How dumb are our kids?

[spence]

So I'm at the local Portsmouth grocery buying some fillet from the butcher shop. I ask the young man working the case for 2 fillets of about seven to eight ounces each.

He grabs one that's obviously too small and places it on the scale where it reads .35 pounds. He thinks for a second exposing a brief but painful look, then asks if that's ok.

Amazed at his lack of basic mathematics, I point out two fillets in the case which together were .95 pounds. Yes...magic.

So yesterday I tell the story to my 15 year old stepson, and ask him what the .35 pound read should have indicated.

He was clueless and admitted he didn't even know how many ounces were in a pound!

WTF are we teaching these dumbazzed kids?

-spence

[Raider Ronnie]

Ya, But they know more about video games than us !!!

[Redsoxticket]

I'm sure that it was taught in school but learning and comprehending is not easy for kids with todays distractions which can be resolved if parents teach their children well. example: study over video games.

[gone fishin]

It doesn't apply to text messaging.

[fishsmith]

Parent are the #1 teacher. Don't blame schools.

[Swimmer]

Spence, you wouldn't expect him to know the conversion table but an approximation would be nice.

The young man at the market though, well, kind of inexcusable. Was it his first day on the job?

This is what the MCAS testing is supposed to point out, at least in Massachusetts, the shortcommings of our schools curiculums today.

I am curious why teachers became so upset at having to change what they teach in order to get a sufficient number of students with the appropriate skill level to pass MCAS tests? If what is on those tests is what you need to know then why were not those skills being taught?

[Raven]

you are an old man and you don't know nuthin.

[spence]

Originally Posted by Swimmer

Spence, you wouldn't expect him to know the conversion table but an approximation would be nice.

The young man at the market though, well, kind of inexcusable. Was it his first day on the job?

No, I've seen him there for some time. I'm not expecting a conversion to two decimal places...but at least should be able to be in the ballpark.

My step-son not knowing ounces...now that's just pathetic

-spence

[Slipknot]

you're squabbling over 1 ounce? 6 oz. instead of 7 , big deal. or maybe you just assume the kid was clueless, I think it's laziness.

ya kids these days are clueless of a lot of things , just watch Leno when he asks those questions on the sidewalk, talk about uneducated.

[Sluggoslinger]

Originally Posted by spence

So I'm at the local Portsmouth grocery buying some fillet from the butcher shop. I ask the young man working the case for 2 fillets of about seven to eight ounces each.

He grabs one that's obviously too small and places it on the scale where it reads .35 pounds. He thinks for a second exposing a brief but painful look, then asks if that's ok.

Amazed at his lack of basic mathematics, I point out two fillets in the case which together were .95 pounds. Yes...magic.

So yesterday I tell the story to my 15 year old stepson, and ask him what the .35 pound read should have indicated.

He was clueless and admitted he didn't even know how many ounces were in a pound!

WTF are we teaching these dumbazzed kids?

-spence

I'd have to say the only reason I would have had no problem with that was due to our recreational habbits that often required some weights and measures to make sure you got what you were paying for when it came to the greener things in life...

[Fishpart]

Dude, I spend the day going back and forth between troy ounces, grams and pounds and I never get it right wihtout a calulator...

[The Dad Fisherman]

Originally Posted by Fishpart

Dude, I spend the day going back and forth between troy ounces, grams and pounds and I never get it right wihtout a calulator...

Remember... Don't get High on your own Supply. That way your head will clear and you won't need the "calulator"

Remember What happened to Tony Montana.....

[Raven]

Originally Posted by Sluggoslinger

I'd have to say the only reason I would have had no problem with that was due to our recreational habbits that often required some weights and measures to make sure you got what you were paying for when it came to the greener things in life...

ayep just close da shades....

in reality they'd all understand porportions very quickly if drugs and their weight were used as an example to hold their quite allusive attention span... it really has to be done in a humorus way....
not like learn this OR FAIL ! deep voice... test on MONDAY !!

but like anything else the politicians would have a freakin field day...
so it' just ain't gonna fly.....

[Backbeach Jake]

My nephew was asked where the Pilgrims first set foot on America, he answered "Provincetown!". His teacher wanted to know where he got such a rediculous idea. He answered the sign at the P-town line. She refused to believe or look it up.
Stoopid teachers =stoopid students. Our educators live in a make believe world. They declare themselves successful and run around patting themselves on the backs. Then ask for more money to teach the same kids.

[beamie]

Originally Posted by fishsmith

Parent are the #1 teacher. Don't blame schools.

Bingo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Goose]

Originally Posted by beamie

Bingo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YUP, like Troy Brown says.

