My son scored 800 on the math portion of the SAT. BUT, he would not know how to balance his checkbook if I didn't teach him. I had him do mine when he was in elementary school.

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Order without liberty and liberty without order are equally destructive. - Theodore Roosevelt

I don't think the US is dumber than other nations. I'll admit there are a lot of idiots in college. Idiots are everywhere - there's nothing you can really do about that.

I think they are lacking basic common sense skills in general. I was talking to my brother-in-laws wife recently(she's about 23 or 24) and I was just shocked at how little she understands about day-to-day concepts like credit and finance. I got off the phone with her thinking she was an absolute idiot. Now I don't know if she really is just an idiot, or if she is the product of a failing educational system, or her parents are to blame.

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Tiger got to hunt, Bird got to fly, Man got to sit and wonder 'Why, why, why?'
Tiger got to sleep, Bird got to land, Man got to tell himself he understand.
~Bokonon

Of course they probably aren't any less intelligent on average, but the fact remains that they score much lower than many other countries on standardized testing.

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Tiger got to hunt, Bird got to fly, Man got to sit and wonder 'Why, why, why?'
Tiger got to sleep, Bird got to land, Man got to tell himself he understand.
~Bokonon

In the past we scored lower on standardized tests but were better with creative, innovative thought... stuff necessary for entrepreneurialsim. Unfortunately that's dying too here.

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"It's never over... BOY!"
The Tall Man, Phantasm III

you can blame the internet, girls, car and the occasion weed for that.

I posted a link to this study in a thread on groups bent on combating liberal bias among college professors. It seemed to me this is something actually worth worrying about.

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Scarred survivor of the April 2008 Mod War.

So how does teaching Creation impact a studen't lack of ability in math, balancing a checkbook, reading a table, etc etc. Sounds like an exucse to bash to me.

Kids lack real world, math, and other skills because of coddling parents and a lack of accountability to teachers and those kids. Lots of excuse making by parents "protecting" their kids. Not enough of making school important and "cool" among the poor. Putting too much importance on reality trash like American Idol and who Britney Spears is dating. Pop culture issues in this country plays a large part.

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JMS gets another English lesson:

Quote:

there is no "mostly unique;" thats like saying "sometimes always," its an oxymoron - its either one or the other.

The result:

Quote:

By the mid-19th century unique had developed a wider meaning, “not typical, unusual,” and it is in this wider sense that it is compared. The comparison of so-called absolutes in senses that are not absolute is standard in all varieties of speech and writing.