What, exactly, are they teaching in schools these days?

42 Comments

1. 

   My jaw is stuck from sitting here with my mouth wide open for 4:49 minutes . . .

   Comment by center_ice_lady — February 8, 2012 @ 7:41 pm

2. 

   u have got to be kidding me, these were high school kids

   Comment by johnnyreb3030 — February 8, 2012 @ 7:56 pm

3. 

   OMG I CANT BELIEVE THIS.

   Comment by mrsmimimarple — February 8, 2012 @ 7:59 pm

4. 

   This is what happens when you keep passing kids so not to “hurt their self esteem”! Very, very shocking. I had to steal this mega and post it on facebook. Good thing they weren’t writing the answers…it would all be text-speak :O

   Comment by cheri900 — February 8, 2012 @ 8:12 pm

5. 

   They all had cool clothes on and chomping on gum with their mouths open tho :-/ …. WOW

   Comment by agawam5 — February 8, 2012 @ 8:14 pm

6. 

   No child left behind, right? :/

   Comment by jasandtana — February 8, 2012 @ 8:40 pm

7. 

   Yep – what did you expect????? just keep passing them whether they deserved it or not – good grief

   Comment by chingchang13 — February 8, 2012 @ 9:19 pm

8. 

   Tana that is one of the reaons I left teaching school. Teachers are pressured more and more to not teach basic things but to babysit children with behavior issues and to drill the information in them to pass those end of the year state exams for certain grades. NO CHILD is LEFT behind he/she is just pushed on through the system…..its horrible.

   Comment by acwilcox — February 8, 2012 @ 10:27 pm

9. 

   This is what happens when a society has a sensory overload or overstimulation (dumbing down) from electrical visual devices (televisions, computers, ipods, ipads, 4G phones, video games….etc.).

   The act of listening or conversational focus becomes a lost talent and this is the generation that will become my caregivers……..YIKES!!!. I’m sorry did you say something, back to my video games.

   Comment by stockmancatdoo — February 8, 2012 @ 10:27 pm

10. 

    yeah well they held my daughter back around 5 or 6 years ago only for her reading other then that she passed with flying colors! I think it is a bunch of crock to not leave a child behind when they have no clue what is going on and can not make the grades they need to pass! This only shows our youth how to become lazy and thats all!

    Comment by bhottie75 — February 8, 2012 @ 10:40 pm

11. 

    After watching the video it is very sad that the youth are so stupid today..I believe my 9 year old is smarter then any one of those teens, I also believe my 13 year old is smarter as well.. This is very sad to know that the youth of today will be working in this world when the people who had to learn to pass can not find employment to save their life! This is a prime example of eating at a fast food joint and them screwing up the order!

    Comment by bhottie75 — February 8, 2012 @ 10:54 pm

12. 

    stock I’m not sure we can blame it all on the electric devices…parents being active in their kids educations is still really important. And parents being in control of how much and in what ways kids use those devices is important too.

    Comment by gloomygrrl — February 8, 2012 @ 11:22 pm

13. 

    Our Tax money at work here. Makes me want to scream. IMO it is the parents fault too.

    Comment by mscheetah-loco — February 9, 2012 @ 12:37 am

14. 

    Hmmm … such critical comments from people who don’t even know the difference between “then” and “than”, or how to use either of these simple words in a sentence.

    Comment by walkinbythespirit — February 9, 2012 @ 12:54 am

15. 

    Considering that 25% of students who graduated high school in the USA in 2011 did NOT know who George Washington was, this is not as shocking as it should be, but it is sadder than words can express! Mega, I have a question, based on a conversation I have seen in many chats, at several different games. When you play Frantic Fish, it tells you at the start to “finish” in the top 5 to earn entries into the sweepstakes for $25. Do your entries earned NOT count if you have no top 5 finish, and if you do finish there, do all entries earned during that session of play count, or only those earned at the point the top 5 score is achieved? I think it would be easier for all if you would address it here, please, and everyone can receive the correct answer. Thank you very much! Have a good day now

    Comment by armymom13 — February 9, 2012 @ 6:04 am

16. 

    I agree with stock. I think it is dependence on electronic devices. The kids can’t add, subtract, multiply or divide…without a caculator. I bowled in an older alley without electronic scoreboards, and these kids could not keep score…they did not know how to “add across”. They spell using “text-speak”. They don’t know how to have a conversation. Also, NONE of these devices should be allowed in the classrooms…..including cellphones. They are texting constantly and not paying any attention to the teacher. Be brave parents….say NO to your child sometimes.

    Comment by cheri900 — February 9, 2012 @ 7:16 am

17. 

    omg !! please tell me this was done just for a comedy to laugh at on you tube and these folks are not future doctors, surgeons and attorneys… if so omg !!! i can picture it now them looking for your heart in your right side of the chest using bayer aspirin to ease the pain lol

    Comment by pjk1969 — February 9, 2012 @ 8:46 am

18. 

    walkinbythespirt … i’m glad your red pen is out. Did you know at the end of walkin … there’s a “G” lol.

