford to send their kids anywhere in the world for boarding school, so they see public school as a burden. The other reason is religous fanatics who think science should only be used to prove the bible is true, and if science ever contradicts the bible, then all that proves, is that your science is flawed, and you need to try again, until these two problems are gone we will ALWAYS have shitty public schools