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Published in The Brownsville Herald 2/12/2006 and in “Lone Star Liberty” February 2006 the monthly news magazine of the Texas Libertarian Party.
On Friday January 13, ABC aired a John Stossel segment called “Stupid in America”.
I didn’t see it but found that it was a prime topic of conversation, in my “mainstream” so I secured a transcript. I also looked at the comments from a variety of sources.
Generally, in the educational world, with administrators at the different levels, the higher you go up in the food chain, the more vehemently the report was attacked. Also, as expected, those viewing social responsibility from a more liberal point of view were the most aggressive in their attacks with Conservatives more supportive.
The presence of this show in prime time, on a prime day by a news organization not usually known for Conservative bias, indicates a very important issue.
Some of the descriptions started to ring true with my personal experience. One in particular was where it was stated, “At age 10, American students take an international test and score well above the international average. But by age 15, when students from 40 countries are tested, the Americans place 25th.”
I have participated in a Texas UIL inter-mural academic competition by judging student essays for a “Ready Writing” classification. Many of the middle school students submissions were excellent often by any standards, and that when some of these same students reach High School the quality of the work declined substantially to just bigger words with no substance and the analysis that I enjoyed earlier was all but non-existent.
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