On 6/12/2026 at 7:10 PM, TedG said:

I read both articles the OP linked. The left has 100% dumbed down education for "equality". We now had kids with high school diplomas who can't read.

https://usareads.org/many-young-adults-barely-literate/

Betsy DeVoss

Linda McMahon

Yes, that's definitely the hype the right is pushing lately.

It's not hype if you have the data to prove it.

On 6/12/2026 at 7:17 PM, marin said:

teacher salaries. Among the lowest paid jobs for professtionals.

I don't agree. In what country they're underpaid?

Do you have examples????

(I think you forgot all the paid holidays, health care, pensions aso)

I don't agree. In what country they're underpaid?

Do you have examples????

(I think you forgot all the paid holidays, health care, pensions aso)

I want a job where I get paid all year (with insurance) and get to take summers off.

The olden days when you took a gov't job for the security (and ease) and sacrificed on the salary end are long past. Today, they make more than the private sector.

On 6/13/2026 at 11:59 AM, rocketboy2 said:

Just for a bit of fun.

These people were being interviewed at a USA university. Unbelievably dumb.

People that live on the internet all the day long trying to drive their points across are pretty stupid too. Both young and old.

2 hours ago, gargamon said:

Yes, that's definitely the hype the right is pushing lately.

Well, I'm not so sure I would call it "hype." From what I hear from some of the people I know who have been involved as teachers or administrators in the public school system, it isn't hype at all. Granted, some public schools do a good job. For example, my brother's little girl went to a public school in a rural area. It was a good school and the little girl was able to take college courses while still in high school. She had enough of those credits to graduate from college in three years instead of the usual four.

2 hours ago, impulse said:

I want a job where I get paid all year (with insurance) and get to take summers off.

The olden days when you took a gov't job for the security (and ease) and sacrificed on the salary end are long past. Today, they make more than the private sector.

Maybe, in your country US? In EU could be a dream job, if there won't be the students 😂

On 6/12/2026 at 7:24 PM, Yellowtail said:

Compared to what professionals?

I think the average K-12 teacher salary in California is ~$103K, and I think California public schools rank in the bottom 10% of the country.

On 6/14/2026 at 11:46 AM, BritManToo said:

Nah, it means they changed the marking.

The challenge that schools have now is caused by the Left and the teachers unions.

The secnd problem is the parents. Most parents think that to be a good parent, they must give their children everything they want. That they must be helicopter parents and that their kid cannot do wrong. It is the other person's fault.

Johnny did not steal the car he just saw it sitting there and the person tht owned it left the door unlocked so it was their fault.

Or the parents who let their kids drink at an early age and then go for a drive at high speed in a Porsche or such. The kid kills people, and the parents say Oh don't blame Jimmy. It is not his responsibility. She should not have been walking in the alley,

Final question

How many Boomers here, if they had finished school and decided to stay home and watch tv all day would have found receptive parents?

Mine would have showed me the door as his boot gave the final push.

1 hour ago, jas007 said:

Well, I'm not so sure I would call it "hype." From what I hear from some of the people I know who have been involved as teachers or administrators in the public school system, it isn't hype at all. Granted, some public schools do a good job. For example, my brother's little girl went to a public school in a rural area. It was a good school and the little girl was able to take college courses while still in high school. She had enough of those credits to graduate from college in three years instead of the usual four.

It's more to convince people to put their kids in private schools so the rich running the schools can make more money ...

14 minutes ago, gargamon said:

It's more to convince people to put their kids in private schools so the rich running the schools can make more money ...

And what is your claim based on?

And look at all the rich schoolteachers!

"According to a landmark study by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, approximately 35% of public school teachers in Baltimore send their own children to private schools. This rate is significantly higher than both the general urban public and national averages.

Nationally, urban public school teachers enroll their children in private schools at a rate of 21.5%. However, cities like Baltimore see this figure jump, reflecting similar trends in other metropolitan areas where private schooling rates among educators are higher."

https://www.google.com/search?q=what+percentage+of+baltomore+teachers+put+their+kids+in+private+schools&sca_esv=ec2bff8bd1e2ef21&source=hp&ei=K_Qwat_yH_uNseMP2YunoQs&iflsig=AFdpzrgAAAAAajECO4j5wcNqVp2aO0_MzSKihDyos0eW&ved=0ahUKEwiftPTNl4uVAxX7RmwGHdnFKbQQ4dUDCCw&uact=5&oq=what+percentage+of+baltomore+teachers+put+their+kids+in+private+schools&gs_lp=Egdnd3Mtd2l6Ikd3aGF0IHBlcmNlbnRhZ2Ugb2YgYmFsdG9tb3JlIHRlYWNoZXJzIHB1dCB0aGVpciBraWRzIGluIHByaXZhdGUgc2Nob29sc0j-vANQAFictgNwB3gAkAEAmAHgAqABpW6qAQk3LjM3LjMyLjG4AQPIAQD4AQGYAjWgAt9NwgIHEAAYgAQYE8ICCRAAGIAEGBMYCsICCBAAGBYYHhgTwgIFECEYoAHCAgUQIRifBcICBBAhGBWYAwCSBwk1LjI0LjIzLjGgB5DyAbIHCTQuMjQuMjMuMbgH203CBwkwLjI3LjIyLjTIB8IBgAgB&sclient=gws-wiz

American contestant on a game show, the Question asked was Name a black bird with a long neck her answer was Naomi Campbell.