    Comment by agawam5 — February 9, 2012 @ 9:24 am

19. 

    agawam5, never correct someone with a smart red pen in hand. LOL

    Comment by mscheetah-loco — February 9, 2012 @ 9:37 am

20. 

    Are you smarter than a “Fifth Grader”? I remember working ER and on down times the Dr’s would watch that and even get stumped sometimes. People with degrees often get baffled no matter even if you do have a red pen in hand.

    Comment by spookyjane — February 9, 2012 @ 10:26 am

21. 

    Do you know there are people out there that believe you can’t get a sunburn driving in a convertible because the car is moving?

    Comment by mscheetah-loco — February 9, 2012 @ 11:13 am

22. 

    On the other hand Mega, don’t bother with my question….it wasn’t my question to begin with, and unfortunately, more than a few comments I see have reminded me why it’s not worth it to read the blog anyway….sorry to have needlessly bothered you…have a good one if you can!!!

    Comment by armymom13 — February 9, 2012 @ 11:46 am

23. 

    Coming from a teacher’s perspective, a good part of this has to do with NCLB. All of these questions were social studies related, which of course, is not even taught in some schools anymore. There isn’t a state test devoted to social studies, so it has been placed on the back burner. Some of this is the teachers’ fault for not finding ways to weave social studies into other subjects, however, when your job is on the line based on how students perform on a test in math and reading, you have your priorities set for you. It is very unfortunate that this is what the schools are turning out, and if it causes you alarm I urge you to speak to your state’s representatives about NCLB. (I’d also like to add that many schools are not only getting rid of social studies because of NCLB, but also recess, PE, the arts, cursive writing, etc. Just something to think about.)

    Another problem is the fact it can be tough to teach social studies and make it stick. A student has to be able to connect information to their own lives and prior knowledge, which is easy when it comes to certain topics. But when you take a topic like the Revolutionary War, that is something that is hard to get teens to connect to. Teens think in the here and now. They think about things on how they relate to their lives right now. If a teacher isn’t skilled enough to be able to relate the past to the now, then the information is not taken in for good. Much of social studies is remembering dates and names, rather than expressing the why’s and how’s. It has been proven that when students are forced to memorize data, it goes right out of their brain as soon as the test is over.

    Sorry for the ramble lol

    Comment by tporter17 — February 9, 2012 @ 12:35 pm

24. 

    Would this even be a topic if the camera never stopped rolling and they showed all the answers ?? This video makes it seem that they were only looking to use the worst/funniest/wrong answers and sprinkle in some correct ones. Considering a student made this and knows who would probably get the questions wrong, I doubt his “study” is really that accurate. I would lean on this being made for laughs.

    Comment by skullkrushers — February 9, 2012 @ 2:00 pm

25. 

    Interesting

    Comment by nelliebel2581 — February 9, 2012 @ 2:25 pm

26. 

    I’m 59 and I can remember back to high school (can’t remember this morning tho LOL) and sorry to say I would not have known many of those answers. I hated school and I feel I was a typical teenager and was pretty wrapped up in myself.

    Don’t know what the answer is to get kids to listen in school or pay attention to current events….I mean life does revolve around them. In my case (and I fear it is s till going on today) is bullying-I first started getting bullied by my 1st grade teacher (I still remember some of her comments and behavior towards me because we were poor) and of course that is picked up by the other kids.

    Another problem with kids and school is undiagnosed depression.
    Thanks for listening.

    So the moral of my long post is: find a way to stop bullying and get depression diagnosed lonnnng before adulthood and maybe our kids would do better in school.

    Comment by trekkylady — February 9, 2012 @ 3:45 pm

27. 

    I home-schooled my boys, and I always wondered if I did the right thing by taking them out of the public school system.
    I can see now that I didn’t need to be concerned, because all children should be able to answer any of these questions in the elementary grades.

    Comment by ideara — February 9, 2012 @ 4:36 pm

28. 

    Well unfortunately Im hard of hearing so because they had such loud music in the background, I couldn’t hear any of what was being said. It looked like an episode of Jaywalking from the Tonight Show though LOL.

    Comment by alaskanqtpa — February 9, 2012 @ 5:30 pm

29. 

    There was a blonde, a brunette and a redhead sitting on top of a hill, all admiring their beautiful new watches. All watches had come with a guarantee that they were “unbreakable…” so they decided to test them out.

    The brunette stood up and threw her watch down the hill and it broke into many pieces.

    The redhead stood up and threw her watch down the hill and it also broke.

    The blonde stood up, threw her watch down the hill, walked all the way to the bottom, and caught it.

    The other ladies were puzzled and asked the blonde how she did it.

    She said, “Easy. My watch is 5 minutes slow!”

