Is it just me or Whats up with this.

[Turtlesboat]

How's this for a story...

I had a client who had a gofer kind of guy working for him, His name was Rab. Rab was about a dumb as they come. Example: One day it was snowing and the client told Rab to go get the snow off his car cause they had to leave in about 30 minutes. 30 minutes later we go outside and Rab is shoveling the snow off a brand new Navigator with a metal shovel.

Anyway, he's in our great public school system and is pushed through grades and eventually graduates high school. 10 years later he's talking to a lawyer about divorcing his wife and the lawyer realizes that Rab is one stupid guy. Finds out that Rab graduated high school and decides to sue the public school system for allowing him to graduate. He wins $5 million dollars. I kid you not.

 

[billandamy]

Dude... you need to come sit in my wife's high school classroom. Things are much different than they were 20 years ago. If I called my teacher a "f'ing btch" in front of the class, I would be thrown out the door for a few weeks. Today, nothing happens other than asking (not telling) the student to sit down.

There's this whole "no child left behind" crap now. I don't know about everyone else but one of the things that motivated me was being AFRAID of being left behind. If you can't be left behind, why work? Heck... let's teach lazy behavior in school!!! "Goof off and you'll be taken care of and someone else will get blamed"!

My wife fields parents calls every night about "How come my johnnie got an F?" When the response is "because he isn't doing the work", the parents always say things like "Maybe you aren't able to motivate my johnnie and you are a crappy teacher."

I'm personally surprised the graduation rates are as high as they are.

If you want to fix graduation rates, you need to fix the broken culture that exists in households (note I didn't call them "homes"). Otherwise, we'll continue to graduate and have drop outs of a bunch of lazy ass kids that elect politicians that promise to take care of them and blame others for their problems.

Kids that get grades below a "B" shouldn't have cell phones, nintendo, TV, or a warm bed. An AM Radio to listen to conservative talk radio, no visitation from friends, Oatmeal and a concrete floor in the garage is all they should get until the grades come up.

Well, whose fault is it to allow that child who called the teacher a name to say? Certainly the child did not make the policy? And they were allowed to stay? Your school district is messed up, because up here that child would have been punished somehow. That is not tolerated in the schools up here.

I was looking through some statistics I googled, and it seems in the last 40 years, graduation percentages are up. I know this isnt exactly a great barometer (with no child left behind) but so are college graduations where no child left behind has no influence.

I think parents have ALWAYS protected their children and think that they are little angels in school, and dont deserve certain grades. I dont believe what you are writing is any different than it was for all of time before this.

Just we have much more media access to find what we want to believe. I found a bunch of articles pointing out that generation Y is also the smartest and most well adapted group in the last couple of generations, so go figure.

 

[Four Suns]

 

[billandamy]

How's this for a story...

I had a client who had a gofer kind of guy working for him, His name was Rab. Rab was about a dumb as they come. Example: One day it was snowing and the client told Rab to go get the snow off his car cause they had to leave in about 30 minutes. 30 minutes later we go outside and Rab is shoveling the snow off a brand new Navigator with a metal shovel.

Anyway, he's in our great public school system and is pushed through grades and eventually graduates high school. 10 years later he's talking to a lawyer about divorcing his wife and the lawyer realizes that Rab is one stupid guy. Finds out that Rab graduated high school and decides to sue the public school system for allowing him to graduate. He wins $5 million dollars. I kid you not.

I have a 20 year old cousin who got accepted to med school. So whats the point? Shall we all just pick and choose the best and worst we can find and compare?

50 years ago, the same comparison between two people could have been made.

And who made the decision to give that guy $5 mil? Was it a generation Y or X or other judge?

 

[Four Suns]

Let's blame George Bush.

 

[sbw1]

X and Ys are too young to be judges, right?

 

[billandamy]

Ouch and ewwwww.

 

[Turtlesboat]

I have a 20 year old cousin who got accepted to med school. So whats the point? Shall we all just pick and choose the best and worst we can find and compare?

50 years ago, the same comparison between two people could have been made.

And who made the decision to give that guy $5 mil? Was it a generation Y or X or other judge?

The point is, the school system is under huge amounts of pressure to "graduate" as many kids as they can no matter how dumb they are. Like in little league baseball where now you get a trophy even if you loose. So even though graduation rates are higher, graduates are more stupid than ever. I interview interns on a regular basis, and I can say for a fact that they are dumber now than they were 15 years ago. But they do text message fast than I can.

 

[billandamy]

The point is, the school system is under huge amounts of pressure to "graduate" as many kids as they can no matter how dumb they are. Like in little league baseball where now you get a trophy even if you loose. So even though graduation rates are higher, graduates are more stupid than ever. I interview interns on a regular basis, and I can say for a fact that they are dumber now than they were 15 years ago. But they do text message fast than I can.

I have to disagree with your assessment. I too interview and am immersed in 20 year olds fresh to the ad/marketing game. They are now in chamber of commerce meetings, at events and are clients as well. They arent any dumber or smarter than anyone else, just inexperienced.

Just like I was when I was 20, and most of us here at 20.

I think we all forget who we were at that age.

