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History Rant - Jay Walking
The owl always stood for "wisdom" and for being wise. I wonder how many of last week's Jay Walkers would even know that? For those of you not familiar with "Jay Walking," Jay Leno, of "The Tonight Show," does a segment where he goes out on the street and asks the average Joe and Jane extremely simple questions about our history or government that any elementary school kid should know. We're talking questions like, " Who is the Vice President of the U.S.?" "From whom did the U.S. gain its independence?" and "When did the U.S. gain its independence?"
I'm ashamed to tell you that there are college students, and what's worse, college professors!!!! that cannot answer these basic questions! This week Jay asked a young man in his 30's who the U.S. got its freedom from. Couldn't answer...When did the U.S. get it's freedom - couldn't answer. He asks Jay to call his wife over and ask her because "she's smart." Guess what? She didn't have a clue who the general was that led our soldiers into battle to gain our independence. Okay. So she's NOT so smart. Let's get the teenage son over and ask him. He's in school - he will know all of this stuff!
Guess what? Junior doesn't have a frickin' clue! But, wait...Let's call Grandpa over and ask him. Maybe he'll keep the family from totally embarrassing itself. Guess what? Grandpa answered all of the questions without one single hesitation!!! Now, my question is: Is Grandpa the brainiac of the family? Does he have an IQ of 200? Or were the schools doing their jobs when gramps was in school!!!!! BINGO! All of this new crap ain't workin', folks! It wasn't broke, educators, so why did you try to fix it?
7 comments:
they just want to toss more money at the problem and that is NOT the problem. we learned this stuff with pencils and notebooks and teachers that taught and parents that upholded the teachers. so simple, yet so gone astray.
smiles, bee
Great rant.
Because the folks in charge of "educational programs" beieve they know a LOT more than the rest of us about everything. Sad.
Great rant post, Gracie! You're on to somethin' there.
Do I think that the education system is lacking. Yes. I absolutely think so. I've only been out of high school for seven years, and I know I did not learn NEARLY as much as I should have.
However, I would not factor in "Jay Walking" into decided what sort of state the education system is in. Those people are put on the spot, have cameras shoved in their faces, etc. Most people I know would not be able to handle that situation with much grace...let alone smarts. They just crack and even if you asked them their name...well, they might not be able to answer that either!
We have had similar conversations in our Math Department about these people … so ignorant of cultural literacy. What’s even scarier are the facts that many are either in “college” or even worse … they teach school at the most basic levels, where kids should be getting exposed to this material. Much of this stuff is even just current events … pick up a newspaper sometime, people. My ex girlfriend was usually stumped by the Jaywalking questions … just leaves you wondering …
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