B'duh, b'duh, b'duh...That's All, Folks!
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6989380
That link lets you check out the new generation of modern cartoons for the modern child. Go take a look. It'll only take a second. (Link courtesy of "Wait...What" of MSN Community Group "Shattered Illusion".)
There. That didn't take long did it? Did you like the new Bugs? How masculine he looks! Just like all the Adult Cartoon Shows that have been springing up in the wake of "The Simpsons" and "Futurama" success...
Clearly an agenda is at work here. But what?
It's not to appeal to little kids. Kids are kids, they don't have any preconceived ideas yet, and any given five year old could be as entertained with "Leave it to Beaver" reruns from the 1950s....or Conestoga Trail sing-alongs and campfire stories from the 1850s.
They are little kids, they aren't used to anything yet, so whatever you show or tell them is new and entertaining.
One motive might be to justify some executive or agency getting paid big bucks doing, "Market Research".
But that would only account for a bit of it. For why would "Market Research", a highly specialized and very accurate branch of psychology, indicate that this would be popular?
Easy.
The "kids" they are marketing to are not "kids"...except in intellect. The "kids" being marketed to are college age kids, from 18 to 25. That new demographic of "those who still live with mommy and daddy, not for the job market being bad, but because playing nintendo is funner then flipping burgers because even though that's all they qualify for it's lousy for their self-esteem".
These are the fresh crops of dull minds that we yearly harvest from our "publik skools". They are the ones you see being asked by Jay Leno, "Who is the President?" and the woman who stated earlier to him that she is majoring in Education giggles proudly over her lack of knowledge of such trivialities.
The ones you see on our Game Shows being asked such brain busters as "This Nazi German Dictator started WWII and his name is ----- Hitler". After the first person incorrectly guesses Arnold, the second one will tentatively answer, "Adolf?" and beam with pride and relief when told he is correct.
They are the ones who have driven corporate America to having to computerize all the cash registers at the fast food places, and set them up so that buttons with the Number Symbol of the food to be ordered can be pressed rather then prices and other aspects of "higher mathematics" be figured.
(Which is why when you are at McDonalds, and you say, "I'll have a Quarter Pounder and Fries" that the clerk will look puzzled and say, "You mean a Number 3?" - for he knows what the number 3 looks like, but reading a menu with the food name and price is generally beyond him.)
Such is the market for the new cartoons. Manly cartoon male figures, sexy cartoon female figures, for the post-adolescent in hormones and drive - but the pre-adolescent in intellect and comprehension.
You think I exaggerate? Not by much...if at all. Go to a fast food restauarant or Kwik-E-Stop (and note the phonetic spelling in this age of illiteracy) and con or cajole the "manager" into letting you see the job applications. Bring tissues, so you can blow your nose after weeping in fear for the future after reading the illiterate crayonings of the cataclysmically ignorant.
Next go to the Human Resources Department of a major corporation, and with a bit more effort (tell them you are a University Newspaper reporter) learn how it is there. The applications and resumes are better - thanks to pre-formatted resume building programs available on the net, and computer aided spell and grammar checking - but.....
But....
Ask them of the interviews. Learn the percentages of those males who show up wearing "grunge casual" or women who think Tammy Faye Baker level make up is a good thing. Learn of the stutterings and stammerings in answer to any question that departs from what schools now must try to teach as the "usual questions". Learn how those who conduct the interviews have had to be counseled and made to only ask the "expected" questions so as to insure that some applicants pass.
Learn the percent of those who hopelessly fail even that computer aided, school taught, dumbed down minimalistic procedure.
Now go find a teacher. I'm sorry, an Educator. Ask her who signed the Magna Carta. Or see if she even knows the year of the signing. Hell...just see if she knows what it is!
Come back afterwards and tell me if I exaggerate. No, really, go do that. Then come tell me I'm wrong.
I keep telling people to homeschool. I keep telling people our "Publik Skools" are Idiot Indoctrination Centers run by the idiots who were previously graduated with their peer group. Run by those we laughed at in College, for we all knew that the dumbest were hiding out in the Education field for four years so as to avoid math, physics, history and other "hard stuff".
