Americans we can't possibly be THIS stupid!

[Silcc69]

YouTube - Americans are NOT stupid - WITH SUBTITLES (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJuNgBkloFE&feature=player_embedded)

[bladex76]

omg something is wrong with our skools lol this video shows we need more money into education LOL

[Bigguy]

A video like that could be done for any country.

YouTube - British are also NOT stupid - WITH SUBTITLES (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_mkwB9ayK4)

[GrimFusion]

It's just bully techniques. They likely polled hundreds of people for footage and made an example out of the most stupidly appalling answers. These people were obviously put on the spot because most of them are staring at the camera like a deer in a set of headlights. Any nation's people quizzed like this would probably produce the same, if not worse results.

[CORVETTEDUDE]

These are the same people that thought Obama was going to CHANGE something!!!

[dan_drade]

There are stupid people everywhere. There is no country anywhere that is free of idiots.

[CORVETTEDUDE]

There are stupid people everywhere. There is no country anywhere that is free of idiots.

True Enough!!!

[arnie666]

Sorry but america doesn't have a monopoly on stupid.Iam certain I could video some really thick people saying some really thick things. Editing to provide the most retarded answers.

[Realgirls4me]

Just enter "Bushisms" in the YouTube search function.There are plenty more examples.

YouTube - Bushisms (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGRYPYuFZLk)

[dderek123]

Yeah there aren't any countries without any stupid people. The majority of Thai people I find are complete retards but in a nice way.

[Nooksack]

That's painful to watch... on a shameless Obama plug:


These are the same people that thought Obama was going to CHANGE something!!!

I doubt many of these people voted... and those that did likely voted for McCain... and pulled their children from school when Obama addressed the nation about the importance of education, lol.

[bassman2546]

The only alarming thing about that clip is the people immediately feel that other countries should be invaded for terrorism and routinely spew out any and every country that pops into their heads. Ridiculous mindset!

[lisaparadise]

YouTube - Americans are NOT stupid - WITH SUBTITLES (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJuNgBkloFE&feature=player_embedded)roflmfao

[trish]

Americans are 15th among the world in Reading, 23rd in Science and 31st in Math. For a nation that's presumes to be a world leader that's pretty stupid. The sad thing is we're proud of it. Our most popular politicos are anti-science, anti-intellectual and and anti-evolution. When a State needs to cut its budget, higher education always goes first. Because of repeated cuts to higher education over the recent decades our students go in hock for the cost of a small house just to get a bachelor's degree. K-12 in most States is funded primarily by local property taxes. Children of the well-off go to state of the art schools, the children of the poor, not so much. Colleges of education can be held up to blame as well. Prospective teachers waste most of their time taking courses in dodgy subjects like the psychology of learning and pedagogy and very little time learning the details and nuances of the actual subjects they will be expected to teach. School districts themselves are too occupied with sports and will hire a promising coach if he can double as lackluster math teacher. It's all pretty pathetic. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/16/opinion/16kristof.html

[lisaparadise]

Americans are 15th among the world in Reading, 23rd in Science and 31st in Math. For a nation that's presumes to be a world leader that's pretty stupid. The sad thing is we're proud of it. Our most popular politicos are anti-science, anti-intellectual and and anti-evolution. When a State needs to cut its budget, higher education always goes first. Because of repeated cuts to higher education over the recent decades our students go in hock for the cost of a small house just to get a bachelor's degree. K-12 in most States is funded primarily by local property taxes. Children of the well-off go to state of the art schools, the children of the poor, not so much. Colleges of education can be held up to blame as well. Prospective teachers waste most of their time taking courses in dodgy subjects like the psychology of learning and pedagogy and very little time learning the details and nuances of the actual subjects they will be expected to teach. School districts themselves are too occupied with sports and will hire a promising coach if he can double as lackluster math teacher. It's all pretty pathetic. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/16/opinion/16kristof.htmlhttp://www.infoplease.com/ipa/a0923110.html crazzy but canada kicks ass again.

[bassman2546]

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/a0923110.html crazzy but canada kicks ass again.

Wow, let's not underestimate those Fins. And I pity those poor Tunisians. I'm sure it has a lot to do with proper funding.

[onmyknees]

Americans are 15th among the world in Reading, 23rd in Science and 31st in Math. For a nation that's presumes to be a world leader that's pretty stupid. The sad thing is we're proud of it. Our most popular politicos are anti-science, anti-intellectual and and anti-evolution. When a State needs to cut its budget, higher education always goes first. Because of repeated cuts to higher education over the recent decades our students go in hock for the cost of a small house just to get a bachelor's degree. K-12 in most States is funded primarily by local property taxes. Children of the well-off go to state of the art schools, the children of the poor, not so much. Colleges of education can be held up to blame as well. Prospective teachers waste most of their time taking courses in dodgy subjects like the psychology of learning and pedagogy and very little time learning the details and nuances of the actual subjects they will be expected to teach. School districts themselves are too occupied with sports and will hire a promising coach if he can double as lackluster math teacher. It's all pretty pathetic. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/16/opinion/16kristof.html


Hey Trish....Mayor Bloomberg just hired an unqualified woman to be schools chancellor, and in DC there was perhaps the most forward thinking revolutionary chancellor in decades and she got her walking papers because of politics. Maybe it's the politicians? LOL
Everything you say is on balance true, but based on the most recent per-pupil expenditure figures, the average student enrolled in public school for the next 12 years can expect to have about $100,000 spent on his or her education. In NJ it's nearly 14K per student per year, so it ain't the money honey !!

[PEPE3Z]

Very funny, I love the face of the blonde girl who realizes USA starts with an U. That's real blonde !

