I hope these people never register to vote.

Michael I share your concern. While we did learn all the things you speak of, I believe todays kid's have to much information to handle. And not school info. How can they pick up on a computer so easily. These phones they can work within minutes. They are 'smart", just in the wrong area. What's the use of being a computer genius, if you only look at YouTube videos, or play games. You can go anywhere in the world on the internet, and they go to MySpace, and gossip about each other. It's a shame they do not use this amazing source of learning , to learn. But, how many people can put a bottle rocket up their ass. This boy must be "gifted". Great Post.

Nice post! I don't believe it is so much the dumbing down of America. It is the way they access information differently. Where we had to memorize these things. This generation only has to plug it into a handheld device. They don't write, they text. They don't need to know how to get somewhere, only plug it in to the GPS.

I tried:` no touch a door to the gadget room. axe key bords
I waked ups too said i'd SOTP commits like ktm. I feel crabby
Then, I was wooenduring ifs pure Miss Teen is a law student?
Maybe she went to Hereford to learn to blog about moo cows.
She should have wore a Yell T- shirt, a Duke ball cap, Oxfeed?
Lettuce behave, no tease lawyers. strive to get on frown cover.
Mess Teen will surpass the intelligence of her politico parents.
This was probably a first time she wasn't gargled eyed by m.R.!
She's a pre-med-law-veterinarian who remind me to drop acid?
We will be okay? In HONOLULU you say:` WAIKIKI Ya BRAH!

BRAH means dude.
Call BuffyW BRAH?
a whopping wild day.
BRAH means dude.

Maybe chimps will rule and people will drool. We need some good jam and marmalade.
Be nice to all beagles.
Call editors:` 'Pappy'
O inexplicable, thee
Miss Teen debutante
deserves a beer with
editor/chiefs @ OS.
vice jest Michael R.
no harm intended.
July brings cooling
showers and hives
and the pretty
gillyflowers
ay, yippee!
oh, we can
sit under
a willow
and
itch
heads
O find
lice
usa'
be nice
no go to war
keep appendages.
laze at the Willow.
Peach, Apple Pies.
We can pick fleas, scratch each others itchy body parts, use body parts for soft pillows, and search one another for crabs and cavities.
Crabs from the Maryland's Chesapeake Bay cost a arm and a leg.

Scanner, I totally agree. I don't think they are not intelligent. They seem to exit the womb and know how to work computers and video games. I just wonder how that will help them when life hits them square in the face.

Peter, You make a very good point. With information at their fingertips why would someone learn anything except how to access that information. Problem solving and decision making are a different matter.

Not to be a conspirator (hard not to be), but maybe this is all part of the plan???

Michael, education is the backbone of any civilization. It will not survive without it. Like you, I remember having to learn thins in school that I did not think was important at the time. But I did… I even learned passages of great speeches, poems and great literature. Do I remember them completely now… no, but I do recall most.

“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent…”
“Ask not what your country can do for you…”
“A horse, a horse… my kingdom for a horse.”

Education is a right for all and it is the most important gift a civilization can give to it’s citizens.

Thanks for bring this urgent issue to our attention.
- rated

Arthur, I agree with you, totally. (I think) You continually crack me up. Especially with this one......."'Call editors:` 'Pappy'." Priceless!

gmgaston cracks me up!
We had to learn "thins"
in school I was chubby!
if you see an obese women don't ask if she the fat lady who sins and is gonna "drop" a baby.
Drop is heifer talk
drop is to be born
it is never boring
@ Open Saloons
it's goo salacious
It hard to tell
is it a cry
a giggle
a snort
a mule
toots

These videos make me feel like I'm in the old Palmolive commercial when it comes to stupid people. Madge would have told me "you're soaking in them".

this is scary stuff, for sure. the schools are so terrible here in Oregon, well, Portland anyway, that i find it hard to connect with the high school kids at all. and that's not the norm for me. but there are still vital and committed students in college and grad school even here. we're in a new world now. i know i need to learn some of these other skills. but i'm with you, MR, in people being able to read a map and a book. that stuff is basic. now off to bed since i keep vampire hours. love love love

Ah, the FIRST video now says "This video has been removed by the user". :-(

However, I found the last one to be ...ah.. positively Darwinian. This is what happens when children are exposed to crack.

BTW, I have been asked where I am from on occasion (usually when I am on vacation). I tell them I am from Vermont, and they ask me what state that is in.

I tell them the state of Confusion. Then giggle as they crinkle their brows and smoke comes out of their ears.

Thumbed.

