The United States is in decline

[nyj]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20094935/site/newsweek/

A pretty interesting article, and does carry with it some cause for concern. We need to start paying better attention to our lifestyle choices. Fat and happy? We'll wind up sending this nation down the tubes. Bottom third in the world in terms of math and science grades? We'll wind up sending this nation down the tubes. Failure to provide adequate health care for our nations children? We'll wind up sending this nation down the tubes. Aborting and/or contracepting our way into declining birth rates that can't keep up with our need to replace our retiring work force? We'll wind up sending this nation down the tubes.

[Voegelin]

I see Paul Krugman and the New York Times are alarmed about obese, short Americans as well. They got the same hand-outs from "sociologists" this MSNBC writer did and are doing their own re-writes.

If the social scientists, social engineers and their allies in the media are allowed to address and fix this problem, if we let them create programs to elongate and slim us down, Americans will end up looking like this (http://www.coolantarctica.com/gallery/seals/southern_elephant_seal2.jpg).

[nyj]

Voegelin,

You don't agree then? I think we, as Americans, should be living more intellectually and physically stimulating lives. The generations before us did so, and it seems we've become so enamored with technology that most of us have adopted a sedentary lifestyle.

[Lisa0315]

I agree.

I had a woman's ministry based on Titus 2 in which older women taught younger women "good things". We had 16 women show up for the first meeting. Everyone was excited. We were going to teach various things, and the first two classes were going to be knitting and cooking. Imagine the young women in this country who are getting married and starting their adult lives and they cannot even cook!

Well, it was summer, and attendance for the next several meetings petered out. The teacher for the cooking class did not even bother showing up.

I just could not believe it, but this is the attitude in this
culture of ours. Time is valuable, but hardly nothing else is. We demand higher pay, lower costs, and above all convenience. How do you provide those three things at the same time? You have to go outside of the country to produce it, or allow illegals to produce it here.

Lisa

[Albion]

I agree.

I had a woman's ministry based on Titus 2 in which older women taught younger women "good things". We had 16 women show up for the first meeting. Everyone was excited. We were going to teach various things, and the first two classes were going to be knitting and cooking. Imagine the young women in this country who are getting married and starting their adult lives and they cannot even cook!

Well, it was summer, and attendance for the next several meetings petered out. The teacher for the cooking class did not even bother showing up.

I just could not believe it, but this is the attitude in this
culture of ours. Time is valuable, but hardly nothing else is. We demand higher pay, lower costs, and above all convenience. How do you provide those three things at the same time? You have to go outside of the country to produce it, or allow illegals to produce it here.

Lisa

It's not an original thought, but I feel that the notorious short attention span we are said to have is permeating everything. College students want degrees in less time; we are outraged to stand in a line for more than a few minutes; sermons that exceed a half hour are despised by congregants in many churches; and so on. None of this was the way it was in an earlier generation.

That is a lead-in to your comment about the group's members quickly losing interest in the classes you were speaking about. They no doubt were really interested at the beginning, but it nosedived. However, almost every association in America is experiencing the same thing. It's not just the dwindling numbers of people wanting to join the club, lodge, church, scouting organisation, or whatever. It's also that those who do join so rapidly come to the "been there, done that" level.

[Voegelin]

I don't view 300 million people from over 100 countries as a "we" that has a collective state of health. And I fear government, ivy tower and trial lawyer campaigns such as the one I detect starting on this issue.

In the late 19th century, a lot of Americans were drunk a large part of the time. Christian women started a campaign in their churches to reverse that situation. They did very well with convincing men it wasn't in anyone's best interest to be ripped all the time.

Then came prohibition and we know how well that worked. Fine and good to have grass roots campaigns to make people straighten up. We are better off however if we keep the experts on the sidelines and be very leery of the media acting as a mouthpiece for secular social activists (remember, these are generally the same people who are incensed when Christians suggest morality should play a part in, for instance, stopping AIDS other STDs and teen pregnancies).

[Miss Shelby]

I don't need the media to tell me that sacrifice and hard work have taken a back seat in many facets of American thought.

[Simon_Templar]

I don't view 300 million people from over 100 countries as a "we" that has a collective state of health. And I fear government, ivy tower and trial lawyer campaigns such as the one I detect starting on this issue.

In the late 19th century, a lot of Americans were drunk a large part of the time. Christian women started a campaign in their churches to reverse that situation. They did very well with convincing men it wasn't in anyone's best interest to be ripped all the time.

Then came prohibition and we know how well that worked. Fine and good to have grass roots campaigns to make people straighten up. We are better off however if we keep the experts on the sidelines and be very leery of the media acting as a mouthpiece for secular social activists (remember, these are generally the same people who are incensed when Christians suggest morality should play a part in, for instance, stopping AIDS other STDs and teen pregnancies).
point well taken...

I often think that our country would be a a great deal better off if we disallowed social commentary from 'experts' and actors. I also find it very tempting to think of these two groups of people as largely the most useless on the planet.