[trish]

Everything you say is on balance true, but based on the most recent per-pupil expenditure figures, the average student enrolled in public school for the next 12 years can expect to have about $100,000 spent on his or her education. So how do we reconcile the two? Easy. Most of that money is spent on the few, the lesser on the greater. This is because K-12 is financed largely by property taxes. Here is one point that you and I can agree upon: there are too many unfunded State and Federal Government mandates which our schools are forced to shoulder (from which, btw, private schools and voucher schools are exempt).

[bladex76]

Speeches from George W. bush's are the best he is the only president than make me watch a speech on tv he was just funny

[onmyknees]

So how do we reconcile the two? Easy. Most of that money is spent on the few, the lesser on the greater. This is because K-12 is financed largely by property taxes. Here is one point that you and I can agree upon: there are too many unfunded State and Federal Government mandates which our schools are forced to shoulder (from which, btw, private schools and voucher schools are exempt).

Ahhh...now you're talking Trish Charter Schools....School Choice.

Easy? Hardly. Too many entrenched interests.

[koolhip]

So how do we reconcile the two? Easy.

Most of that money is spent on the few, the lesser on the greater. This is because K-12 is financed largely by property taxes.

Here is one point that you and I can agree upon: there are too many unfunded State and Federal Government mandates which our schools are forced to shoulder (from which, btw, private schools and voucher schools are exempt).

True enough, but I'd wager a vast majority of the money goes to layers and layers of administration bureaucracy, fat cat union officials and favored vendors. The education cartel works diligently to ensure there is little or no transparency - and NO ACCOUNTABILITY - learned oh so well from the banksters' favorite opaque markets, namely derivatives, real estate and gold. OK, I will admit the school systems are accountable to the pupils performing "well" on the standardized tests. So they are prepared to perform well on a test, not learning how to learn and certainly not learning critical thinking skills. 40% make honor roll, pleasing non-discrinminate parents. In the meantime, very very very few students ever develop the passion, work ethic and preparation to succeed at institution such as MIT, Caltech and some of the ivyies. Education is a big business. Al the college level, is even bigger business.

New Jersey is a poor example because the vast majority of local jurisdictions (e.g., towns, boros, townships, etc) each have their own bureaucracies (school board, centralized administration with deputy superintendents, etc). The taxpayers want to maintain their illusion of control over "their" school boards. The State is insolvent, and the state's citizens are still resistant to creating regional school systems. Pension funds are vastly underfunded [a balance sheet shuffle started over a decade ago by CT Whitman and used by each successive govrenor] and use bogus actuarial figures [e.g, 8% yoy equity return from 2000-1010 when the real return was essentially 0%, and the foregoing figure does not factoring in inflation]. Mathematically measuring the efficiency of dollars collected versus dollars actually and necessarily reaching the students is probably less than 10%!! The same dismal efficiency of our food supply chain (8% efficient, too energy dependent).

Mandates will be stripped out in the near term, and nearly all entitlement programs will be gutted. This will happen out of necessity - survival. Following the restructuring of Europe, the markets will shift their focus to the US state and local municipalities. Cost of capital, commodities and food are going up and the long term trend is up and up. In the meantime, the value of hard asses [real estate, equities, debt] will continue to trend downward as will the wage of the worker - whether measured in absolute or relative terms against inflation. The balance sheet restructuring has been underway for two years and has at least another decade to proceed, assuming the underlying structural deficiencies do not cause a systemic collapse.

[runround04]

Why havent the been eatin by an animal yet? You know these idiots dont know not to pet bears...

[seamonkey]

Who's buried in Grant's Tomb? Anybody know?

[trish]

Here are the two things that seem to require reconciliation: 1)
Everything you say is on balance true...i.e. the U.S. performs poorly on worldwide assessments of educational achievement and the majority of our schools and universities are underfunded. 2)
...but based on the most recent per-pupil expenditure figures, the average student enrolled in public school for the next 12 years can expect to have about $100,000 spent on his or her education.Onmyknees seems to think that by an easy reconciliation one means that there is an easy solution to these problems. I, however, was speaking to the appearance of conflict between the two observations and pointing out the that it's easy to see the conflict is only apparent. The $100, 000 figure is an average that includes all the wealthy and middle class school districts. The majority of students in the U.S. don't see that kind of money, even though some students see much more.

koolhip wagers that a goodly portion of that $100, 000 goes to layers of administration, and unions and vendors. It's true that there are school boards, superintendents, principals, secretaries, teachers, janitors, technicians, teacher's assistants, coaches, vendors, cafeteria workers and union dues to be paid. This leaves out lab equipment, gym and sporting equipment, maintenance and the exorbitant money that's spent on special students. Typically school boards are not paid at all. Unions never take a cut of taxpayer money, they are paid through the dues of the teachers. I'm not familiar with how it works in k-12. At State Universities the salaries of all employees and all the vending contracts etc. are public and can be found online.

I agree that No Child Left Behind has created a deplorable situation where teachers feel compelled to teach to the State exam rather than teach the subject per se. The message to the students is that the subject (Math, Science etc.) has no intrinsic interest or worth, it's the test that's important. Every year, by law, each school has to improve...so the school that made 95% last year is shit out of luck this year. Some States have solved this problem by designing easier and easier tests. It's a fiasco.

You mention the troubles that embroil NJ. Actually they sound rather typical. School districts all over the nation are reluctant to consolidate. You mention the Pension system in NJ. In Illinois the State has raided the State Pension system decade after decade, literally stealing the money paid into it by workers, to pay for other programs, and people wonder why teachers feel compelled to protect themselves through unionization. The same thing happens to private corporations. During the last two decades companies were being bought out right and left simply because the buyer want to raid the pension funds.

We need to stop depending on local property taxes, State gambling casinos and lotteries to fund our public schools. But as Onmyknees says, "There are too many entrenched interests."