This year is cursed.

[SJ Zero]

It's good to know this curse is limited to my own world.

...

[seph]

this is quite upsetting... i feel old now... and i feel like the new generation of kids are idiots... i mean damnit: when we were kids, at least we *knew* how to spell right, we just chose not to... these kids dont even know how to spell properly! damnit...

[NovaProgramming]

Life has it's difficulties.... but you just gotta remember the amazingly awesome things that life can bring... then it's worth it.

(*NovaProgramming has just acquired a girlfriend, and thus his statement may or may not be influenced by a sudden rush of happiness.

[barok]

this is quite upsetting... i feel old now... and i feel like the new generation of kids are idiots... i mean damnit: when we were kids, at least we *knew* how to spell right, we just chose not to... these kids dont even know how to spell properly! damnit...

it's nice to see you haven't changed seph.

[DrV]

this is quite upsetting... i feel old now... and i feel like the new generation of kids are idiots... i mean damnit: when we were kids, at least we *knew* how to spell right, we just chose not to... these kids dont even know how to spell properly! damnit...

* nods profusely until his head falls off *

Where did you people go to school? (Or didn't you...?)

[DrV]

this is quite upsetting... i feel old now... and i feel like the new generation of kids are idiots... i mean damnit: when we were kids, at least we *knew* how to spell right, we just chose not to... these kids dont even know how to spell properly! damnit...

* nods profusely until his head falls off *

Where did you people go to school? (Or didn't you...?)

[Zack]

Actually, I believe that the whole reason for any rampant lack of intelligence in youth is DUE to them all going to school. Make things more homelike and personal, pull all the kids out of school and put them in with a private tutor or a parent, preferably, and you'll see improvement (not only in actual intelligence, but in the child's enjoyment of improving their intelligence).

[DrV]

I see where you're coming from, but I consider myself "intelligent" - no genius, mind you, but posessing enough intelligence to at least appear intelligent to uninformed passers-by. There is, perhaps, a bit of a difference between the public school system and the private school I attended for nine years, but I didn't have the chance to attend both a private school and a public school and compare. However, as I near the end of four years of public high school, I can say that the public school environment is much less personal and learning-encouraging than the private school I attended. This is probably due to the fact that the private school had fewer students and therefore more attention from each teacher per student. I guess that means I actually agree with you. I'm not really sure. There have certainly been many exceptionally intelligent people who attended public schools. I think the improvement in the intelligence and enjoyment of learning that students have depends most upon the effort and zeal that the students apply to their learning, their attitudes, and the attitudes of their parents.

[SJ Zero]

There is something to be said for having a standardized educational system. Even if not everyone reaches their full potential, you can be assured that anyone who has made it through has at least been EXPOSED to the basic skills required to function in society. Considering that most parents weren't very good students(most people aren't), the idea of the knowlegeable creating knowlegable children and the ignorant producing ignorant children leads to a very real class distinction, so little Billy, who never learned to read because his mother decided it was too hard for little Billy to learn(even though Billy has an IQ of 175), will be worse off than little Bobby, who has an IQ of 48, but whose parents were bright people who understood that a person who can't read is deadweight in this society.

If you were homeschooled, I appreciate that you perhaps got a lot more out of it than a student in a classroom, but standardized schooling is a neccessary evil, and the problems with social structure in schools should be addressed long before the concept is thrown out entirely. Do it for the children...of Bubba and Mary-Joe-Sue.

[Zack]

Well, to have 100% of kids unschooled would mean a massive culture change that would probably take about a century. The whole modern system of middle-class Westernized life depends on parents at work, making money, toddlers in daycare and kids in school. To shift that would be no doubt beneficial in the long run, but so would the absolute elimination of something like gasoline-powered cars: It's a matter of adaption. We couldn't just quit school or cars cold-turkey. Kids would have a field day and commit who-knows-how-many crimes, while parents wouldn't "be able to afford" the time off work to educate their children. Hence disaster. But, if the government turned more socially-minded and gave parents sizable stipends in order to help them homeschool, the return after 20 years would be enormous: a better, more intelligent and morally correct work force, created by homeschooling, would create a booming, competent and manageable economy. And that "sizeable stipend" need not be the x-thousand-dollar amount needed for each child to be kept in public school (my family alone has probably saved the public school system around $300'000-$400'000). A quarter of that, say $1000 per school year, combined with more sensible parents and a more sustainable way of life, would do just fine.