Here would be a better place for books.

As a kid who was a Master of Truancy by 14, I can see where he is coming from.

With the rise and rise of girls in school and the decline and fall of boys, I wonder if anywhere he suggests that girls make better system-slaves.

His arguement can cut both ways of course. He sounds like the sort of teacher who populated Steiner Schools years ago who gave little or no direction to kids and let the little sods do what they wanted. Very Hippie.

I have no problem with the Universality of Schooling per se, but the ideologists from either side can 'take over'. At present the cultural marxists own the shop. The average kid today starting University after a full childhood at school would not be able to pass the common entrance exam for 12 year olds that were common at the beginning of the last century. That's the Dumbing Down effect.

*Edepol, magnum pilae igneum. Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes - non !

*(Goodness gracious, great balls of fire. If you can read this you are over-educated - not !)

I have had to teach my own son basic English grammar, essay writing, mathematics from about 3 grade elementary school up, spelling I even taught him basic touch typing re fingering

I agree that the education of kids appears to be dumbed down from when I went to school all those years ago

he came home and told me he was doing "technology" that is what they call basic wood work today

Soooooo...in American public school "history", what is the current accounting of the Senate communist party member investigation, mistakenly attributed entirely to Joe McCarthy?

Is there still that great satellite photo of "THESE are Russian missiles being assembled in Cuba"?

Geometry and Algebra are still required in 8th/9th grade, RIGHT?

Retarded kids aren't "socially promoted" to drag the learning curve to the left, RIGHT?

How's that "No Child Left Behind" working out with the mandatory K-18 years policy?

"Shelved" incompetent and criminal "union" teachers and administrators have all been stricken from municipal budgets, RIGHT?

What's up with the latest recertification of the gang of 88?

Has the Kennedy's criminal source of wealth been included?

Quote from Percy

As a kid who was a Master of Truancy by 14, I can see where he is coming from.

With the rise and rise of girls in school and the decline and fall of boys, I wonder if anywhere he suggests that girls make better system-slaves.

His arguement can cut both ways of course. He sounds like the sort of teacher who populated Steiner Schools years ago who gave little or no direction to kids and let the little sods do what they wanted. Very Hippie.

I have no problem with the Universality of Schooling per se, but the ideologists from either side can 'take over'. At present the cultural marxists own the shop. The average kid today starting University after a full childhood at school would not be able to pass the common entrance exam for 12 year olds that were common at the beginning of the last century. That's the Dumbing Down effect.

*Edepol, magnum pilae igneum. Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes - non !

*(Goodness gracious, great balls of fire. If you can read this you are over-educated - not !)

From what I've read in the book, I highly doubt that he's a hippie. He, just like you have, has pointed out that a fifth grade textbook from the late nineteenth century would be way too complicated for someone going to college today. And I can believe that, there's tons of people going to college that can't even read.

One thing I found interesting in the book, that I also agree with, is that he claims that school is now designed to make childhood longer. Which explains a why a fifth grade textbook from yesteryear would be equal to a university textbook today. They made it so that children are in school longer than they really need to be. I've noticed how year after year, there is hardly any difference in the complexity of the assignments from the ones the year before. Years ago, children were made to learn an enormous amount of things from a very early age. That's why children of previous generations matured faster than today's generation. I agree with the author that school's are only helping to create a perpetual childhood that stretches well into adulthood. That's why I see twenty, thirty-year-olds walking around acting like high school brats. It's insane.

And I think this goes not just for the American Education system, but the Canadian Education system as well, since they're not that much different.