Spot on.
seanr speaking in reference to John Stossel's report on 20/20 entitled "Stupid in America":
While the public schools certainly bear some of the blame, there is a limit to how much blame can be placed upon them. The "I don't give a shit" culture has apparently permeated youth to a much greater extent here than it has in Belgium. We are finally reaping what we've sown: a century of dependency, complacency as the #1 superpower, the dissolution of personal responsibility and dismantling of social mechanisms that allow one to immediately feel the repercussions of jackassery, smoke and mirrors at every turn used to shelter people from the root cause of their problems. Some of these little shits in that program would be in no better shape if they were given a free ride to the Exeter Academy. They'd fail out, though the end result would be the same as it would had they been pushed through a public school in NYC: a walking, talking, text-messaging mass of ignorance. Ignorance, not stupidity. Ignorant of culture, etiquette, proper attire, geography, economics, astronomy, history. A brain that is genetically nearly identical to those of their peers in Belgium, though completely lacking the desire to absorb anything other than gossip and pop culture.
Every person is, in the end, responsible for their own education.
Link.
While the public schools certainly bear some of the blame, there is a limit to how much blame can be placed upon them. The "I don't give a shit" culture has apparently permeated youth to a much greater extent here than it has in Belgium. We are finally reaping what we've sown: a century of dependency, complacency as the #1 superpower, the dissolution of personal responsibility and dismantling of social mechanisms that allow one to immediately feel the repercussions of jackassery, smoke and mirrors at every turn used to shelter people from the root cause of their problems. Some of these little shits in that program would be in no better shape if they were given a free ride to the Exeter Academy. They'd fail out, though the end result would be the same as it would had they been pushed through a public school in NYC: a walking, talking, text-messaging mass of ignorance. Ignorance, not stupidity. Ignorant of culture, etiquette, proper attire, geography, economics, astronomy, history. A brain that is genetically nearly identical to those of their peers in Belgium, though completely lacking the desire to absorb anything other than gossip and pop culture.
Every person is, in the end, responsible for their own education.
Link.