[Ronin48]

Latest Reader's Digest had a short blurb on "stupid" statements from students, I don't remember whether or not the above, see thread title, was from a college or lower grade student.

It was reported in the Tuscaloosa (AL) News in a 1995 article about a luncheon of WW II Pacific vets and some University of Alabama seniors that one Bama student made the statement, " I didn't know we were fighting the Japanese and Germans at the same time!"

I had American/World history at Bama in the late 50's and that was taught, it was covered in high school and probably 5th grade Americn history! What has happened to the teaching of history in the U. S. education system??? Maybe I should ask, what has happened to the U. S education system?

 

[SlimTim]

And yet these same folks who do such an effective job with American History think themselves best suited to teach your children about sex.

SlimTim

 

[raym]

Doss, it ain't politically correct to teach anything that ain't on the TACS test or what ever they call it in your state. That and a fear of maybe offending some group seem to rule todays classrooms!

 

[Ronin48]

When I worked for the U. S. Bureau of Mines someone in Disneyland East (Washington D. C.) had time on his hands/end of the year money (?) so he had a coloring book on mining designed and printed. Really not a bad idea to teach the kids, "If it can't be grown it has to be mined" before they become tree huggers/anti-mining fanatics.

Anyway I offered to get some for my daughter who was working on her Masters in Special Ed. at Bama. She told me teaching a child to color inside the lines was "bad," it ruined their creativity. Guess Col. Arisaka, Nambu, Tom Edison, the Wright Brothers, Henry Ford, etc. never knew this.

 

[arisakadogs]

Talking about the "dumbing down" of America - I see it every day at UCSB, where I work. I don't know how these kids are with their "book learnin" but they sure missed out on common sense. More than once I've had an idiot purposely cut right in front of my company van on his bicycle. I hit the brakes - throwing all my elevator stuff on the passenger seat to the floor & then I start cussing! What kind of brain does something like that? I yell at him saying "what the hell was that"? You're gonna be the loser in this game! I've toyed with the idea of ty-rapping a smashed bicycle to the grill of my van and, maybe, painting some "bicycle kill markings" on the van doors to make these idiots wonder... How crazy is this guy?

 

[Ronin48]

Mutt, You finally came up with two good ideas. Did you ever go up the mountain with Langley to the resturant? Outside they have a "Witch" on her broom stick who flew into a telephone pole. One arms outstretched clutching a beer can (not Milwaukee's Best Light), the other is holding the broom.

Witch is constructed of 2x4s with a black dress, pointed wide-brimmed hat, high-top shoes, etc. If you could get a junk bike, run over it, and with or without a dummy rider attach it to your grill t'would be interesting, until a cop with no humor stopped you.

The bicycle kill insignias on the door would also make a rider who observed your truck stop and think! As others on this Board have pointed out, there are elevators outside "the land of fruits and nuts."

 

[albacore]

I see it every day at Cal Poly where I attend. When I was a freshman and living in the dorms, my first roommate tossed his whole desk lamp in the recycling. I took it out and figured out that the only thing wrong with it was that the bulb burnt out. I remember when that stupid movie Borat came out and how few people knew Kazakhstan was a real country. Highschool was way worse. I had to go in and show my advanced history teacher in 10th grade that she was confusing latitude and longitude.

 

[arisakadogs]

As others on this Board have pointed out, there are elevators outside "the land of fruits and nuts."

Ahh, the land of fruits & nuts. I thought these things were supposed to be good for you!
Actually, my company's contract at UCSB is up for renewal this fall. Odds are I'll just go to work for whatever company wins the bid, but if not - I'm getting the f**k out of Commiefornia! The campus where I work really is a sweet gig - just too bad it's here in this opressive state. Arizona would be perfect for me - even though Oldie lives there & he's butt buddies with John McCain!

 

[Ronin48]

And Garfield's illegit. son! Or is it the other way around? Come on over to Alabama, only take you a year or two to understand the language. Houses are cheap, taxes are cheap, but beer, in a wet county/city is not so cheap.

 

[arisakadogs]

Do they have elevators in Alabama? Or do they just use wooden ladders? You have chiggers there, don't you? And snow, right? Those are two things I hate!

 

[raym]

wooden ladders?

I think they just stack up a few rocks!

 

[Nagoya10]

Watched Tora Tora Tora again last night for like the umpteenth time. Still one of the best war movies of all time. It makes you just want to jump up and grab some of those US Army and Navy Officers by the neck and b**** slap them back to some sense. At least, as the movie shows, it wasn't even worse of a loss.

