Planetfurry BBS

[Teric]

*cringe*

*CRINGE*

*cry*

As you said, Mike... funny and sad at the same time. What has education in this poor world become? Has it any value left at all?

[Cookie]

The reason people are so stupid, is because nobody is punished for being stupid.

[anthony]

Unfortunately, that's not just an American problem...

One of my co-workers is on the interview board, and must of course read through any applications first.
He sometimes reads them out for the rest of us at IT(keping nams and such to himself, of course)...

Some of the younger applicants actually use 1337-speak or SMS-lingo in their applications!
(Not a good idea when applying to a government office where the average age is 35 - 40 or thereabout. )

In fact, most dyslectics write better than what the youths 'write' today.

[Major Ivy]

Government meddling.
The Federal Government gives a school a certain amount of money for each student they graduate. They do not say that student actually learned anything, just that the school listed them as a graduate. So if one is held back because they did not learn the school loses money.

Attempts to test have also seen the similar level of fixing.

We had a thing called the 'Dennison List' at my job.
This was one of those 'Affirmative Action' things where you must have a certain number of females and minorities in all jobs regardless of their suitability for said job.

A group of random employees was given a test. Management then took the lowest score from the group, not the average but the very lowest. They took 70% of that and declared it to be the passing score for the D List people. This grading method was applied only to female and minority applicants. For each 'normal' scored hire they would hire one from the D List.

How did this list start? Simple, a minority male claimed the 'race card' and the PC folks bowed down. After it was finally tossed out as the damage became plain, it took years to 'clean up the garbage'.

The D List in reality hurt the minorities and women more than anything. Because they were pushed in the public's face to show how Affirmative Action was being complied with, and so many were complete incompetents, the ones that got in on their own merits were 'tarred with the same brush'. They were intelligent and well suited for the jobs they held but were lumped in with the rest. If the government had stayed out of it none of this would have happened.

In my section we had no women for the simple reason that none applied.
After they forced a bunch of secretaries into special training and gave them the jobs, 90% went back to the job they had because they did not want the one I had. Work outside, in any weather, at any time - night or day and respond at a moment's notice.

[Kellan Meig'h]

I couldn't read the whole article-it was just too painful.

I've seen better grammar than that in the spam I get in my inbox.

Yeah, schools being forced to pass students. Sad.

I know; I work for a school district.

Kellan

[Rabbit]

I have read many times recently that the current crop of young people is the worst-educated in American history. Also, because we as a society are aging, the best-educated Americans are steadily dying off. The bad news is that this is the worst thing that can possibly happen to _any_ culture, and is evidence of a social failure so profound and so deep as to stagger the mind. The good news is that when I'm old, I still ought to be able to find work because I'll be one of the only ones left who knows how to read and write.

I recently visited Oakland, CA. While there, I stopped at several fast food places. Because I don't eat french fries, I never order "by the numbers". Instead, I specify the sandwich alone, along with a regular hamburger instead of a side-item. In Oakland, _none_ of the cashiers knew how to handle this. "I'd like a grilled chicken sandwich and a hamburger," I'd say.

"You mean a number five," the order-taker across the counter would reply, hitting the single button and smiling.

"No," I'd explain. "I mean, I want a chicken sandwich and a hamburger. Not a combo meal. And a large Coke, too."

Then the order-taker would grow frustrated or even angry. "Wouldn't you like a number five instead?"

Eventually the manager would have to be called, and once even _she_ didn't know how to ring up anything but combo meals. If this had only happened once, I wouldn't have thought anything of of it. But, by the third time, the pattern was so evident that I became deeply afraid for the future of my nation and my culture. Based on my experience, today's California-educated non-college-bound youth really _are_ that incompetent, as unbelievable as it seems...

[PrincessB]

I'm sometimes amazed at some fast food workers inability to understand simple tasks (though many of these brain dead workers are gone in no time flat)
IronTiger and I sometimes hit the mcds here in town, my days at mcds there wasn't a thing you could bring to me that I couldn't understand or figure out. You could ask me to subtract or add a dozen things to a sandwich and I'd "type" that out in a moment.
Some workers at this local mcds (and we usually only see these bad workers once then never again) can't understand a simple change. We asked a worker a couple weeks ago to add mayo to my sandwich and mac sauce to IT's sandwich, she was continually confused and we had to repeat it 4 or 5 times and mine was still wrong.

I also am on a social site that has an advice area and I often see post from teens with the worst spelling and grammar and saying things like "im 14 n i m prego n i dunno wat 2 do" or "pepl think im dum but i lik am rely smart and i think pepl shuld stop asumin im stupid".
Sometimes I feel like my brain is dying because I am reading it and I always come away feeling very afraid for our future.

[Rabbit]

[Kellan Meig'h]

[Syrius]

Doubtful, Mike. The most thing they'll ever accomplish is repeat the issue with the kid that slams his face against a car bumper at 35 MPH. Just look on youtube for Bumper Facelift, and you'll see what I mean.

[Kasyl]

As a high school senior, there are students (though they hardly deserve the term) in my class who can barely read at a middle school level (NOT special ed, either!) and/or can't figure out simple instructions on a piece of paper. Yet they always pass to the next grade, because then the district gets money from the state for the "achievements" of its students.

[Aslaug]

Oh dear gods...that's just scary...

[kristie_kitten]

sadly to say that is the state of public education in the US (mostly in the larger city area's like LA). Even when I was in my final year of Highschool I one of my elective class as an aid for my previous year US History teacher. It was sad and funny at the same time, there were 2 smart/average students in the class and the rest were just brain dead, as an example a simple quest witch the teacher asked, 'What year did the war of 1812 start?' and no one could answer it in 30 min. beside the 2 smart kids. Remind you this was 8 years ago and I was doing my best not to laugh or fall out of my seat from laughter.

[ScottyDM]

Fascinating. MajorIvy joined just to post on this topic? Must have been a long-time lurker. Welcome to the boards MI!

[Concolor]