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Five Sept. 11 Suspects to Face Trial in New York

The Obama administration has announced it will try 9-11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other 9-11 Gitmo detainees in a civilian federal court in New York, allowing them the protections of the U.S. Constitution even though they are not U.S. citizens.

Do you agree with this?

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I don't know

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Four Radical Chinese Muslims Transferred to Bermuda

Four Chinese Uighers (radical Chinese Muslims) were recently transferred to Bermuda. Do you think it's a good idea to release Gitmo detainees to idyllic vacation retreats?

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Not Sure

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Dumbing Down America’s Colleges

I think this website hits the nail straight on the head. We are living in an age which promotes style over substance and discourages learning. Social skills have replaced academics to such an extent now that a student who performs well but is anti-social is treated like a laboratory rat by adults who feel he is abnormal and needs 'help'. The problem with education is not that there is 'too little help'. The problem is that there is way too much. Kids are not given the opportunity to accomplish anything because the assignments provide so little challenge it offers little satisfaction for undoubtedly bright kids. Praise is lumped on them as if it were lumps of sugar into coffee. Being told they are great and special means little if a child does not feel he or she has done anything special. History and math have been 'funned-up' in the schools and assignments have dumbed down to 'games' and 'drawings'. Smart kids and real students want more out of school than this, and are disappointed it feels more like preschool than actual class. A student who has wide interests is not only discouraged but labeled by adults in the faculty office who watch him on the playground, not the classroom, and dictate his future on the jungle-gym, not the math test. Recess has become the instrument of decision teachers and principles use to gauge a student's readiness for the world, not academics. Academics are here merely as a front, as the 'soft-hearts' that have taken over have taken away real learning.

Charles J. Sykes is an inspiration and offers a great critique into this letdown. The biggest crime of all effects the smart kids who really want to learn, but are labeled wrong with problems made up so adults can 'fix them'. But Sykes claims that kids in the school system won't be ready for the 'tough world of work', where bosses will demand results intead of self-esteem postulating.

The work force is being dumbed down, too. Lazy employees now cannot be fired, employers cannot slavedrive workers into effective, efficient employees, and labor jobs often fall on one or two supermen, or superwomen, to carry it out. Excessive effort is even discouraged now, and employees are reprimanded for doing 'too much work'. They must work down their level so as not to make their co-employees 'feel bad about themselves'. How does a smart kid dodge the bullet and find solace in education, a place where he should be at home and should be inspired to learn more, but isn't. Is not the eintention of school to educate and open horizons? Kids want to be educated and want their horizons opened. Does that not seem like the perfect idealistic fit?

posted by : Erik MacDonald
Monday, October 19, 2009 at 12:50 AM

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