When Fox News is popular, when leaders like Clinton and Bush are respected, when talking about Michael Jackson's exploits is regarded as having an intellectual conversation on modern issues, when companies have to hire middle managers and computer support workers from India because there aren't enough competent minds here, when to see an Asian professional is to breathe a sigh of relief for knowing that "At least this one will be able to help me", when to have the question "Can Teachers pass a GED test" brought up in a town is to ensure the threat of a Teacher strike if you try to find out...
And when to see cartoons drawn, and dialogue wrote, that is entirely inappropriate for children, but entirely "cool" for our overgrown, stay-at-home, "I gots self-ehsteem" kids...
Could it be safe to say that when you see all these things, and experience them daily, that maybe...just maybe...I'm right?
Must we be completely totalitarianistically governed or find our society in state of total collapse and barbarism before steps are taken?
Dean West
That link lets you check out the new generation of modern cartoons for the modern child. Go take a look. It'll only take a second. (Link courtesy of "Wait...What" of MSN Community Group "Shattered Illusion".)
There. That didn't take long did it? Did you like the new Bugs? How masculine he looks! Just like all the Adult Cartoon Shows that have been springing up in the wake of "The Simpsons" and "Futurama" success...
Clearly an agenda is at work here. But what?
It's not to appeal to little kids. Kids are kids, they don't have any preconceived ideas yet, and any given five year old could be as entertained with "Leave it to Beaver" reruns from the 1950s....or Conestoga Trail sing-alongs and campfire stories from the 1850s.
They are little kids, they aren't used to anything yet, so whatever you show or tell them is new and entertaining.
One motive might be to justify some executive or agency getting paid big bucks doing, "Market Research".
But that would only account for a bit of it. For why would "Market Research", a highly specialized and very accurate branch of psychology, indicate that this would be popular?
Easy.
The "kids" they are marketing to are not "kids"...except in intellect. The "kids" being marketed to are college age kids, from 18 to 25. That new demographic of "those who still live with mommy and daddy, not for the job market being bad, but because playing nintendo is funner then flipping burgers because even though that's all they qualify for it's lousy for their self-esteem".
These are the fresh crops of dull minds that we yearly harvest from our "publik skools". They are the ones you see being asked by Jay Leno, "Who is the President?" and the woman who stated earlier to him that she is majoring in Education giggles proudly over her lack of knowledge of such trivialities.
The ones you see on our Game Shows being asked such brain busters as "This Nazi German Dictator started WWII and his name is ----- Hitler". After the first person incorrectly guesses Arnold, the second one will tentatively answer, "Adolf?" and beam with pride and relief when told he is correct.
They are the ones who have driven corporate America to having to computerize all the cash registers at the fast food places, and set them up so that buttons with the Number Symbol of the food to be ordered can be pressed rather then prices and other aspects of "higher mathematics" be figured.
(Which is why when you are at McDonalds, and you say, "I'll have a Quarter Pounder and Fries" that the clerk will look puzzled and say, "You mean a Number 3?" - for he knows what the number 3 looks like, but reading a menu with the food name and price is generally beyond him.)
Such is the market for the new cartoons. Manly cartoon male figures, sexy cartoon female figures, for the post-adolescent in hormones and drive - but the pre-adolescent in intellect and comprehension.
You think I exaggerate? Not by much...if at all. Go to a fast food restauarant or Kwik-E-Stop (and note the phonetic spelling in this age of illiteracy) and con or cajole the "manager" into letting you see the job applications. Bring tissues, so you can blow your nose after weeping in fear for the future after reading the illiterate crayonings of the cataclysmically ignorant.
Next go to the Human Resources Department of a major corporation, and with a bit more effort (tell them you are a University Newspaper reporter) learn how it is there. The applications and resumes are better - thanks to pre-formatted resume building programs available on the net, and computer aided spell and grammar checking - but.....
But....
Ask them of the interviews. Learn the percentages of those males who show up wearing "grunge casual" or women who think Tammy Faye Baker level make up is a good thing. Learn of the stutterings and stammerings in answer to any question that departs from what schools now must try to teach as the "usual questions". Learn how those who conduct the interviews have had to be counseled and made to only ask the "expected" questions so as to insure that some applicants pass.