I used to think this too Michael. And I think watching my little boy in 2nd grade and excelling like he has that the opportunity for education is still there. I know it is where I live. There are other issues needing addressed like bullying, but he is far superior to me going into third grade. But I do think there is a dumbing down as well. Parenting is a lost art. Sometimes it's not even the parents fault. Single mothers and/or fathers who work two jobs to make ends meet. They don't have the time or energy to do what it takes. Some, to their credit, do both.

I don't know exactly how to describe it but I refer to Americans as being spoiled to death in comparison to other parts of the world. We take our 200 channels of cable for granted and only watch the same three or four channels with idiocy on it. There's a world of information on the internet that we didn't have as children but people don't pay attention to what sites their kids visit and they themselves prefer the porn sites to historical reading.

I don't know my friend. This is a great conversation piece and one you may want to make a series. I enjoyed this one immensely and agree with every point.

Rated

I'm rating this....such as.

It is one thing, to think as education is, I think to make it over to people w/o maps and garbage collection up to and up on the curb of minds swarthy.........thank you

Thanks for finding the other one.

That would be so friggin' funny if it were not so friggin' disturbing.

We need more chlorine in the gene pool.

They first video is back up for those who may have missed it. I had to dig pretty deep to find a copy. Thanks for the heads up, Bill!

Christina, If there is a plan, I wish they would let us in on it. ;-)

George, I feel the same way! I'm not saying that there aren't any brilliant students left. I know better than that. I would just think that knowing where one lives to be, well.... important.

Arthur, I'll go along with@Open Saloons!

O'Really, (love that) Your avatar belies the fact that you would remember those old palmolive commercials. hehehe.

Teddy, I agree with you totally. These are very good points. There are brilliant students out there and I would expect that they will lead the way into the future, but I would still like to see high school grads be able to find their way home. Hehehe.

And BTW, Happy Birthday! Sleep well.

Umby, Scary, I know.

Bill, So what state is Vermont in? Isn't it the Capital of New Hampshire? I Kid, of course. I know that it's in Buffalo.

And I've read the warning label on Roman Candles and nowhere does it say not to insert the launch stem in your anus.

Blue, I so agree with you. There are incredibly intelligent kids out there. I'm just not that we are getting to them. I'm not here to point blame because I just don't know enough about it, but I would say that parenting has to be a major contribution.
I'll also agree that having a parent at home rather than both having to work two jobs to make ends meet, has to be addressed.
As far as a series goes, that would be best left to someone with more experience in this area. That leaves me out, but it would be a great project for someone.

Sheldon, Thanks for stopping and rating. Much appreciated on this end.

I'll have what Gary's having!

Michael, I used to say that I weep for the future, but the future is here. And many of the answers to questions that people should already know the answer to are inside the same little nerd box we use to access this website. Perhaps curiosity is being taught out? Or perhaps there's far more curiosity like that in the last video?

There are plenty of smart people out there, but unfortunately intelligence is not prized and encouraged as it should be. Do you think maybe that attitude comes from the top down? I.e. maybe the commander in chief sets the tone.

It's not Betty Boop, silly. It's Betty Ross.

In a market economy, the ultimate product is the forgiveness for never having aspired to anything, a kind of educational absolution. It allows people to suddenly be caught up. The inner circle Republicans surely cynically know that what's really appealing to their base about the kinds of enshrined ignorance they push is that it tells them they can suddenly and without cost be experts. It's a variation on the notion that democracy will only stand until the populace figures out how to vote itself largesse. Capitalism can only stand until it figures out how to tell people that non-education is education and finally the people having that graduate to critical positions that society depends upon. At some point, the truth will out.

Bill, The second times a charm!

Gary Justice and Coyote Old Style, Thanks so much for weighing in.
First I want to apologize to any educators out there. Without you we would all be lost. I know that it is a difficult, vital and sometimes thankless job. After re reading this post, the tone does have the feel that I am blaming you. I assure you that was not my intentions. I will spend more time on that in the future. Sorry.
In fact I know that there are many here that teach on different levels and I was hoping that they would weigh in and give their opinions. I know that the problem is very complex and I won't profess to know any of the answers.
When I received the first video in my email I laughed hysterically until I thought about it and that's what prompted this post.
I'm not even sure that I'm qualified to have an opinion on the subject since I don't have children and know little of how the education system works.
I just think that we need to and can do better somehow. And I do hope that GWB doesn't become some kind of educational role model.

Steve Blevins, Are you sure it wasn't Diana Ross?

This is illuminating, and is still frightening to me to realize the kid/person who takes your money at the market cannot make change without a cash register to tell him the amount. These are basics, along with spelling and geography...call me old fashioned, but if the power grid goes (for instance) and after batteries are exhausted...

Rated

Uhhh. Could you repeat the question?

