I agree. It makes people so lazy they don't spell out full words anymore.

We are not necessarily being "dumbed down" massively, but malnutrition is causing many to lose potential.

Complacency and society's push to remove responsibility from ones self, and place in on the population as a whole has affected negatively from what i see. Kids starting to struggle are more apt to turn to a life of drugs, alcoholism and live off the welfare system, while justifying it by saying the were "delt a bad hand".

Parents are increasingly unable to education their own children due to both of them having to work, couple this with the increasing lack of responsiblity, and you have a habit of placing kids in front of TV's and video games which lead to things like ADD and ADHD, by allowing brain cells to die off.

Also, because both parent work, states are more responsible to raising kids. Now we have more exposure to lawsuits (which is combined with the whole lack of personal responsibility thing i brought up earlier.) Needless to say, kids are prevented from climbing trees, wrestling around, and exploring, because of potential injuries.

As more kids start to struggle, schools are required to "dumb down" their reading material. Weird how these things are all related...

Society as a whole would rather be entertained, than be educated or constructive.

Not the end of the world though. These things, i suppose, occur naturally in nature. There is no struggle in humanity. We are bored. Just as great empires are built, and crumble due to complacency, everything else follows suit. Don't worry ladies and gents, we will be challenged at some point.

This is a big part of the issue. That and cost of living, and living standards, has reached the point where both parents need to bust *** to keep up.

The state will never know how to raise your kids.

Is that really how you see towns a rural areas? I take it you grew up in the city...

i took my son and drove through downtown Tampa to go to Gasparilla, i made sure i drove where the bums hung out,didn't say anything let him observe and absorb what he was seeing. he looked at me and asked "dad why do people choose to live that way" i told him "well cause they can or just had bad luck". he goes "oh". now for the past 5 years he has made all As

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I could tell you one way and make it easier on teachers . pair the kids one good student one not performing well . offer a half of a grade if both perform to A standards . the smarter one well learn more because you learn more teaching than learning and the other well learn because hes would have a more regimented work . but you well have to test a lot . but don't blame the parents . they are not the teachers and some may not even care .
Would that mean the kid doesn't need an education , you are being paid to teach them . its very important to all of us to get the people who are smart ( educated ) instead of becoming a burden on us and who knows maybe that's the one that well come up with the next great discovery ..

I was reading an article in USA Today yesterday

it was all about the effect of the economic crisis and parents having to take their kids from private schools to public schools and the shock of it on the kids

the teachers are hating it because these parents are well involved and active in the kid's curriculum and apparently the teachers are resenting the interference

the kids are saying that the public school curriculum is so dumbed down that they are years ahead of their peers and wasting time

the article said that part of the problem is that private schools lose money when a kid drops out or fails but public schools continue to receive govt funds for a kid even after he/she drops out. so there is no financial incentive for the schools to retain the kids

Quiet,

You read that parents are having to take their kids from private schools to public. I've read that too.

Ironically my child's school's enrollment was 488 last year and now it's 524.

I've done something similar with my child. I asked my child if they would want to work at McDonalds all of their life. The answer was no. I told my child that they would need to get good grades and go to college or that would happen. lol My child is a straight A student too. I found out this week that my child is going to receive a National Mathematics Award. Yahoo!

Thanks for the link.