[Uncle Erik]

Before you guys get too far down the path, please remember that political discussions are not allowed here.
 
If this thread turns political, we'll either have to clean out a lot of posts or shut down the thread.
 
(Props for the Foundation reference, Marvin! 

)

 

[Willie2]

I think it is important to remember that the average I.Q. is 100.  I can tell you from the prospective of a teacher with 37 years in the classroom a person with an I.Q. of 100 is not particularly bright and one half of the population is below that.  That was O.K. in the 1960's when anyone could go out and find a good job working in a shop.  Now good jobs require higher levels of academic skill than then. I am afraid that more and more our country will become an aristocracy of the intelligent. Some people might think that this is for the best but I am concerned how this will effect our democracy.

 

[Anaxilus]

I guess I was fortunate that my public school had great classes on top of Civics, Econ, US, World and European history.  We had classes called Cultural Geography (had to be tested on filling out the names of every country and their capital in the world) and Contemporary Issues (every student was required to subscribe to Newsweek).  When I go out and about I realize this wasn't the typical case.  

 

[MCC]

I wish I still had a copy of part 1/3 of my GCS (Geographical Cultural Studies) final exam from 9th grade. We were given a large blank piece of paper on which we had to draw the world and label (I believe) 100 cities, rivers, mountain ranges, etc. The points of interest on the list ranged from Trondheimsfjorden to Budapest. The second part was a traditional 200 question scantron exam, and the third was much more fun- building a homemade kite that could fly!

 

[Seamless Sounds]

To quote my management professor: "What is wrong with this generation!?"
It was an assignment related to business ethics. The scenario was, if your boss was looking at pr0n on premise, should you report it or ignore it? Many students said something along the lines of "he's my boss so I can't report him or else I'll get fired" (yes, even if he conducts fraud)

I worry. They've become slaves to authority.

 

[marvin]

Quote:

To quote my management professor: "What is wrong with this generation!?"
It was an assignment related to business ethics. The scenario was, if your boss was looking at pr0n on premise, should you report it or ignore it? Many students said something along the lines of "he's my boss so I can't report him or else I'll get fired" (yes, even if he conducts fraud)

I worry. They've become slaves to authority.

That example's a bit of a Rorschach test.

You see slavish obeisance to authority, I see strong mistrust of the same.

 

[grokit]

 
Quote:

That example's a bit of a Rorschach test.

You see slavish obeisance to authority, I see strong mistrust of the same.

Unless you work in the porn industry, how can you trust a boss/authority figure that is looking at porn on company time?

 

[marvin]

Quote:

 

Unless you work in the porn industry, how can you trust a boss/authority figure that is looking at porn on company time?

The issue isn't with trusting the boss, it's with trusting the rest of the company's authority structure. An employee that makes that sort of accusation is in a precarious situation and must depend on the the company's authority structure to protect the employee from retaliation. If that trust isn't there (and it ain't if the employee thinks it's a "or else I'll get fired" situation), the likelihood that said employee will put their career on the line for even criminal misbehavior is very low.

There are reasons why there are civil and criminal legal protections for whistleblowers. They ain't there just for fun.

 

[Prog Rock Man]

There must be something in management training that allows double standards. I have seen terrible behavouir by mangers ignored and when I complained they blatantly suppressed and ignored their own grievance procedure.

 

[nealric]

Quote:

When I was in school there was no class where I had to know where any country was. There was no geography class on other countries or even the states in the US iirc but it has been a while since those classes so I may be mistaken about the latter. I also don't really care where countries are located on a map really either.

I had to be able to name and place on a map all U.N. member states for my 9th grade history final. 
 
That said, I occasionally run into people who possess a pretty poor command of even fairly local geography. I once told a wealthy and well-educated neighbor of mine that I was going to Honduras. She asked me what part of Mexico that was 

 This was in Texas, where most people come across Hondurans on a daily basis. 

 

[Prog Rock Man]

I suppose us lot are in a confusing country of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland combining into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Then we still have a Commonwealth and various remnants of the Empire.

 

[Prog Rock Man]

From 2007, the world rankings tables, which makes good reading for those from Finland, HK and Canada, less so for the UK, but what about the USA......?
 

READING TOP 25	MATHS TOP 25	SCIENCE TOP 25
1	Korea	Taiwan	Finland
2	Finland	Finland	Hong Kong-China
3	Hong Kong-China	Hong Kong-China	Canada
4	Canada	Korea	Taiwan
5	New Zealand	Netherlands	Estonia
6	Ireland	Switzerland	Japan
7	Australia	Canada	New Zealand
8	Liechtenstein	Macao-China	Australia
9	Poland	Liechtenstein	Netherlands
10	Sweden	Japan	Liechtenstein
11	Netherlands	New Zealand	Korea
12	Belgium	Belgium	Slovenia
13	Estonia	Australia	Germany
14	Switzerland	Estonia	United Kingdom
15	Japan	Denmark	Czech Republic
16	Taiwan	Czech Republic	Switzerland
17	United Kingdom	Iceland	Macao-China
18	Germany	Austria	Austria
19	Denmark	Slovenia	Belgium
20	Slovenia	Germany	Ireland
21	Macao-China	Sweden	Hungary
22	Austria	Ireland	Sweden
23	France	France	Poland
24	Iceland	United Kingdom	Denmark
25	Norway	Poland	France

 
Source The Daily Telegraph 4/12/2007 taken from an OECD report.

