The 10,000 Post Thread v2

[The Avatar 1,089]

8131

I'm not saying everyone in the U.S. is stupid, because there are very many intelligent people in the U.S.; however, based on the 2009 PISA results, the U.S. ranked 30/65 in Maths, 23/65 in Sciences, and 17/65 in Reading. This says something about our country, and the intelligence and education of its inhabitants.

  Edited June 15, 2012 by MamaLuigi945  

[Duke87 1,070]

(8132)

In my experience, stereotypes usually have some truth to them. They may be exaggerated, but they aren't baseless.

Of course, there is also a difference between saying "these sort of people tend to have this trait".and saying "all of these sort of people have this trait". The former can be a true statement, the latter is an unfair generalization. Just because some or even most of a group exhibits a trait doesn't mean you can automatically assume any given individual in the group will.

[Charlie_Zane 963]

8133

They are exaggerated so much, they are often far from the truth

You don't see anyone riding kangaroos to school. lol..

[airman15 4,111]

8134

Maybe I was thinking of certain internet trolls who-

oh great now even I'm doing it..

I think its because certain actions by certain people that make the rest of their group look bad. Who knows, maybe i'm trying too hard to see past general assumptions..

  Edited June 15, 2012 by usfighter15  

[Eʟᴇᴍᴇɴᴛ 273]

8131

I'm not saying everyone in the U.S. is stupid, because there are very many intelligent people in the U.S.; however, based on the 2009 PISA results, the U.S. ranked 30/65 in Maths, 23/65 in Sciences, and 17/65 in Reading. This says something about our country, and the intelligence and education of its inhabitants.

8135

I say this over and over again but in order for a country to succeed economically, politically and socially; a culture of sophistication and efficiency need to be maintained by government and its citizens as a preventative measure for catastrophic deterioration.

[Duke87 1,070]

(8136)

The thing you have to remember with rankings, though, is that the numbers are relative. The US may not be in the top ten, but 30/65 and 23/65 are both in the better half of the group, and 17/65 is in the top third. Room for improvement? Definitely, but those scores aren't shameful.

That China is #1 on all three scales is telling, though.

[The Avatar 1,089]

8137

That's because China has a strict education system. I wish America would improve it's education, in order to improve it's PISA ranking and overall intelligence, without going to China's extremes. Of course America has other problems to deal with, as well.

[Larks2242 251]

8131.

Just because a handful of people are unintelligent does not make a whole race or region unintelligent, stereotypes do nothing more then destroy and anger people.

[Duke87 1,070]

(8139)

The lack of educational performance in the US is as much if not more a cultural problem than an institutional one. It's easy to blame mismanagement of schools, and some blame certainly does lie there. But the best schools in the world can't teach students who aren't interested in learning. That's really the issue: performing well in school is not considered a virtue among kids - in fact, it's frowned upon. Getting good grades is for nerds and geeks. All the cool kids cut class and get Cs and Ds.

Exacerbating the problem is that nowadays there is such a culture of narcissism among parents that no one ever wants to believe that their little star could possibly have any flaws - so when kids get bad grades, what do parents do? Tell the kids the need to do better? No, they tell the schools they need to do better. Nothing could possibly ever be the kid's fault! This then, of course, raises a generation of people who are self-righteous as well as narcissistic, because they believe as their parents always taught them that nothing is ever their fault. And you wonder then why we have so many crazy lawsuits.

[airman15 4,111]

8140

So basically the core of the problem is the parents not caring enough to reverse the trend themselves and instead point fingers so they wouldn't have to feel responsible? That would make a lot of sense because we see this trend with other things like the entertainment industry.

I think it was back in the 90's there was an incident where a 5 year old set his mobile home on fire (which killed his 2 year old sister) and when the parents realized what happened, they blamed it on Beavis and Butt-head. It turned out the family didn't have cable on it yet they still managed to make a scene of it with other parents and the media even jumped on board the bandwagon and stretched the truth about the content of the show (One report said the cartoon showed the stars setting cats on fire when there was never an episode that showed that).

[The Avatar 1,089]

(8139)

The lack of educational performance in the US is as much if not more a cultural problem than an institutional one. It's easy to blame mismanagement of schools, and some blame certainly does lie there. But the best schools in the world can't teach students who aren't interested in learning. That's really the issue: performing well in school is not considered a virtue among kids - in fact, it's frowned upon. Getting good grades is for nerds and geeks. All the cool kids cut class and get Cs and Ds.

Exacerbating the problem is that nowadays there is such a culture of narcissism among parents that no one ever wants to believe that their little star could possibly have any flaws - so when kids get bad grades, what do parents do? Tell the kids the need to do better? No, they tell the schools they need to do better. Nothing could possibly ever be the kid's fault! This then, of course, raises a generation of people who are self-righteous as well as narcissistic, because they believe as their parents always taught them that nothing is ever their fault. And you wonder then why we have so many crazy lawsuits.

