this explains a lot about this country's problems

[fnfredux]

even with access to LOTS of info people just seem a lot less informed than when they READ newspapers with REAL news

http://www.livescience.com/culture/090110-illiterate-adults.html

[docsoos]

This country has pumped BILLIONS of $$$ over the years into the public education system, and this is the result, once quotas and liberal agendas overtook common sense and basic reading, writing, and arithmetic skills.

This ship sank many years ago; it just took this long for the truth to spill out from under the government's rock. Very similar to the financial bailouts for banks and the auto industry; they are just prolonging the inevitable, at the expense of the taxpayer.

How does one make sure EVERYONE passes? Just "dumb-down" the standards, so the ones that can't pass, CAN pass. Now, EVERYone that has been sucked into this lie is paying the price, except homeschooled or parochial/private school students, that HAVEN'T RECEIVED A DIME from taxpayers, and ALWAYS score extremely high on achievement tests.

DocSoos

[cmdan]

I agree, homeschooling is a lot better than public schools. I home schooled both my kids up to 4th grade. They still went to public school, but I started them on phonics when they were 3&4, then kept up with it through 4th grade. It gave them a big jump and it has paid off in a big way.

Here are some stats on the subject:

"According to a report published by the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) and funded by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education, homeschool student achievement test scores were exceptionally high. The median scores for every subtest at every grade were well above those of public and Catholic/private-school students. On average, homeschool students in grades one to four performed one grade level above their age-level public/private school peers on achievement tests. Students who had been homeschooled their entire academic life had higher scholastic achievement test scores than students who had also attended other educational programs.

http://school.familyeducation.com/home-schooling/educational-testing/41081.html

[crafty2002]

I am truely starting to believe the ones that say the food we eat is what is causing this problem.
I was reading and writing and math before I started school.
My wife is great at reading but not so good on math.
Our 18 year old daughter has fluncked two grades and still in high school. I have did my best to teach her math but it is all she can do to pass her grades.
She didn't come from dumb stock but she just can't grasp the fundamentals.
There has been a lot of post on this site along with others talking about what is put into our food, and I am really starting to wonder about it. I shrugged it off at first, but why are kids getting so dumb now days?
I am even haveing problems spelling words that I spelled in grade school. And simple words to. I can type something on here and look at it and even when it is right, it don't look right.
If the Good Lord is willing I will have two pigs, two goats, some more chickens, and I can grow my own food for them this year.
I sure would love to have some home made sausage that don't tear my stomach up. ;D
Speaking of that, I got 15# of sausage and 10# of bacon, from a farmer last fall that didn't bother me in the least and the sausage was "SPICEY HOT" but I haven't found any store bought that I can eat without getting ripped apart. Even the bacon gets me a little bit. But the fresh meat from a farmer that makes and cuts his own was great.
Just my thoughts about it. I am sure wondering about it.
Dennis

[WileyCoyote]

I think Dennis you are right to a certain degree. The hormones and other additives that are so pervasive in our food products definitely alter our own chemical composition, and can affect function and glandular production, which can permanently damage everything from nerve transmissions to joint movement. The recent emphasis on introducing soy products is just such an intrusion - soy is used as a treatment for reducing and eliminating sex drive in males by affecting their testosterone.

Part of it too is foundation and repetition. I write all of the time - blogs, emails, forums, and even private journals and professional letters. But I also read all of the time - everything from BWH and educational materials to mystery novels. I also have been responsible for budgets, not just personal ones but multimillion dollar ones. While I am not as good in math as I am in writing, repetition forces me to be more precise. When there is no need to be precise over a long period of time, one's function loses precision. Like George Carlin said, "The idle mind is the Devil's Workshop - and the Devil is Altzheimer's." Those who do not practice daily lose function - like the dusty Bowflex in the basement of the guy who is now too fat to make it downstairs.

[rantinraven]

It is amazing to me how the school system can foul things up so badly, and then look down their nose at home schooling parents. I had a police officer come by the house and ask me why I thought I could teach my children better than the school system. I wish I would have had this article to show him. Instead I simply told him that when I sent my kids to public school it was my responsibility as well as the teachers to teach them. If my children did not learn the material the teacher did not admit to being bad at her job, she simply said that we as parents were not helpful. Since we have home schooled my children have excelled over their public school peers, so we have effectively figured out where the problem was and solved it. I think being an effective teacher means much more than a degree saying that you can teach. To teach young kids it is my belief that you must know their nature and be prepared for that. Who knows my kids better than I do? I paid just as much for my degree as the teachers that I know at the school, I graduated with honors and I was on the national deans list 3 years in a row, so I feel I am perfectly qualified. If I am not qualified to teach my children then who is? Just my humble opinion, Raven

[crafty2002]

I think Dennis you are right to a certain degree.

