Education, Civic Literacy.
Mallard, unwilling to pay for Education via taxes, is nonetheless more than willing to bitch about the quality of it.
By the way, Mallard, I'd like to call your attention to some of the questions/answers in said quiz:
- Q: Which of the following fiscal policy combinations would a government most likely follow to stimulate economic activity when the economy is in a severe recession? A:decreasing taxes and increasing spending
- Q: The Bill of Rights explicitly prohibits A: establishing an official religion for the United States
- Q: A flood-control levee (or National Defense) is considered a public good because A: a resident can benefit from it without directly paying for it
Hmmmmm...I wonder if Public Education would be considered a public good?
Oh, and I am willing to bet I scored higher than Mallard ;-)
17 comments:
Interesting how Mallard doesn't tell us his score. Personally, I doubt he even finished - he probably had no idea what to put for FDR's policies when he didn't see "RUINED AMERICA FOREVER" as an option.
S'matter, Ducks? Black out during your Fox News Reprogramming, miss the newest talking points, and have to fall back on your favorite dead horse?
Here's a thought: maybe your average college student doesn't know much about the Constitution because they didn't major in constitutional studies. Is it cool to know? Sure. Is it useful on a regular basis? No.
For example, the 4th amendment protects citizens from having to house and quarter troops in times of peace. Fact.
I don't bitch about how few people are knowledgeable of Ohm's laws, because most people don't need to.
Hey, maybe they can divert some funds from your precious football, and spend that instead on enriching some more basic courses that no one wants to go through.
That's the 3rd amendment.
I WOULD like to complain about people not knowing Ohms Law. How can they understand the benefits of electricity, much less decide whether to use it, unless they know the relationship between its potential and current? And don't get me started on how liberals want to change the original intent of Ohms Law by having it apply to circuits Ohm would have never conceived! If you ask me, all those solid state electronic devices should be banned, and that goes for those stupid kids' I-Pods too, but not my computer because ranting online is how I'm saving America.
Word Verification - unnyinge
"Glenn Beck became unnyinged on his Fox News show tonight."
Mallard's citation is to a "study" by a rightwing institution that blames colleges for America's increasing tolerance of same-sex marriage and so forth.
Next up: kids are walking on his lawn! music these days is just noise!
With all due respect I must correct one point in the original post:
Mallard, unwilling to pay for Education via taxes, is nonetheless more than willing to bitch about the quality of it
Mallard, as he has said repeatedly, is also unwilling to pay for education via any other means, such as student/parent fundraisers. He's still more than happy to b!tch about it, of course.
That said, it probably would be a good thing if high schools (or even junior highs) included a civics course in their curriculum. The school where I teach requires 12th graders to take a government course, which covers a lot of this material, for example.
Unfortunately, public schools are so geared toward standardized testing in core subjects it's difficult to see if this would be feasible to have for schools in general.
I never understood the conservative beef with public schools. They like to point out how we are failing in comparison to other countries, and then backpedal as soon as you point out those countries also have compulsory public education to instead make the comparison to private schools.
It seems the best indicators of schools that do well are ones that integrate across income levels, pay their teachers more, and have a higher respect for the educated. Removing liberals and going to private education don't really seem to show up as a strategy with these other countries.
It isn't about learning, or results. It's about dogma. Highly-educated people tend to be liberal; therefore, liberals have poisoned our educational system; therefore, it is FAIL. FAIL, FAIL, FAIL!!! And everything about it is FAIL! The solution? Schools that pray (to JESUS, smartass) and have cavemen riding dinosaurs in the textbooks! That would be WIN!
(Especially if they treat learning like a blood sport, in which the Supermen rise to the top, and the Lex Luth...uh...wait. Okay, fine, in which women and "the others" are left to founder! Fine!)
Don't ever think for a second that a neoconservative like Batshit (he's about as "independent" as he is "not racist") gives a damn about anything other than his political creed. Think of it as the tip of his nose, which he can't see beyond.
that site is a crank RW piece of crap. What FDR "threatened" to do in the revisionism-labeled "court-packing scheme" was to do what the Constitution said he should do. Ask Congress to increase the size of the US Supreme Court. Congress had already done so, historically. They have a right to do so. It's a little like challenging Congress' right to regulate interstate commerce - oh, wait, they do that too.
IF you gave half these assholes EMPTY PAPER copies of the Constitution - little booklets with a table of contents, a first page with the preamble, and a listing of the bill of rights at the end - they'd never, ever learn the difference. But they'd still proudly carry the Constitution with them.
It's very similar to their knowledge of the Bible.
"...Highly-educated people tend to be liberal; therefore, liberals have poisoned our educational system;..."
People who leave their neighborhood for college tend to meet people who don't think like them, and therefore change their minds. So of course a "study" might show that such people change their minds toward tolerance. That's one of the big dangers of college: growing up!
"...that site is a crank RW piece of crap...."
It reminds me of the reichwing books from the 1970s that get donated to our thrift store when someone retires and cleans out their garage. The threat to America from letting Panama run its canal, "The Late Great Planet Earth" et cetera. There's a huge market for garbage like that; it's just easier to peddle on the web cuz you don't need to actually print and distribute it.
Ohmic Patriot: You can blame today's ignorance of Ohms' Law on blatant political correctness! You can't say "The Indian saw the Eagle over the River" any more, and "Native American" doesn't begin with I. And don't get me started on Thevenin's Theorem. They should only teach things that are proven, and theories are just stuff somebody made up, like evolution and gravity.
Ducky: I completely disagree with your statement. The constitutional issues in question should be learned by 8th grade. Many of the amendments have numerous issues surrounding them (not so much the third [Quartering soldiers] but certainly the first [speech/religion/press/petition/and assembly] and the fourth [search and seizure]) and, without a basic understanding of civics, one is more likely to just echo back whatever damn fool thing they hear on the talk radio.
Our system is (supposedly) driven by an informed citizenry so if students lack understanding toward the constitution they probably also lack much depth of knowledge toward current events.
But, of course, Mallard is a hypocrite for opposing school funding, and an asshole for acting like he knows anything about anything.
XD whoops. So it is. Check me one for the wrong column.
If I recall right, the Constitution only requires a minimum number of Supreme justices, I think 5?
I feel the need to clarify. I'm not saying that people shouldn't be taught the Con, I'm saying the bulk of the people don't care, and as such don't retain it even if they were taught.
Hell, how many people out there have a hard enough time dealing with learning algebra? And THAT'S useful.
What do you do when the population is disinterested in being informed?
You'd think that civic literacy would be something on which all Americans would agree -- it's something I feel strongly about -- but Mallard once again manages to wreck any consensus by linking to a right-wing hack site.
Demonstrating their belief that ignorance isn't worthy enough motivation per se, #1 on their list of horrors is that college graduates are more likely to favor "same same-sex [sic] marriage", and "abortion on demand."
One "problem" that got my ire: college professors are more likely to agree that "educators should instill more doubt in students and reject certainty". If your website is against the fundamental tenets on which science and learning are based, don't pretend you're here to promote education.
If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts he shall end in certainties.
I dunno about you, fellow Teabaggers, but personally, I want to see this Francis Bacon guy's BIRTH CERTIFICATE.
Wow, an actual joke.
Almost.
If you ignore the implicit subtext of "kids and liberals are too stupid to understand what it means to be a Real American."
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