Dear BBS

[T-6005]

I don't know. My girlfriend's brother is 3 and likes watching Dora the Explorer and he's basically a continually fascinating study on how people learn.

I can't bring myself to speak to him in "child talk," either. It feels like I'm going to teach him how to settle for half-words or something.

That people now seem dumber than people when we were growing up might be true on a surface level - but I'm sure modern society has always had a plethora of crappy parents, murderously ignorant classmates and unwanted pregnancies. I was an idiot in high school. Case in point: one of my English teachers, after giving me a D on an assignment, kept me after class and warned me that I would probably become a taxi driver if - and I'm taking a little liberty with what he actually said here - I didn't stop being so stupid.

Curiously, I don't think it motivated me that much.

It could just as easily be the fact that we're essentially looking back on ourselves at that age, watching kids make the mistakes we made and knowing how stupid and irresponsible they are while conveniently forgetting that when we were 15 we didn't give two shits about school either. Watching them in retrospect makes those decisions seem even dumber. If I could have had sex at the age of 16 while being told that I couldn't use protection, I can't even honestly say I wouldn't have taken the opportunity.

They're painful recollections of the learning process and it just makes them worse when you realize that all that shit is still going on, perpetrated by little turds that hit an uncomfortable part of your memory.

[Omni]

I guess you have a point, there. I wasn't even thinking in terms of educational shows. I've never sat down to critique modern children's programs, but isn't Dora the Explorer actually a good show for teaching kids?

[_Lost_]

Dora is definitely a good one. The bilingual aspect is supposed to be what makes that show a real winner. As toddlers, their brains can absorb two languages almost as easily as just learning their main language.

I don't mean to say that a parent shouldn't be realistic about what their child can or can't accomplish. Either way, the kid will most often figure out that they aren't in the brightest crayon in the box before they graduate. That's not the issue. The stigma of trade school is definitely one, as well as the complete eradication of trade oriented classes in high schools. My school didn't even have home ec.

My beef lies with the parents who don't aim to at least make their child display proper manners in public or discipline them to work hard and study. Without the willingness to work hard, you end up like my older brother, who can't even hold down a job flipping burgers because he is too good for it, yet refuses to get proper training in the thing he wants to do.

[Omni]

I was at my parents' house today, and I got to see my report cards from grade school. In 5th grade, I was in the 31st percentile on the SAT 9 test. The only category (of like seven-ten) I scored above the 50th percent on was Spelling. Reading Vocabulary was at 49%.


Thinking back on it, now, I really wasn't very smart as a young child. I was completely illiterate in kingergarten and first grade, I could barely write my whole name. In 1st grade I was put in a remedial reading class, and by the next semester, I was an average reader for my age, and became extremely proficient in junior high. I was also put in remedial math for most of school, but since math is such an incredibly boring subject that can't be made fun to learn in any way, I never did exceed in that area.

In other words, I guess not every person has a natural talent for all things academic, even though I've never thought grades and scores were good indicators of talent. Performing well in school is mostly motivation. Some people can become very very good at whatever they're doing through molding and just slowing things down a bit. I couldn't learn at the pace of normal kids when I was starting out, so I had to be moved to classes where I could learn things at a slower speed. I guess I'm just glad the public school system took measures to correct the problems early on.

[WebDudette]

I screwed myself over academically. I've always had awesome test scores, scoring PHS on stuff since 6th grade. But I never did anything, ever. In all honesty, I shouldn't have graduated high school. I did a professional internship program and a community service program to get an extra credit and a half so I could actually pass. Except, I didn't do either of those and just got people to sign off on them. Then, because I was a fucking retard all through school, I went to a community college. I did there placement test and scored high enough for a full scholarship. I went for about half a semester before I just stopped showing up. I'm signed up for online school right now, hopefully I can pull my shit together. It's an 8 week semester with the same amount of credits so I can catch up a bit. I already have 6 English credits from high school too, so I won't be too far behind.

[Paint_It_Black]

Hey Pilz, we seem to be pretty similar so I'll give you a warning. You almost certainly could predict this yourself, but whatever reasons you have for screwing yourself academically, it's only going to get worse as you get older. Now I'm 28 I really wish I had a college education but I can't motivate myself to do it now and work fulltime. Of course, if I could go back ten years and tell this to my younger self it probably wouldn't make any difference. But what the hell, I figured I'd give you the old "you'll regret it later" speech anyway. I hate playing this role but I like you so I figured it's worth a shot.