http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/20...operSurvey.html

this is quite worrying, isn't it?

Doesn't suprise me at all. The schools are not doing the job like they used to. The liberal BS is out of control. You cannot put "too much" pressure on the kids, it is not good for them. Kids get sent along through the system, ready or not.

Hell when I was in school, step out of line and the whooped your ass. Now...no respect.

i can name and find probably 95% of the countries of the world. I never heard of Afghanistan before 9/11

There's even more to it than that. Surrounded by advertizing, music, movies and TV, quickly taught that getting through another level of that video games is more important then learning something.
Parents who would spent $3 on a latt'e, and $85 plus for a pair of kids sneakers, won't vote to spend half that to improve the schools.

My initial thoughts when I read Adhesive's post was about the same as what Bull posted. But I also agree with what you said T-Shirt. And since you brought up video games.... Get this, my oldest son is in third grade this year. Guess what his homework is for the entire year.... A f_ _ _ _ _ g video game. His entire class (from what I understand) got PS One's that they play stupid games on that's supposed to teach them at least math. I say at least cause I haven't seen any of the other discs contain anything else yet. They get a new disc each week. It really upsets me to say the least.

Guys; you're forgetting the obvious: No one in America takes surveys seriously. We all are too funny and cool to treat this kind of stuff in any serius manner/ Besides obscure Pacific Islands, I know my geography perfectly. If someone gave me a survey that said "find America on a world map" I might just put it in the middle of the arctic circle out of spite for how dumb the survey was. Now, I'm not saying we don't have an education problem in America...I'm saying that the numbers are WAY overinflated. The actual numbers are probably the result they got minus 50% or so. Still, 37% not knowing where Afghanistan is makes me worried...

I agree with you on those points too tshirt. But that is my job as a parent to make sure they budget their time and get the shit that is important. My kids are still pretty young (kindergarden and 1st grade), but reading and what schoolwork they do have comes first. Also, me and my wife both spend time working with them on their school work and show genuine interest in what they are doing in school.

Ntruax, that would piss me off too. I agree that some video games and computer games are educational. But, that should be a very tiny bit of the focus, definitely not the main work. That is a crock. My kids school uses the computer/games as a reward for when the kids are doing their work and doing it well. Then they may get some "free" time.

The problem here is accountabilty. I get sooo tired of this crap: "he turned out that way because he came from a single parent home with little money" or that everything that goes wrong is somebody elses fault. Parents need to take control of what goes on in their kids lives early on. Not just try to blame everyone else for when shit happens.

I came from a single parent home. I had a mother who worked 3-4 jobs to make sure we had what we needed. I learned to respect how hard she worked and the sacrifices she made for me and my sister. I have worked almost full time since I was 15. I put my self through college. But, the schools did not teach me this, my mother did. She took responsibily for her children, as I try to with mine.

So as soon as people stop making excuses and take responsibilty for their actions and the actions of their children, nothing will change. It will always be corporate america's fault, the video game's fault, the music's fault or the movie's fault. Bull freaking shit!!! If a million people watch the same crap and play the same games and listen to the same music, why do only a select few act like morons in the end???

OK, I am done now.

BS
there is always an error margin in statistics, but these figures are nothing but bad.
you weren't 'cool'. you couldn't answer most questions. simple as that.
the one question where you are asked to point out the US on a map may be affected by such an attitude, but hardly the rest....
perhaps you failed to notice that all participants were asked to point out their countries?


and this isn't posted to flame americans at all. note that all participants scored pretty bad. this is somewhat of a world wide problem

Except Sweden ofcorse.

You have a point about US schools guys, but remember its the parent that makes a real difference in their childs education.

Im a lucky man, both my kids are extremely bright and doing well.
Partly because I the parent push them to do so and stay involved in their school and school work.

.....I need a new soapbox.....this one sucks....

That is exactly what I was saying biggy. And if your kids had problems, would you go to the excuses or take responibility and get the problems solved?? I know the answer to that question, of course. But, too damn many parents would not do that, they would expect someone else to solve the problem for them and blame everyone, but themselves...of course.

Sweden is a small country. most things we do have a connection in some way to foreign countries. hence the higher scores in this geography survey. this does not, however, say much about how well we do at other subjects.
the problem is very much real in Sweden too.

Is Sweden near Africa ?

I did some class work a while back on how students grades today are lower than they should be. We had to make a connection how the middle ages authors, like Hamlet, were having students that got better grades in those times. It boiled down to a matter of caring really. Today it is so much easier to just get a solution from someone else than to think of one on your own. Thinking causes too much work and, lets face it, people are lazy and want things to be done for them. We are all guilty of this at sometime or another. I beleive that if we want our society to be an overall smart group we have got to get people to start caring about their work and caring about the quality of it. Otherwise we will continue to fall into this hole of low grades and scores.

no, it's in the US. the US is elsewhere