How Dumb Is America?

[Catseye3]

https://patch.com/us/across-america/how-dumb-america-10-things-people-actually-believe

"Some [Americans] blithely cling to beliefs that have been disproven in what is called "denialism" or the "illusory truth effect," the latter a short circuit in the human psyche that puts repetition on par with the truth.

"Denialism is simply a person's choice to defy scientifically proven facts and live in their happy places where they don't have to confront their own ignorance."

Here is a list of things many people yet believe, with elaboration in the article:

• Dumb Americans: What-Nazi-Holocaust? "The biggest, blackest lie in history."

• Dumb Americans: Understanding The 'Guvment'. 37 percent could not name a single right protected by the Bill of Rights, only 26 percent could name all three branches of government and 33 percent could not name a single branch of government.

• Lost-In-Space Edition. One in four Americans thinks the sun orbits the Earth.

• Dumb Americans: Slipping Off The Edge Of The World Edition. There are still people who think that if they venture too far off the horizon, they'll slip off the edge of the world. The members of the Flat Earth Society claim irrefutable evidence the planet is a disc, despite centuries of science to the contrary.

More at the site.

[Copper]

Have those numbers gone up or down during the last 10 years?

[Catseye3]

I don't know, Copper. Good question.

[taiwan_girl]

It always surprise to me when I see things like that.

[Jolly]

No Civics education.

[Loki]

In their defense Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny are two of our most celebrated and the Kardashians have billions of dollars.

And our President has made front page news as a Russian Agent.

[Axtremus]

@Jolly said in How Dumb Is America?:

No Civics education.

And you want to fix that by eliminating the Department of Education, right?

[Jolly]

@Axtremus said in How Dumb Is America?:

@Jolly said in How Dumb Is America?:

No Civics education.

And you want to fix that by eliminating the Department of Education, right?

Yes, I do!

[Catseye3]

@Axtremus said in How Dumb Is America?:

And you want to fix that by eliminating the Department of Education, right?

It would be a good first step.

[taiwan_girl]

@Catseye3 @Jolly

Dont know much about why to eliminate the Dept of Education. Why to do that?

[Jolly]

@taiwan_girl said in How Dumb Is America?:

@Catseye3 @Jolly

Dont know much about why to eliminate the Dept of Education. Why to do that?

1. It's expensive. Do we get $70B worth of value from the Department of Education? I think not.
2. Correlating with number 1, what do we get for our money? It's been around since the late 70's with no real gains in student proficiency. Shuks, throw Headstart into the mix and we spend $100B per year, with no lasting benefits.
3. Common Core. That abomination alone, is enough to burn the department down to the ground.
4. It piles up unfunded mandates. Loal districts know how muh money they have and what they need to spend it on. Get the Feds out of their back pockets.
5. Lastly, it's actually unconstitutional. Nowhere in the Constitution is education mentioned. Public education is a state and local issue, not a Federal one.

[Copper]

@taiwan_girl said in How Dumb Is America?:

@Catseye3 @Jolly

Dont know much about why to eliminate the Dept of Education. Why to do that?

Schools are run locally, by States and Counties, not by the federal government.

[Catseye3]

Ditto to all of the above. A function that is run locally by necessity can't be overlorded from afar with any success. It's way past time we rid ourselves of a system that has turned out generations of dulled-out, incurious and obedient robots, with no notion of their potential for joy and exuberance.

No guarantee that states would do any better, but Connecticut would have a better chance of success with students from Connecticut than the fedgov does.

The best illustration of the failure of this setup is that it doesn't occur to more people to do away with it.

[Catseye3]

I remember reading, back in the Clinton era, that of the total DOE annual budget, the percent that went directly for schools was 11%. So if that number is correct, 89% goes to the perpetuation of the DOE.

[Mik]

@Jolly said in How Dumb Is America?:

@taiwan_girl said in How Dumb Is America?:

@Catseye3 @Jolly

Dont know much about why to eliminate the Dept of Education. Why to do that?

1. It's expensive. Do we get $70B worth of value from the Department of Education? I think not.
2. Correlating with number 1, what do we get for our money? It's been around since the late 70's with no real gains in student proficiency. Shuks, throw Headstart into the mix and we spend $100B per year, with no lasting benefits.
3. Common Core. That abomination alone, is enough to burn the department down to the ground.
4. It piles up unfunded mandates. Loal districts know how muh money they have and what they need to spend it on. Get the Feds out of their back pockets.
5. Lastly, it's actually unconstitutional. Nowhere in the Constitution is education mentioned. Public education is a state and local issue, not a Federal one.

All of these. Particularly the unfunded mandates. Schools when we grew up had a principal and an assistant principal and a counselor. Maybe. Now they have several counselors, few of any real value when students can look up whatever they need online, often three vice principals whose jobs it is to meet these federal mandates.