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Politics : View from the Center and Left
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To: Elroy Jetson who wrote (494244)7/10/2022 7:09:13 AM
From: cosmicforce  Read Replies (1) of 540741
 
>>that sort of education would be eccentric.

You are correct - have you seen these internet-circulated examples of elementary school tests which document our lowered standards? Koan is always talking about how much smarter we are. I don't see it. We have gotten better at some things - test taking for one. Teaching about diversity was good but actually incorporating it - IMO - not so good. They taught us some French in elementary. Spanish would have been better generally but we were next to Canada.

Few people can describe basic mechanical things - simple machines - tying knots - other things that have myriad uses and used to be parts of course work with actual assignments where you had to use them. I saw my wife try to recreate this but she was just one person in a sea of mediocrity and incompetence.

I'm puzzled by people that can't find countries or entire regions on maps. We had atlases in our house and encyclopedias in the library and I spent hours looking at them. I read travel books about the tropics, remote places with palms and mountainous ones with pine trees. I knew the places with deserts. I found out that with a self-addressed stamped envelop the USFS would send you maps (for free in the 1970s) to any National Forest. That fostered an interest in map reading, and travel. Gas station maps were free and when we traveled - I looked for maps of the state we were in, going to or passing by.

We built airplanes from kits - later ones that flew with reciprocating engines. Few people can attempt to fix anything anymore. There is no culture for it in the youth - some rare people still try but for most, ... something stops working - get a new one.
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