On 6/12/2026 at 1:29 PM, TedG said:

Does this coniside with the rise of Social media?

Most likely. I can only speak for Germany, but 4th graders theses days have much worse reading and writing skills than 4th graders from the 90s. The only difference between then and now is the advent of the internet, social media and the fact that they introduced a spelling reform to make it easier. The problem with dumbing the curriculum down so everyone gets it is that the smarter kids in class will never reach their full potential because they don’t get challenged enough and so over time you get “dumber’ and dumber kids. What they should really do is the way it used to be done back in the day, if you can’t get through the regular curriculum of at least a vocational school, then it’s time to go to a special needs school, instead of dumbing it down for everyone else in the class.

The modern US Department of Education started in 1980. Federal money is a BIG part of the problem.

That’s some achievement when the rest of the world thinks the average yank is (how to say this politely) a bit dim.

54 minutes ago, Keeenok Powell said:

That’s some achievement when the rest of the world thinks the average yank is (how to say this politely) a bit dim.

The snobby and arrogant look down their noses and think Yanks are dim, but not the rest of the world. Many of the most notable things in this world have been accomplished by Yanks.

17 minutes ago, ColeBOzbourne said:

The snobby and arrogant look down their noses and think Yanks are dim, but not the rest of the world. Many of the most notable things in this world have been accomplished by Yanks.

Only yanks with British heritage .

On 6/14/2026 at 10:51 AM, Yellowtail said:

The average GPA for US high school graduates in 1965 was about 2.5

The average GPA for US high school graduates in 2025 was about 3.1

This proves that children of today are more knowable than the children of yesterday.

Curious, is knowable a new word in general use or one that you've just invented.

27 minutes ago, saintdomingo said:

Curious, is knowable a new word in general use or one that you've just invented.

Yes, it's a real word, and it's been in use since about the 1400s. Did you by chance go to public school in the California?

You could have been just as pedantic, and not sounded the fool had you asked something like: "Did you mean to say knowledgeable?"

Oh well, better luck next time!

I said curious because I was, it could well come as a shock to learn that my post means literally what it says. I have never seen knowable in that context before, it did/does not quite sit right.

From Google:

• Knowledgeable: This is a trait used to describe a person who is well-read, highly educated, or thoroughly acquainted with a subject through study or experience. In community discussions on Vocabulary.com, this describes someone who has or actively displays a deep well of functional information. [1, 2]

• Knowable: This describes the nature of reality or information. It addresses the philosophical or scientific question of whether a mystery or concept can actually be figured out by the human mind or modern tools.

Essentially, knowledgeable is about the person doing the understanding, while knowable is about the information waiting to be understood.

Thank you for a touch of reality.

On 6/14/2026 at 10:51 AM, Yellowtail said:

The average GPA for US high school graduates in 1965 was about 2.5

The average GPA for US high school graduates in 2025 was about 3.1

This proves that children of today are more knowable than the children of yesterday.

Are you kidding?

Grade inflation would explain it more simply.

4 hours ago, Yellowtail said:

Yes, it's a real word, and it's been in use since about the 1400s. Did you by chance go to public school in the California?

You could have been just as pedantic, and not sounded the fool had you asked something like: "Did you mean to say knowledgeable?"

Oh well, better luck next time!

Of course it's a word, I thought it was an autocorrect error or typo, but looks like you chose the word.

You chose wrong.

You should definitely have said knowledgeable, nothing pedantic about using words of more than two syllables.

23 hours ago, cdemundo said:

Are you kidding?

Yes

23 hours ago, cdemundo said:

Grade inflation would explain it more simply.

Ya think?

23 hours ago, cdemundo said:

Of course it's a word, I thought it was an autocorrect error or typo, but looks like you chose the word.

You chose wrong.

You should definitely have said knowledgeable, nothing pedantic about using words of more than two syllables.

I used the wrong word, as I thought I made that clear in the post above where I said: "You could have been just as pedantic, and not sounded the fool had you asked something like: "Did you mean to say knowledgeable?""

On 6/23/2026 at 3:05 PM, ColeBOzbourne said:

From Google:

• Knowledgeable: This is a trait used to describe a person who is well-read, highly educated, or thoroughly acquainted with a subject through study or experience. In community discussions on Vocabulary.com, this describes someone who has or actively displays a deep well of functional information. [1, 2]

• Knowable: This describes the nature of reality or information. It addresses the philosophical or scientific question of whether a mystery or concept can actually be figured out by the human mind or modern tools.

Essentially, knowledgeable is about the person doing the understanding, while knowable is about the information waiting to be understood.

Yes, I used the wrong word.

And as I said, you could have been just as pedantic, and not sounded the fool had you asked something like: "Did you mean to say knowledgeable?" rather than claiming it was not a word.

Again, better luck next time!

3 hours ago, Yellowtail said:

Yes, I used the wrong word.

And as I said, you could have been just as pedantic, and not sounded the fool had you asked something like: "Did you mean to say knowledgeable?" rather than claiming it was not a word.

Again, better luck next time!

It wasn't me that called you out on your mistake. You're replying to the wrong person.

5 minutes ago, ColeBOzbourne said:

It wasn't me that called you out on your mistake. You're replying to the wrong person.

Sorry, that was meant for @saintdomingo

The drugs, high ratio sugar sodas and junkffood, nimbles one's brains.

Edited Tuesday at 10:13 PM4 days by Sigmund