    Comment by mscheetah-loco — February 9, 2012 @ 7:41 pm

30. 

    This is definately really happening in our schools, my kids have been just shoved through the system my son has dyslexia and out school district did nothing for him, because they said it wasnt a learning disability ive had to try to get him help the best i know how out of my pocket. he cant write or spell much so school district gave him a keyboard to do his work on. My daughter graduated high school and i put her in community college she had to take remedial everything before taking any classes for credit.

    Comment by tigger9844 — February 9, 2012 @ 9:14 pm

31. 

    what can we all say we have let our kids slide by and now they dont have homework or anything they spend all their time playing games and texting and the teachers get to many days off so we need new leadership and go back to discplining the kids for being lazy and the teachers

    Comment by txstarr20 — February 10, 2012 @ 10:07 am

32. 

    No comment! Ms. Cheetah your comment was the best.

    Comment by meemaw65 — February 10, 2012 @ 1:47 pm

33. 

    Alot of the fault is with the goverment cutting back on schools. Less pay for teachers and school budgets, BUT No child left behind??? Its a sad situation any more. And I agree too much TV video games cell phones and I pods. Poor kids are the ones not learning.

    Comment by jan813 — February 10, 2012 @ 8:23 pm

34. 

    I am totally disgusted.. actually I wanted to ‘throw-up’ . You can say thank you No Child Left Behind.. thank you to not holding kids accountable for what they are supposed to learn each year.. just pass them along.. you might lower their self-esteem if they had to repeat.. BS.. I am so done with people who are NOT in education and have not recently been in a classroom to actually see what is going on ..making the laws as to what needs to be taught and how to teach it.
    Birdwatcher

    Comment by birdwatcher06370 — February 10, 2012 @ 9:02 pm

35. 

    my son is involved in student athletics and this year he is a senior, while that is a conversation for another day: he pointed out to his mom and i the other day that several of his teammates from prior years were dumb as a box of rocks. while i wasn’t sure how to process this info two days ago, it’s really sad that tonight i totally understand what i was told (outta the mouths of 17 year old babes…sigh). while i read the comments and would like to agree with the majority, i would like to say BUNK. my sister was being schlepped through the system 40 years ago… kinda gettin bye being ‘cute’ and outta the way. my mom put her in private school and she proceeded to flunk seventh grade at a pretty rapid pace. my mom the school library aide where my sister was being passed through knew the teachers were passing the buck. 40 years later we let them teach the kids the stuff they have to learn to pass the standardized tests and to h ell with everything else. i can’t even tell you how many times, i got blank stares and quibbles from teachers when i made my son do and turn in the late assignments (for crying out loud, on several occasions the homework was completed and in his bag…he “forgot”). “no, no he won’t get credit for it”. DEAR SIR(MADAME), you won’t be his boss; that person will fire his lazy azz and quite frankly he will owe all that he is to become because you let him slide. i don’t care if you deduct the next 100 point assignment, demand more from the kids…usually i got patted on the head on my way out the door. my kid got zeros and he is a better person for it. his report card came about a week ago, he is an honor student and every one of those kids in the video could do better if only one person pushed them (mom, dad…starts with you- help the teacher get your child where he/she needs to be)

    Comment by allisont13 — February 10, 2012 @ 10:47 pm

36. 

    didya ever wonder… many above are critical of video games, hmmm irony or not??????????

    Comment by allisont13 — February 11, 2012 @ 9:45 am

37. 

    srry, a few above…and yet they chose a blog on a gaming site to vent about uhmm gaming. gamesville, wasting your time since 1996, hahaha

    Comment by allisont13 — February 11, 2012 @ 9:48 am

38. 

    I *love* this parent.

    Comment by mscheetah-loco — February 11, 2012 @ 4:50 pm

39. 

    Me and Bob went to a concert. Bob and Me went to a concert. We hear this language on talk shows, the weather channel, commercials and interviews all the time on TV. How would the children know any better?

    Comment by littledee4ray — February 13, 2012 @ 5:31 pm

40. 

    Dont take a kid to concerts. They arent designed to cater to children they are for adults. I heard a parent complain at a Kiss concert and I told them Kiss was scary when I was a kid and all parent said my kids cant listen to this devil music and now the level of parenting complains about what their kids hear at the same bands’ concert that was suppose to be Satan in the 70′s. Take the kids to the wiggles or alladin on ice and not to concerts where adults go.

    Comment by cashmouthy — February 13, 2012 @ 5:45 pm

41. 

    You gotta be kidding. Maybe if the schools quit teaching political correctness and the proper way to protest against the war on terror, protesting the deportation of illegal immigrants and protesting DOMA, they’d actually be cracking their books.

    Comment by usapatriot — February 20, 2012 @ 12:52 am

42. 

    mscheetah-loco…just love how you use a blonde joke to make your point.,,,,,

    Comment by ccjackson6410 — February 20, 2012 @ 6:36 pm

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