 

[big]

yes the commonwealth all the countrys that were taken by force by the crown , all them people that suffered at the hands  of a nation that was built on the wealth of pirates like drake

 

[Prog Rock Man]

 
 
 
 
 

Student Performance on the Reading, Scientific and Mathematical Literacy Scales, mean score, 2006 Countries are ranked highest to lowest score   Countries ranked by reading scores. In the other tables below, countries are ranked by mathematics and science scores See also notes below the tables. Rank Country Reading Maths Science 1 Korea 556 547 522 2 Finland 547 548 563 3 Canada 527 527 534 4 New Zealand 521 522 530 5 Ireland 517 501 508 6 Australia 513 520 527 7 Poland1 508 495 498 8 Sweden 507 502 503 9 Netherlands 507 531 525 10 Belgium 501 520 510 11 Switzerland 499 530 512 12 Japan 498 523 531 13 United Kingdom 495 495 515 14 Germany 495 504 516 15 Denmark 494 513 496 16 OECD average 492 498 500 17 Austria 490 505 511 18 France 488 496 495 19 Iceland 484 506 491 20 Norway 484 490 487 21 Czech Republic1 483 510 513 22 Hungary 482 491 504 23 Luxembourg 479 490 486 24 Portugal1 472 466 474 25 Italy 469 462 475 26 Slovak Republic 466 492 488 27 Spain 461 480 488 28 Greece 460 459 473 29 Turkey1 447 424 424 30 Russian Federation 440 476 479 31 Mexico 410 406 410 32 Brazil1 393 370 390 33 United States .. 474 489 Rank Country Maths Science Reading 1 Finland 548 563 547 2 Korea 547 522 556 3 Netherlands 531 525 507 4 Switzerland 530 512 499 5 Canada 527 534 527 6 Japan 523 531 498 7 New Zealand 522 530 521 8 Belgium 520 510 501 9 Australia 520 527 513 10 Denmark 513 496 494 11 Czech Republic1 510 513 483 12 Iceland 506 491 484 13 Austria 505 511 490 14 Germany 504 516 495 15 Sweden 502 503 507 16 Ireland 501 508 517 17 OECD average 498 500 492 18 France 496 495 488 19 United Kingdom 495 515 495 20 Poland1 495 498 508 21 Slovak Republic 492 488 466 22 Hungary 491 504 482 23 Luxembourg 490 486 479 24 Norway 490 487 484 25 Spain 480 488 461 26 Russian Federation 476 479 440 27 United States 474 489 .. 28 Portugal1 466 474 472 29 Italy 462 475 469 30 Greece 459 473 460 31 Turkey1 424 424 447 32 Mexico 406 410 410 33 Brazil1 370 390 393 Rank Country Science Reading Maths 1 Finland 563 547 548 2 Canada 534 527 527 3 Japan 531 498 523 4 New Zealand 530 521 522 5 Australia 527 513 520 6 Netherlands 525 507 531 7 Korea 522 556 547 8 Germany 516 495 504 9 United Kingdom 515 495 495 10 Czech Republic1 513 483 510 11 Switzerland 512 499 530 12 Austria 511 490 505 13 Belgium 510 501 520 14 Ireland 508 517 501 15 Hungary 504 482 491 16 Sweden 503 507 502 17 OECD average 500 492 498 18 Poland1 498 508 495 19 Denmark 496 494 513 20 France 495 488 496 21 Iceland 491 484 506 22 United States 489 .. 474 23 Slovak Republic 488 466 492 24 Spain 488 461 480 25 Norway 487 484 490 26 Luxembourg 486 479 490 27 Russian Federation 479 440 476 28 Italy 475 469 462 29 Portugal1 474 472 466 30 Greece 473 460 459 31 Turkey1 424 447 424 32 Mexico 410 410 406 33 Brazil1 390 393 370  NOTES: These tables show student performance on the reading, scientific and mathematical literacy scales, mean score, measured in 2006, and reported in OECD's Education at a Glance 2009. Students were tested at age 15 and therefore approaching the end of compulsory schooling. 1In these countries, tertiary-type A attainment includes all types of tertiary level degrees.

 
Source Country Rankings  2009 OECD

 

[nick_charles]

Quote:

yes the commonwealth all the countrys that were taken by force by the crown , all them people that suffered at the hands  of a nation that was built on the wealth of pirates like drake

While I fully agree that the British Empire was not a benevolent entity and was certainly guilty of many attrocities we should not point fingers here as we will find few countries with a blameless foreign policy - also we are not allowed to discuss politics !