I'll admit that though I am not the worst person, I am one of the "U.S. Americans" who is not good with maps. I've had my good moments. Once, in a class I was taking in England, the professor wanted the English students to name the countries of Western Europe as he pointed. They just sat while I did it. But.....I can try to memorize a map, label it, get it all right, then two weeks later I will reverse a couple of things. But, I do know what countries border us, and basic things like that. There is a website where they time you and let you practice labelling maps, and I have done it a few times.

Ahhhhh, to quote from "My Cousin Vinny": "the yuuts of America". All this is stuff that I just don't get. My kids are both articulate, well-read and productive. Yet neither of them got stellar grades in school nor were they "obviously" really smart. Both read, think and converse and have done all 3 since they were of single digit age.
The older I get, the more I just don't get "it" whatever "it" is.

Dumb seems to be the new smart and it's really disturbing. Great post Michael and I wholeheartedly agree. The "dumbing down" of America has been going for a while now. Look at the standard that was accepted with a President who couldn't complete a grammatical sentence!

Great post. Thank you for it. I do hope you've seen the Mike Judge film "Idiocracy". It's almost not funny because it's so frigteningly true. The premise is that 500 years in the future, the only individuals that have procreated are the dumb. Thusly, everyone is dumb and we no longer live in a democracy, but an "idiocracy".

Well, I can still tell you that Lima is the capitol of Peru and that the major export of Bolivia is tin, but I can't figure out how to operate my damn scanner or how to retrieve photos from my cell phone to save my life. It's their world now, I fear, and old farts like us will just have to suffer through it.

I think the brave boy in the last video should not be chastised. He is a rocket scientist exploring ways to lower launch costs for NASA, an agency with perennial budget problems. Might I suggest an asbestos diaper for the next attempt?

Lots of learning is elitist. Elitist bad.

Michael, Michael, Michael, these are the people who kept George W Bush in office for 8 years. They multiply daily if not hourly. At present they are busy attending/creating/camping out for Michael Jackson memorials. The mind boggles.

Not only are these kids unable to find Iraq on a map, they don't even know where to look for it. Still, we can count on No Child Left Behind to train them to ask "Paper of plastic?" or "You want fries with that?" And those who can't achieve that level can sign up for the military.

Oh, but they know that metric system. They know a gram from a liter.

I partially blame too much embellishment in education. It seems that everyone with a Master's Degree is pushing to come up with some new educational process, lesson plan, testing mechanism, or handy dandy program in order to puff that resume.

Not smart, given that some California schools are forced to deal with over a hundred distinct foreign languages, overcrowding, lack of parental contribution, and a host of other problems.

I read a blog here concerning the workday of a teacher. It was stunning, the amount of padding and extra work that she was forced to do as part of her function as a teacher.

For what?

Great post, Michael. And rated!

Oh man, this is correct on some many levels. Its sad.

RATED!

JK, Happy Canada Day!!! That video is hilarious and reinforces this post very well. And I think everyone knows that Ontario is the Capital of Canada. ;-)

Kent, That is a brilliant angle that I've never even considered. I suppose sometimes we have to take a backwards step before we can go forward again. That is tough to do with an economy our size.

Buffy, Consider me old fashioned, too. Just seems that you should be able to find the state that you live in and be able to spell it before you graduate.

Dynomyte, I forgot that I had a question. I'll have to go look it up. hehe

Delia, We all have things that are easy and hard for us, but I would imagine that you can find Mississippi on a map.

Walter, You should be very proud of them. I would chalk it up to good parenting, a subject that Kind of Blue touched on above.

MaryT, I think the dumbing down effect is exactly the reason GWB got reelected. I can't explain it away any other way. It's refreshing to have a leader that can can construct a complete sentence. I hope we never see anything like that again.

Asta, I loved that movie! I don't think we will have to wait 500 years at the rate that we are going, though.

Laurel, I thought Bolivia's main export was cocaine. Tin will burn your nose. Or so I've been told. As far as the scanner goes, my computer only recognizes my scanner when it feels like it even though both are HPs. I'd blame it on Microsoft or the Republicans. It won't help fix the problem, but it does make you feel better.

James, That's it! But, I wonder if the Wright Brothers had the same approach to flying.

Stim, Those darned Elitist are ruining our Country!

Sally, True words. Like Bill S. said, time to bleach the gene pool.

Karin, I don't even notice the ads. I wish I could take credit for that little bit of genius.

Tom, I hear you. I think the military is about the only way to teach some of them. I know some people from back in the day that would have been nothing if it weren't for them joining the service.

