U.S. One of Two Countries Where Kids' Educational Attainment is Lower Than Their Parents' | Politics

Amen, czetheday, it's kinda funny but doing research and growing the mind makes you kind of lonely around the populace sometimes. It's sad that you must lower you level of communication to fit in.

When I interview for any position, top to bottom, I always require at the end of the interview for each applicant to pick from a list of three or four topics and write two paragraphs. Past topics include: "Please briefly describe your last vacation and what you enjoyed most about it" and "Please name your favorite TV or movie actor or actress and describe what you like best about him or her." More than proper spelling or grammar, I just want to know if the person can communicate a few simple ideas in a couple of paragraphs. The results frankly make me fear for the future of this country...

Exactly, Artemis, get addicted to it and you can learn in many ways in many places.

Go to the library . That is what I have always done . Do not wait around to learn . Knowledge is like big elusive game , to be hunted with cunning and determination . Do not think you have to stop at the library either . Book learning only gets you so far . Find a mentor and learn well . Learn even more from you enemies .

There is a ghost-buster symbol around the nazi symbol as in anti-nazi.

this man is a nazi,he uses the nazi symbol,why is he allowed on current?

oh, rough work, hats off to you.

I fished commercially

Yes, the same goes for me. While I achieved some College I didn't learn much there. The first few years the professors kept pace with the ball players in the room, if you know what I mean. I self educate and then make it a point to make friends with some intellectuals, the ones that aren't too righteous about their credentials. Some colleges, even Harvard, have their classes online and can be accessed without paying for the class. You get the knowledge but not the degree. Good colleges should be more available online and we should allow anyone who scores to _______ on an IQ test to attend college for free. It would be so worth it to raise the bar of education in this country while giving those not born wealthy the chance to receive the credentials to go with their education. Either way, it's worth it to continue the education. A person can be smart but not educated. I meet so many people who think they're dumb but they just have no interest in learning most things. Turn on a football game and all of a sudden they have a Doctor's degree in sports statistics. So, they have the ability but no interest in certain subjects. All this person would have to do is find topics to increase their education that they're interested in. That's also why some are so bored in High School, it's just the pace of the class being kept behind for others. I got teased when I was younger for always having my face behind a book or newspaper. Some people feel helpless without their gun, I feel helpless without the knowledge. Boating season is just months away, have fun.

Monkee this is true, but the degree gives someone credability..... I personally am a living testament to thes statements I am giving. I am a High School drop out, but have been clinically tested to have an IQ between 140-160 (different tests different results.. i am but human)..... High school was boring, but if I wa snot in so much debt and/or had responsabilities to my children, I would be back in school right now. Still I have friends/family who are lawyers, psychologists and the like... I read their textbooks with enthusiasm, and did much of my early research while a teenager and have continued ever since.... In my off time on the boats, I would read these text books and most of my co-workers could not understand why I even bothered.....While I am in effect educated, i have no credentials to be considered a professional......

The truly intelligent should never have to pay for higher education. Educating them should be a priority to America.

I agree with Delia that we need to stop pushing college on everyone. Not only does it indenture young people to the banks, it requires universities to dumb down coursework to accomodate everyone.

We need some solid, easily attainable vocational schools in addition to our university system. Let's face it, if you're going to end up an administrative assistant, you don't need to go to university. You may CHOOSE to, in order to round out your education, but you don't NEED to.

We also need to attach school funding $$ to the student, so they can go to any type of school that suits them, whether that be the public school system or a waldorf school. The government funding dollars need to follow the student where ever they go. This promotes competition between schools for student $$, and pushes poor schools into bankruptcy.

Oh yes, and tuition to all schools from kindergarten through university needs to be free or highly subsidized. We aren't generating highly educated people because few people are willing to take the risk of $100,000+ of debt.

One huge inhibitor to education , is lack of funds . Back in the 80's I got grants . Not loans . I owed NOTHING . Then reagan cut college grants . 10 years later a friend of mine , from the same economic bracket , got the same degree , for 40,000 bucks of debt . Now you have to go into massive debt to get an education . So poor people stay uneducated or fall prey to the banks and financial institutions . This way the corporate world gets to rob people , and this country , of their best future .

I think that's a great idea chaos1.

Well if our curriculum here in the U.S. actually geared kids to learn instead of just getting jobs maybe more kids would strive for a higher education. Instead of kids going to school and it being a case of "ok everybody do this", how bout we separate the kids and teach them according to how they learn best. Not every child is stimulated in the same manner. Some are visual learners while other are hands-on, and if we cater to these differences maybe children will be inclined to stay in school longer and find that they actually do like science, or math(which generally are the most "boring" subjects to most kids). Idk just my two cents.