I am not saying I am right. I am saying I am starting to lean towards what others have been saying that I didn't, in the begining believe. And if I lean much more I will fall.
I just ate a chuck wagon sandwich and it has not settled at all.
We had fried chicken last night. I grew the chicken for a chick myself. I feed them and tended them and while it was a little tuff, the only problem I had was chewing it.
I had this processed chicken patties and my stomach feels like :-[
I am going to do the best I can to grow the biggest part of our food that I can from here out.. That way at least I will know what is in that part of it is that we eat..

[farmmilkmama]

The education system is such a giant problem, I'm really not sure how they're ever going to solve it. There are so many things that are different about school/society from even 25 years ago...is it possible to separate those things out to solve the issue? It's such a huge thing and something to which a good majority of people are emotionally tied (or pretend to be). If people could stop dragging in things that really aren't part of it ( ex: passing the levies because "its for the kids...you don't want to let down the kids, do you?") maybe we could get somewhere.

In any event, I would have never guessed that illiteracy was that high. Then again, I live about a half hour from one of those "really literate" cities they mentioned...

[crafty2002]

I call myself the smartest stupid person I ever saw, or the stupidest smart person I ever saw, and I am too dumb to know whick one. :o
I quit high school in the 10th grade and went to welding school. 16 years old and daddy got mad as all get out at me but I did it anyway.
I had to get a job at the Diston plant to pay my way but I went to school from 8:30 until 3:00 PM. I was suppose to stay until 3:30 but I had to be at work at 3:30 so they let me out a half hour early.
I couldn't get a job welding and went in the army after a few construction jobs.
I took the GED test and passed it the first time around.
I forget exactly what it is called but they give soldiers a GT, or Ga, or something like that score for all the test they give you. At least they did back then.
I was setting on door guard one night reading some military magazine and there was an article about those scores.
I was a PFC at the time and my score was highher than the average E-9 was.
This is where the stupid part shines through. Top came in that morning and I had to show the article to him.
That man hated me ever after that.
But my point is, when I grew up the most of our meat came from daddy's gun and the veggies came from mama's garden.
Now it comes from the stores. And I am dumber that I was 10 years ago. I can't remember things I know I know. Mama and daddy didn't have this problem. They both died too early but that was because they worked their self to death. And I would have too, if I hadn't fell and slowed me down a lot.
But the more I think about it, I truely wonder what they are putting into the foods we eat.

[Laura]

There is no mistake about what is going on in the government ran schools.

They are moving right along, just as planned.
They object is not to 'educate' but to "indoctrinate".

Hitler did it. He said the only way to rule over a country is to get into the public school systems and teach the children how to take orders, mindlessly.
And he was patient, and he paid women to have babies (welfare) and he took their babies and manipulated their minds, so that when they were 18 they would do what ever he asked of them. They were trained to take orders.
They didn't bat an eye when they put God's Chosen into the furnace.
They didn't bat an eye when they but the catholics, into the furnace.
They didn't bat an eye when they put all the homosexuals, into the furnace.
AND they didn't bat an eye when they put their OWN into the furnace, as punishment for "independent thinking".

They were just following orders. Just like they were trained.

Make no mistake. When the schools cry out for more money to educate, they are teaching them to take orders, to rely on the government, to hook them on "assistance", and to give them 'labels and excuses". They make them feel guilty and ashamed of who they are, and feed them garbage so they cannot think on their own, and they will be so lethargic, they will lay on the couch and watch tv (the other big indoctrinator!!)

They know EXACTLY what they are doing.....and it's working.
Hook, line and sinker.

[Ray]

I noticed the article uses the statistic to promote increased spending. I honestly don't believe spending is the answer. Caroline Hoxby has done extensive research into the correlation or lack thereof between increased spending and results. The truth, as many of you know, is that more money is not getting the job done. The availability of school choice is a better indicator of success.

The evidence is out there. Unfortunately, so many folks don't look at it or even stop to think. You don't need a bunch of formal studies to realize that we have been spending ever more money and seeing diminishing returns.

We home school, and I am not the greatest teacher in the world, but the results I see in my children and the comments I get from friends in church, neighbors, other parents and leaders in scouts, etc. lead me to believe that we are doing well by them.

However, I have to wonder about our culpability as parents. The considerably higher results of Asians students over other minorities and whites in the same schools gives one pause.

Either way, God has truly blessed our family and I'm very thankful for it.