Zuma, I don't have any solutions. I do see the problem, though. You make great points. Most teachers work tirelessly, but it's obvious that the system needs an overhaul. I think it may need to be simplified, but the government seems to just make it more complicated. I think that having a National language might be a good start. Having to deal with 100 Languages? That's just crazy, right there.

Miko, Thanks, sweetie!

Jane Smithie, Geography may not be your thing, but ignorant you are not. Ignorant people don't start ground up soup kitchens. 'Nough said. I love your idea of a test map, though. So many name of the countries have changed names since sixth grade (please don't make me do the math) that the names would give me fits! Plus I was always weak on Africa.

Could be.

Very late to this. But a first rate issue. On the whole I think that we are likely not dumber than the people in the 19th century since there was little educational opportunity for the majority of the population. But I would not want to put the average student today in public school up against the average student in the 50s or 60s of the last century. There is a general dumbing down and a sense that being stupid is somehow OK and even cool. I just don't get it and am likely just an old fart who hasn't a clue about what is "really important" these days: like hell I don't.

Monte

oh, deer gahd, i wundur if thay paid uhtenshun n skul!

I know I'm late to the party but I just had to comment on this. There are so many reasons why our kids come out of school not knowing anything. In Texas, a big part of it (the biggest reason, I believe) is because the teachers don't teach the 3 R's or the states and capitals anymore. They teach to that stupid TAKS test. And if it isn't on the TAKS test, they won't learn it.

Secondly, parents don't teach their children to respect authority anymore. They won't learn from someone they don't respect.

I could go on and on (and keep sounding more and more like a grumpy old fart) but I won't. I'm with you on this one, though. Great post!

Hysterically laughing my ass off over here in Missouri.. My neighbors are probably wondering "what the hell is she doing up there." LMAO!! I am with Jay "I can't do this anymore."
Hilarious post!! Thanks for the laugh..

So sad....

Yes, there are still smart kids, but it's the average that's sinking.

I always hear/read the defense of children and young people being that they are comfortable and adept with technology. Big whoop - of course they are - the only difference being that they are not intimidated by computers, cell phones and all. It is no damn excuse or compensation for ignorance.

Being able to look up something on the internet is no equivalent to actually knowing something. Sometimes, the knowledge needs to be carried around in your head...it's a lot more portable and accessible.

If you've ever seen examples of the tests children took in grade school in the late 19th century, you'd see that it appeared to be closer to college that grade school. It was certainly more rigorous that most high school is these days.

The problem stems from all the things already mentioned, but I think some is the over-reliance of parents on others to teach their children. I think teaching is one of the primary roles for parents and it's neglected because few parents have the time, energy or desire for it. I don't mean formal, structured teaching, but ongoing conversations and doing work and projects together.

A child who can't identify their home state certainly has not been on a road trip with a map on their lap.

Doesn't anyone READ any more?

Monte, I know we keep different schedules, but your comments are always welcome. The fact you mention that it is "cool" to be dumb is so true. Of course, only an idiot would think that, eh?

Just Cathy, You are hilarious!

Unbreakable, I agree that the parenting is at odds with trying to make ends meet. I wonder if it's time that we step back and take a look at what is really important, the education of our children or that third new car that nobody drives.

SuznMaree, You make the same great point that Monte did above. And I agree that the internet is not a substitute for knowledge. The life lessons that are missing should be coming from the parental units.

Emma, Everyone here still reads. I worry that the only thing kids read these days are FaceBook and porn. It's very sad and will take years to change.

OH MY GOD, I am screaming with laughter. You are my hero for allowing me to start the day with such guffaws. You never fail to make my smile. Thank you for finding these things and bringing them to us.

Rated for sheer hilarity.

Even though the videos were hilarious, it is very sad how the education of our future generation is handled.

I've seen the Teen Miss USA one before, but after clicking on it again I just couldn't watch more than a few seconds - too painful!

It's interesting to note that my 10-year-old is what I would consider an above-average, but not superior reader. She doesn't like reading but for the last few years we've made her read 1/2 hour per day. She sets the oven timer and when it goes off - boom, she closes her book (unlike my 12-year-old who will barely stop reading unless we pry the book out of her hands).

And at school there are various reading assesments that are done during the year, and one of them provides you with a variety of scores so that you can see how your kid is doing. One of those scores is a grade-level indicator, which tells you at what grade level your kid would be in the 50th percentile.

Her grade level indicator was an 8.4 meaning that as a 4th grader, she is reading at the same level as a 4th month 8th grader in the 50th percentile for 8th graders in the state (WA).

As I've said, I'd consider her just an above-average reader, but not excellent - so that statistic really did make me consider the state of education in our country.

Ugh. I can find all the states and give you most of the capitals. Seriously? The Panama Canal in China? WTF!!!