Dumb it down

I do agree that this is a miserable report, but let's also consider that with the rise of different media sources, education is available to people in ways other than college and other formal institutions. Let's also consider that student tuition is pretty high across the country, and many students end up in massive amounts of debt - and the more education you want or need, the more money it costs. My mom's boyfriend is a middle aged nuclear physicist and professor at an NC university, and he's still paying off student loans!

Also, getting a job in your field straight out of college is very difficult for a lot of people. I know that my friends aren't the end all be all of statistics, but I find it interesting that not one of my friends with a college degree (which range from visual arts to psychology to political science) are working in the fields they were educated in. Many of them found that organizations and businesses were reluctant to take people with no experience.

The entire education system in America needs to be seriously rethought. We need creative, alternative education programs for both "special needs" AND gifted students, because as someone else pointed out, the one size fits all approach is a failure. We need to teach high schoolers that they have options, not convince them that they MUST go to college and point them to the loan offices where they can rack up unbelievable debt. For those that do go to college, they should be able to get experience in their major right away- this will help people understand if they really want to be in the field and if they do, give them real world experience to put on a resume when applying for jobs. In addition, we have to understand that college and "formal" educational settings are not for everyone and that's OK- there are many other ways to gain credentials and experience for a wide variety of jobs.

Not to mention the prison pipeline of something like 15% of American students who end up in jail. America is a criminal society. If want to make it here you have be a con of either the street or white collar variety.

"To make matters worse, there's been a steady decline in American students pursuing degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics."

Where does business, marketing and law fall into this? Are those up?

A shame all around. But honestly? The most contributing factory is that this nation values anti-intellectuality. Sophisticated knowledge is "elitist" and "desperate", while shrugging off studying and school is "down to earth" and "grounded". Oh, we value "street smarts" and "cleverness" all right, but those things cannot be measured, and most people—American or otherwise—suffer massive deficits in those areas, and they don't even know it.

Focusing on school simply isn't on the agenda for most American youth these days. School is something peripheral that must be "endured" and "worked around", while one's social life is the crux upon which everything else in life falls into place.

I do expect this trend to continue, though. I suspect it'll first hit other Anglophone countries, and then possibly continental Europe, and then possibly East Asia (Japan and the Four Asian Tigers first). Attainment of wealth in this day and age does seem to cultivate an apathy with regard to educational pursuits.

an uneducated public is easily controlled......

I have to disagree with the above assertion that we're following 19th century education.

In the late 1800's/ early 1900's kids were learning latin, plato and shakespeare in 5th grade, things that high schoolers today couldn't even begin to comprehend. Check it out. It's true. I used to have a copy McGuffey's 5th reader and was always astounded by the reading level kids were expected to have in that era.

The real problem was the rise of TV and the subsequent loss of social discourse and attention span.

American schools are in the shitter... i know from experience!

'No child left behind' and standardized testing has proven to be another failure of the Bush administration. Our children have been forced to learn basically what was on the test, leaving so many other subjects on the side. Teachers complained, but were ignored. What does it say about a country, which ignores it's teachers?

Well I can guess one reason many younger people aren't pursuing degrees in science, technology, engineering and math....$$$ The kids today want the big money and want it fast so they go into business. This should come as no surprise in a nation OBSESSED with money and the shit it can buy. They are simply responding to what they've been taught over and over for the last quarter century i.e money is power, money is prestige, money is respect. Money gets you the big cars, the big houses and the hot babes. This is the message that has been preached overtly, covertly, subliminally and in your face an average 16,000 times a day via advertisements. Brainwashing in the Soviet Union never came close to the mass effect of the steady, numbing drumbeat of American capitalism.

Our education system follows the 19 century model preparing the masses to be factory workers. Maybe this is a calculating move. It is so much easier to control uneducated herd.

What's worse, a lack of education or miseducation?

The federal dept of education has made our education system boring to the people who would otherwise seek out these careers. There is no challenge for gifted kids and they often drop out early because of it. The blanket education criteria cannot work for such a diverse country such as ours. Even as infant children need stimulation to gain the ability to learn. This does not stop as they become children. There is little stimulation in sitting at a desk and copying words from a chalkboard.......

The good thing is that this country is a great magnet for skilled experts from other countries. Scientists, engineers, and mathematicians come here from all over the world. It is something that we must not lose.

Providing funding for basic research that brings them here is very important.

Great, we need artists too, I am one. But we could use a little smarts from the kids and not the kind that helps them win video games or solve the questions on Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader.

"To make matters worse, there's been a steady decline in American students pursuing degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics."

Excuse me, but I am going to art school and couldn't be happier.