 

[davef]

Snow???in Alabama ,they doesnt even have winter thar'..Dont know about chiggers,but the has lots of..............Skorpions (not what you thunk I was gonna say huh??/come on admit it) BIG ,Nasty skorpions with stingers like 16 penny nails, fulla poisin. Nice folks tho and some right pretty gals,(course I aint sure you kaliforiny type likes gals) and fairly tasty whiskey (some of it aged near a week, Aint no white wine or frilly glasses tho,so yuh'll have to adapt).

 

[arisakadogs]

I've been stung by a scorpion. Happened while I was asleep in my apt. when I lived in Oklahoma. Thought I'd been shot by a gun with a silencer. I found the little sucker the next morning & let him go out in the nearby woods- I'm a forgiving guy. Sumbitch sure hurt like a mubbabubba! Speaking of gals - not all of us out here are light in the loafers - UCSB has more beautiful young women than I've ever seen anywhere else. Good thing I'm an old fart or I'd be in trouble! Still really do like to look though!

 

[Tarawa1943]

Ahh, the land of fruits & nuts. I thought these things were supposed to be good for you!
Actually, my company's contract at UCSB is up for renewal this fall. Odds are I'll just go to work for whatever company wins the bid, but if not - I'm getting the f**k out of Commiefornia! The campus where I work really is a sweet gig - just too bad it's here in this opressive state. Arizona would be perfect for me - even though Oldie lives there & he's butt buddies with John McCain!

Adogs,
Plenty of space (and work) here for you in Florida...always can use some fellow collectors here.

 

[JWMWITZ]

I was watching the PBS World War Two series last night and found it interesting to note (I've been a teacher for 26 years) that the military in the 1940's had to change their enlistment standards to allow boys/men into the military that did not know how to read or write (the greatest generation). They weren't talking about a few, but tens of thousands. In 1977 when I joined the Marine Corps, we had to at least be able to read and write.

We are willing to pay a football player $1,000,000 a year to kick a ball, while we can't pay a starting teacher a subsistance wage. We fill classrooms with kids who can't speak english, and with kids whose parents spend their evenings watching American Idol instead of being advocates for their kids. It goes on and on, and in my 26 years as a teacher, I've about seen it all.

The world has changed since 1942, no doubt. But, the education issues in this country run much deeper than what the above posts would present.

John in Charlotte, NC

 

[Ronin48]

The very thought of wooden ladders makes me shutter. When I worked at GA Marble I was in and out of the quarries, 100' or so deep, several times a day. You climbed down/up on a series of wooden ladders, some of which had one "foot" shorter than the other so it was propped on a chunk of marble. Where was OSHA when they were needed?

And yes, AL has chiggers, but not as bad as GA. Came in from the field one evening, 6:30 or so, had run out of chigger "juice" the day before, local drug store closed at 6 PM. Ankles eaten up with chiggers, no alcohol in the house. Remembered our driller had been over the week before, he only drank locally made "corn", little left in a quart jar. Rubbed this on my ankles and itching stopped almost immediately. Don't know whether they became intoxicated (got drunk) and fell off or died of lead poisoning. All I know is the itching stopped. And this IS a true story. What's an elevator?

 

[garnettstancil]

Students Today

Speaking of a lack of education.......A few years ago when the latest movie "Pearl Harbor" came out, people on the street were being interviewed. The reporter asked a very well dressed young lady "What do you know about Pearl Harbor?" The answer.......get ready now
"She's a movie star isn't she?"

 

[albacore]

Watched Tora Tora Tora again last night for like the umpteenth time. Still one of the best war movies of all time. It makes you just want to jump up and grab some of those US Army and Navy Officers by the neck and b**** slap them back to some sense. At least, as the movie shows, it wasn't even worse of a loss.

My VCR ate Tora Tora Tora. It's sure been a long time since I've seen that one.

 

[long rifle]

It's getting worse

When I was at graduate school in the early 1970s, one of my professors insisted that the reason the US used atomic bombs on Japan instead of Germany was "racism." Apparently the fact that Germany surrendered in May, months before the first atomic bomb was tested in July, 1945, had nothing to do with it!

The atomic bomb was developed with the Third Reich in mind. If they'd still been in the war, Truman would have used it on them in a New York minute.

Oh well, those whom the gods seek to destroy, they first make stupid. The ruins of our once-great post-secondary system bear witness to that.