8141

Good point; although I think it is a mix of both issues.

I find it disappointing that kids think achieving in school is for nerds and geeks. I see a lot of kids in my school who seem like they just don't care about getting an education. However, I find that the people considered "nerds" and "geeks" do worse in school that certain kids who would be considered "cool." The "nerds" and "geeks" are more into games and care less about school and grades, and the egocentric "cool" kids are in all honors classes and most (or, at least some) do very well. This could also be because of the problem of narcissistic parents who believe their children are perfect. They enroll their kids in honors classes, even though they do not have the work ethic for honors, don't care about their education, and care more about being loved by everyone, boosting their ego further.

I think China ranked first in all three categories of the 2009 PISA because the children in the Chinese schools recognize the importance of getting an education. They have a strong determination to achieve academically.

  Edited June 16, 2012 by MamaLuigi945  

[Ocram's Razr 964]

8142

Degree inflation and the uselessness of public schools is leading to the Decline of American Civilization.

[Duke87 1,070]

(8143)

A Decline so severe it gets a capital D, eh?

[The Avatar 1,089]

8144

I think a lot of other factors have contributed to this, but yes, it does seem that way. For one thing, America's economy is down the toilet and big banks and corporations have as much control as the government.

But, maybe this is becoming to politics-related. I don't want to start any arguments.

[airman15 4,111]

8145

^No offense from me and I agree that the banks and government have too much control. I think the only reason why things are the way they are is because we no longer care about the shots called in DC and more often than not, we are never given a straight answer (It's always 'everything is fine, just let us take care of it' and whatever the correct facts are end up being debated over the internet). But I think this discussion would be better carried out in the American Politics thread..

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

8146

Politics no longer interests me, and hasn't for some time.

Top Gear, on the other hand, is just amazing.

[Charlie_Zane 963]

8147

I have little interest in the in anything Politics related.

And I agree, Top Gear is amazing, no doubt.

[The Avatar 1,089]

8148

Spidey, I believe you have an unhealthy obsession with Top Gear.

[Duke87 1,070]

(8149)

I can't help but think of Top Gun when I hear about Top Gear. Landing in that game was impossible!

[airman15 4,111]

8150

^You mean the NES game made famous by th Angry Video Game Nerd?? That would be understandable, considering you have to do the same thing with the tanker plane. If you want to fly and land navy fighters in a game, I would say go with Flight Sim. X with the Acceleration addon.. unless you are uninterested in playing games that act more like arcade games..

[Eʟᴇᴍᴇɴᴛ 273]

8151

How about classic arcade games?

[The Avatar 1,089]

8152

I have a Pacman "plug-n'-play" console with Dig-Dug, Pacman, and other classic arcade games. I suck at all of them.

[Duke87 1,070]

(8153)

^You mean the NES game made famous by th Angry Video Game Nerd??

I mean the NES game, yes. But it was plenty famous back in the day, before the era of viral video. I remember my friends and I playing that game as kids. There was one guy who could always pull off the landing. There rest of us almost always crashed.

  Edited June 16, 2012 by Duke87  

[airman15 4,111]

8154

How about classic arcade games?

I was thinking less of a simulation that plays like the real world and instead puts you in scenarios that feel more game-like than life-like but I guess you can also call it like the classics

[Charlie_Zane 963]

8155

Does tetris count as a classic arcade game?

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

8156

Heh, Tetris. Before we were married my wife and I would have hours-long Tetris battles on our Nintendo DSs. I don't think it counts as an arcade game, though. Gotta go with something else, like, Centipede or Space Invaders. I was terrible at all those games, but they are fun.

I may have a bit of an obssession with Top Gear, it's true. It's also the only tv show I watch with any kind of regularity.

[Duke87 1,070]

(8157)

If you like classic arcade games, there's always Polybius.

[Eʟᴇᴍᴇɴᴛ 273]

8158

Oh, that's just an urban legend.

  Edited June 17, 2012 by Eʟᴇᴍᴇɴᴛ  

[Ocram's Razr 964]

8159

I used to love brick breaker. I would play them on my (or my mother's) phone or on my laptop. I especially liked Blasterball 2 by Wild Tangent. Of course I was lucky to last 5 levels at first, I was eventually able to go onto level 10 and beat the boss (there were 5 in the full game but I gad the demo that came with my laptop) with a few balls to spare. I just got a free version for my tablet but it us too fast paced and distracting (could induce seizures in epileptics).

18159

  Edited June 17, 2012 by OcramSeattle  

[Duke87 1,070]

(8160)

I've come across a few fun Breakout clones over the years. The problem is, such games which are controlled by quick mouse precision are very difficult to play on a laptop. Even with a USB mouse, lounging on the couch with the computer doesn't cut it. You need a desk to sit at.

So, it's been a few years since I've touched that sort of stuff.