 

[sbw1]

Anybody here go back and read their Master's thesis, written in the late 60's when we were all above average? Pretty painful read for most of us I'll bet.......... I see lots of young people in the work place. They have different skills than I had when starting out. Much more technical, almost vocational as opposed to the broad based education common in the 60's. I've got two sons who graduated from the U of Michigan. One runs a high tech company and the other makes a living developing software solutions for business. Both were mostly ignorant of politics and civics through college but became fast studies when they started paying huge tax bills to the State of California and Uncle Sam. Fortunately, they did not vote for BO, but both were initially impressed by his glitz. Read today's editorial in the Wall Street Journal about using the constitutional convention process to get our freedom back. If successfully implemented, it would cause a lot today's issues to be framed in a more constructive light.

 

[rktktpaul]

I have to disagree with your assessment. I too interview and am immersed in 20 year olds fresh to the ad/marketing game. They are now in chamber of commerce meetings, at events and are clients as well. They arent any dumber or smarter than anyone else, just inexperienced. . .

Anybody here go back and read their Master's thesis, written in the late 60's when we were all above average? Pretty painful read for most of us I'll bet.......... I see lots of young people in the work place. They have different skills than I had when starting out. Much more technical, almost vocational as opposed to the broad based education common in the 60's. . .

I mentor a lot of young architectural interns as part of their licensure requirements who are really sharp - really quick studies; much sharper than my group graduating 25 years ago. The education they received in school didn't necessarily make them work ready right out of the box, but gave them the skill set they need to learn how to work in the real world; no different that when I came out of school in 1984.

 

[VTSeaRay]

This has been an interesting discussion. But, I think this AP article shows where this is all going. The militants see the US as wimping out, so they're stepping up their attacks. Also, Pakistan is about to be taken over. Last night, the Taliban was reported to be 60 miles from Pakistan's capital.

"In March, a 17-minute audio message attributed to al-Baghdadi called Washington's announcement of a combat withdrawal timetable from Iraq "recognition of defeat." The statement was carried on militant Web sites.


Although violence is down sharply around Iraq compared with recent years, high-profile attacks blamed on insurgents have been on the rise recently.


In Baghdad, a homicide bomber blew himself up among a group of Iraqis collecting humanitarian aid in a mainly Shiite area in Baghdad, killing at least 22 people, the Iraqi military said.
The attack was the latest in a series of high-profile bombings that have raised concern of an uptick in violence as the U.S. military scales back its forces before a planned withdrawal by the end of 2011.


The bombing occurred just after noon as Iraqi police were distributing aid parcels near Tahariyat Square in the central neighborhood of Karradah, according to the office of the main Baghdad military spokesman.


Abbas Ibrahim, a 24-year-old college student, described pools of blood on the ground and the smell of burned flesh in the air.


"We regret that violence has come back to Baghdad," he said."

 

[sbw1]

If BO loses this fight on his first watch, he will be a one termer. Members of Congress should be concerned as well.

 

[rktktpaul]

I don't see where the surprise is in any of the AP report. We're talking about a region where secular and tribal areas dominate, not country borders.

I don't see how we can be expected to resolve hundreds of years of conflict between Sunni and Shia Muslims, or the Dulaim, Shammar or any of the other 150 tribes. If that's our responsibility, then we better be prepared to stay for generations, because that's what it's going to take for them to forget why they hate each other.

 

[sbw1]

How long have we been in Korea? Germany? We do these things because it's in our interest.

 

[VTSeaRay]

It's not a surprise that there's turmoil there... it's the "change" in activity since the new Regime has taken up residence here that is of note.

 

[rktktpaul]

Yes, we have military presence in those locations, as well as in 61 other countries.

I don't, however, recall us being in military combat in Germany for some 60 years.

 

[Pseudomind]

Anybody here go back and read their Master's thesis, written in the late 60's when we were all above average? Pretty painful read for most of us I'll bet.......... I see lots of young people in the work place. They have different skills than I had when starting out. Much more technical, almost vocational as opposed to the broad based education common in the 60's. I've got two sons who graduated from the U of Michigan. One runs a high tech company and the other makes a living developing software solutions for business. Both were mostly ignorant of politics and civics through college but became fast studies when they started paying huge tax bills to the State of California and Uncle Sam. Fortunately, they did not vote for BO, but both were initially impressed by his glitz. Read today's editorial in the Wall Street Journal about using the constitutional convention process to get our freedom back. If successfully implemented, it would cause a lot today's issues to be framed in a more constructive light.

Not faulting you for your schooling, but, damn it must have been nice to go to college in the late 60's... graduate school no less :huh:

Lets see class of 67, US Army enlisted

:thumbsup:

 

[rktktpaul]

It's not a surprise that there's turmoil there... it's the "change" in activity since the new Regime has taken up residence here that is of note.

I don't think it would make a bit of difference who was sitting in the White House, the extremists use any convenient excuse to support what they're doing. The only rhyme or reason they have is to kill those who do not subscribe to their particular beliefs be they Arab or non-Arab.

Don't forget, Bin Laden was part of the original mujahadeen who fought, with our help, the Russians in Afganistan. A lot of those mujahadeen fighters are still around, and many of them are Taliban. In fact their leader Omar lost his eye in those wars.

And these guys doggedly fought the Russians until the Russians finally said supporting the Afganistan communists wasn't worth it. So I'm going to go out on a limb and say that these guys feel that they can repeat their previous glory only against the US this time, regardless of who is running our country.

Unlike the Russians though, I give our military guys a lot of credit in understanding that they cannot win using military might alone. Our men and women do a very good job on the ground with the human element, interacting and supporting the citizens at the risk of their own safety. That is the biggest reason I think we have the greatest military anywhere.