[Slammer223]

A lot of times I think my kids are uncommonly stupid.Then when I have to ask them for computer help guess what they think?

[Finaddict]

It's funny, some say that adolesence has been extended to 23 ...

... which is interesting, especially when you think about our founding fathers that created our nation, basic laws and principles that we all live for, and many die for protecting the benefits that what they created provide for us ... some were not much older than 25 ...

... granted that's a long way of from many of the mindless teenagers who don't know the capital of more than three states, the last three presidents that served our country and other basic facts about U.S. history ...

... but many of our founding fathers were essentially kids by today's standards ... of course their life spans were considerably shorter ...

...but it's all a matter of discipline that I think our society lacks today - my father didn't think twice about whacking me, now Julie's kids from her first marraige threaten to call the cops ...

[Jimbo]

My 17 year old daughter might be lazy and a slob, but the exception to this thread. She gets correct answers to Jeoparday questions I didn't have a clue about. Anyway, I was walking past her room last night and happend to hear part of a phone call she was having with a girlfriend. It went something like this, "...I'm telling ya, you can get a lot of things, but you can't get pregnant from kissing a boy..." PAUSE "...are you honestly telling me you thought you could get pregnant from kissing? Were you in a coma during health?"

[whiplash]

Sometimes I wonder how the race has survived male adolesents. Having two teenage boys has had me shaking my head for 9 years now. I swear they had more sense when they were 6. Example
#2 son get a model rocket set for Christmas and is fasinated by electric igniter- wires it up to his braces and asks #1 to pull trigger- the sparks were from what I heard, besides the scream, were great. #2 is now pissed at #1 and wacks him in the head and guess what- #2 breaks his hand on #1's head --Bad day for #2. 2 weeks later #2 sneaks up and zapps #1 with a home made tazer- you take the flash out of a disposible camera-knocks him across the room. And my wife wonders why I drink.

[The Dad Fisherman]

That is Friggin Hilarious...I'm still laughing while I'm typing this.

I whole heartedly Agree about the Adolescent Male thing. Sometimes I'm Amazed that the Boy Scouts are still in existence. You get 2 dozen boys together in the woods and then hand them Axes, Knives, and Matches....and expect them NOT to get in trouble

A couple of years ago I went on a Field trip with my son to pioneer Village...kind of like a Pilgrim village. The woman doing the tour is asking all these questions.....and my Son is nailing 'em. I'm being the proud dad and thinking I got the smartest kid in the school.

That very night I'm saying good night to him and I notice he's picking at his hair.

So I say "What are you Doing"

He Says "Getting the glue out of my Hair"

So I say "How'd you get glue in your Hair?"

His response "I Put it There"

WTF....he was friggin Einstein 6 hours earlier and now he's Curly Howard.

I thought it was just Him....But They Are ALL Like That.

Originally Posted by whiplash

Sometimes I wonder how the race has survived male adolesents. Having two teenage boys has had me shaking my head for 9 years now. I swear they had more sense when they were 6. Example
#2 son get a model rocket set for Christmas and is fasinated by electric igniter- wires it up to his braces and asks #1 to pull trigger- the sparks were from what I heard, besides the scream, were great. #2 is now pissed at #1 and wacks him in the head and guess what- #2 breaks his hand on #1's head --Bad day for #2. 2 weeks later #2 sneaks up and zapps #1 with a home made tazer- you take the flash out of a disposible camera-knocks him across the room. And my wife wonders why I drink.

[Rockfish9]

Mine are all grown and gone, but I swear, they put their common sense brains in a draw at age 12-15 and leave them there for about 15 years....

[baldwin]

"Stoopid teachers =stoopid students. Our educators live in a make believe world. They declare themselves successful and run around patting themselves on the backs. Then ask for more money to teach the same kids."
__________________
Now that's an intelligent comment that makes me have doubts about your own teachers. You can't generalize about educators any more than PETA members do about fishermen as lazy, uneducated rednecks who sit around on a beach all day on a lawnchair with a cooler of beer, not catching anything. If you want to look intelligent, put a little more thought into your answers.
Yes, there are lazy kids, there are incompetent teachers, and there are incompetent parents who don't teach their kids to value education and a work ethic. You can't really pin the blame on one factor alone.
But...we do have a lot of very ambitious, intelligent kids with a great work ethic. I have high school students doing recombinant DNA technology and putting genes for fluorescent proteins into bacteria, then isolating and purifying those proteins. Add these to high school juniors taking courses at Yale University, and getting good grades. I do, though, see that a lot of kids seem to be lacking measurement skills and writing skills. I wonder if education today really puts enough emphasis on learning the basics well, rather than learning a mile wide and an inch deep.