But then of course.. what would people do without experts to tell them what to think and what to eat, or without actors to tell them who to vote for and what to wear.
Certainly we would be a great rabble of mindless, naked pigs, glutting ourselves in a sty ruled over by domesticated turkeys.

[nyj]

All of which is besides the point. It doesn't really take much to notice that education standards are slipping, and kids are becoming slugs.

We can rail about sociologists and actors all we want, but that's not going to slim down nor smarten up, our children.

I didn't imply, nor do I think, that we need yet another government department/program to slim our children up, but I do think we as parents and concerned citizens, should be mindful of where, and with whom, we do our business. Not to mention that we be a bit more demanding of our children and their teachers, for them to excel in areas that are critical for the continued vitality of our country.

[Simon_Templar]

All of which is besides the point. It doesn't really take much to notice that education standards are slipping, and kids are becoming slugs.

We can rail about sociologists and actors all we want, but that's not going to slim down nor smarten up, our children.

I didn't imply, nor do I think, that we need yet another government department/program to slim our children up, but I do think we as parents and concerned citizens, should be mindful of where, and with whom, we do our business. Not to mention that we be a bit more demanding of our children and their teachers, for them to excel in areas that are critical for the continued vitality of our country.
fair enough.

However, if you want your kids to smarten up and thin down, a good place to start is by realizing that the public schools are a huge part of the problem. The schools have been used as a social experimentation laboratory almost since the beginning of compulsory education back with Horace Mann.

If your interested in that topic I would recommend a book called "dumbing us down" it was written by an award winning public school teacher as his observations on compulsory public education. Very interesting.

A while back I did a little study on literacy rates in the US. I found that the literacy rates had pretty much been in a steady decline since the beginning of compulsory public education.
Prior to that time the literacy rate was in around 98%-99%. Since then it has steadily declined.

Currently the US census divides literacy into a few different catagories. Functionally illiterate means a person can't read or write enough to fill out a job application. the catagory above that a person can fill out a job application but can't read a newspaper.. the catagory above that a person could read a news paper, but couldn't read 'reference materials' above that a person could use reference matierals, but couldn't follow a point, counter-point argument etc.

in the most recent census surveys something like 20% were functionally illiterate, another 20% were in the second group that was not literate enough to read a news paper.

Only 1/3 of COLLEGE GRADUATES ranked in the top catagory of literacy where they were capable of putting together, or following, a point, counter-point argument.

The best way to educate kids is to teach them to read, not using dick and jane, but teach them using real books. Then, when they can read, teach them to think using examples and principles drawn from real classic philosophy etc.
Removing challenges from education is a death knell.

[twistedsketch]

When people are irresponsible, eat bad food, and put their drinking/smoking/drug habits before their developing babies, this sort of thing happens.


I often think that our country would be a a great deal better off if we disallowed social commentary from 'experts' and actors. I also find it very tempting to think of these two groups of people as largely the most useless on the planet.

But then of course.. what would people do without experts to tell them what to think and what to eat, or without actors to tell them who to vote for and what to wear.
Certainly we would be a great rabble of mindless, naked pigs, glutting ourselves in a sty ruled over by domesticated turkeys.
I honestly don't know of anyone who takes the celebrities seriously except maybe other celebrities. The people that approve of what they say only do so because they are towing the socialist line.

Not to mention that we be a bit more demanding of our children and their teachers, for them to excel in areas that are critical for the continued vitality of our country.
What is disgraceful is that socialist Europe has more of a market in primary and secondary education than we do. No wonder they are ahead of us.

[Lisa0315]

I Thank the Lord for my children's elementary school teacher. Here was his philosophy about education:

Have you ever seen kids run and jump to touch the ceiling? They keep trying and trying and soon they grow tall enough and finally touch the ceiling. Then, they stop trying. The goal of education is to keep raising that ceiling and to motivate our kids to keep jumping up to reach it.

Lisa

[Simon_Templar]

I Thank the Lord for my children's elementary school teacher. Here was his philosophy about education:

Have you ever seen kids run and jump to touch the ceiling? They keep trying and trying and soon they grow tall enough and finally touch the ceiling. Then, they stop trying. The goal of education is to keep raising that ceiling and to motivate our kids to keep jumping up to reach it.

Lisa
Exactly, our school system has, for years, been a downward spiral of lowering expectations.

bit by bit we have removed everything difficult from primary education because it was deemed to hard etc etc. The result is simply that kids learn less and less.

This is especially true in the realms of literature and 'classics'. which have been entirely gutted.

Thankfully there are good teachers around who counter-act the problem.. but the standard curriculums and the common philosophies of education just keep getting worse and worse.

[SharonL]

If this country goes down the tube it is because we have lost our morality. A nation cannot murder 40 million babies and not have blood on its hands.

[Voegelin]

No need to worry. Our professional educators are on the job with values clarification (http://www.crossroad.to/Books/YourChildNewAge/YCNA-3.htm).

[SharonL]

No need to worry. Our professional educators are on the job with values clarification (http://www.crossroad.to/Books/YourChildNewAge/YCNA-3.htm).
That is REALLY, REALLY scary.

[JimfromOhio]

When USA is declining, the world will follow in declining.