A nation of dunces? It is my opinion we don't don't have enough dunces
or at least people that can put concepts in laymens terms.


On Jan 19, 3:48*pm, Wildbilly > wrote:
> In article
> >,
>
> wrote:
> > 30 years? Maybe your stuck in a time warp. Actually, I don't care how
> > much time you've spent in the industry, from reading some of your
> > posts your ideas border on the absurd when it comes to amateur
> > winemaking. Professionals built the Titanic and amateurs built the
> > Arc. I
>
> Hey, Stoopid, listen up.
>
> . . . the third and final factor behind the new American dumbness: not
> lack of knowledge per se but arrogance about that lack of knowledge. The
> problem is not just the things we do not know (consider the one in five
> American adults who, according to the National Science Foundation,
> thinks the sun revolves around the Earth); it's the alarming number of
> Americans who have smugly concluded that they do not need to know such
> things in the first place. Call this anti-rationalism -- a syndrome that
> is particularly dangerous to our public institutions and discourse. Not
> knowing a foreign language or the location of an important country is a
> manifestation of ignorance; denying that such knowledge matters is pure
> anti-rationalism. The toxic brew of anti-rationalism and ignorance hurts
> discussions of U.S. public policy on topics from health care to taxation.
>
> There is no quick cure for this epidemic of arrogant anti-rationalism
> and anti-intellectualism; rote efforts to raise standardized test scores
> by stuffing students with specific answers to specific questions on
> specific tests will not do the job. Moreover, the people who exemplify
> the problem are usually oblivious to it. ("Hardly anyone believes
> himself to be against thought and culture," Hofstadter noted.) It is
> past time for a serious national discussion about whether, as a nation,
> we truly value intellect and rationality. If this indeed turns out to be
> a "change election," the low level of discourse in a country with a mind
> taught to aim at low objects ought to be the first item on the change
> agenda.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...08/02/15/AR200...
> 502901.html?hpid%3Dopinionsbox1&sub=AR
>
> washingtonpost.com *> Opinions *> Outlook
> The Dumbing Of America
> Call Me a Snob, but Really, We're a Nation of Dunces
> By Susan Jacoby
> Sunday, February 17, 2008; Page B01
>
> ----
> And it was arrogance that sank the Titanic, and the Ark only exists in
> faith.
> ----
>
> What a humongous steaming pile of ignorance you are, Stoopid, and you're
> not nice.
> --
> "Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the
> merger of state and corporate power." - Benito Mussolini.
>
> http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satelli...erts020709.htm