Learn the percent of those who hopelessly fail even that computer aided, school taught, dumbed down minimalistic procedure.
Now go find a teacher. I'm sorry, an Educator. Ask her who signed the Magna Carta. Or see if she even knows the year of the signing. Hell...just see if she knows what it is!
Come back afterwards and tell me if I exaggerate. No, really, go do that. Then come tell me I'm wrong.
I keep telling people to homeschool. I keep telling people our "Publik Skools" are Idiot Indoctrination Centers run by the idiots who were previously graduated with their peer group. Run by those we laughed at in College, for we all knew that the dumbest were hiding out in the Education field for four years so as to avoid math, physics, history and other "hard stuff".
When Fox News is popular, when leaders like Clinton and Bush are respected, when talking about Michael Jackson's exploits is regarded as having an intellectual conversation on modern issues, when companies have to hire middle managers and computer support workers from India because there aren't enough competent minds here, when to see an Asian professional is to breathe a sigh of relief for knowing that "At least this one will be able to help me", when to have the question "Can Teachers pass a GED test" brought up in a town is to ensure the threat of a Teacher strike if you try to find out...
And when to see cartoons drawn, and dialogue wrote, that is entirely inappropriate for children, but entirely "cool" for our overgrown, stay-at-home, "I gots self-ehsteem" kids...
Could it be safe to say that when you see all these things, and experience them daily, that maybe...just maybe...I'm right?
Must we be completely totalitarianistically governed or find our society in state of total collapse and barbarism before steps are taken?
Dean West
posted by Dean West @ 12:12 PM
9 Comments:
At March 2, 2005 5:53 PM,
harrytru said…
Daan,
It took your little shove to even get me to look at this web page, but I agree with you and a bit more...did you notice these other wonderful articles for alert minds?
• Bugs Bunny gets an extreme makeover• Britney’s kid sis gets her own show• Christian groups go after ‘SpongeBob’• Davey & Goliath revived to teach children• Turn on TV to get your preschooler moving
Ah, mass education, don't ya love it? And just think, someday they'll reproduce...scary thought!
respectfully,
harrytru
At March 3, 2005 4:14 PM,
Kiki said…
Dean,
I read this article and realized that you are not familiar with the research and skill which goes into today's teaching profession. First, teachers are required to not only have a college education, but to also pass a proficiency test in their subject area before they can enter the classroom. They also participate in a student teaching experience, so that the training is not left to theory alone.
I'm a teacher of twenty three years. During this time I have been teacher of the year, and also nominated several times in Who's Who of American Teachers. My resume is modest compared to many of my peers, who are at the top of their field nationally.
Today, teachers are held accountable like they never have been before. Schools are judged by their performance level, as well as things such as attendance and basic atmospheric conditions. I chose to live in an area in which the schools were progressive, because education is important to me as a teacher, as a parent, and also as a human being.
I have a suggestion. Instead of complaining about the things that you see as failures in the American public educational system, why not make suggestions as to how public education could be improved. Every teacher in my community participates in yearly personal growth plans, as well as state and national improvement plans. No one is content with our present status, we constantly evaluate methods and procedures and make changes where necessary. Instead of pointing a blanketed finger at an entire profession, make constructive comments based on facts. Better yet, go into a school and volunteer some of your time to our nation's future.
Tracy
At March 3, 2005 6:35 PM,
Dean West said…
Kiki,
Wow! What a resume! Truly impressive, so much so that I should just believe all you say! OH....wait a second...oh, yeah, I forgot, you are a government agent so incompetent in life that you must force your "customers" to do business with you, and force us to pay for you to stay alive - you not trusting enough in whatever actual abilities you might have to get an actual job.
Everything you say about the supposedly ever increasing standards pales into insignificance when weighed against the actual reality of the ever decreasing test scores of our graduates every year since the 1940s.
Everything you say about the intensive qualifications and study and seminars pales into insignificance when weighed against the FACT that everyone in college laughs at the idiots who hide out in the Education department, not learning anything to teach, but rather (and laughably) "learning to teach".
To teach what? Oh, why "Johnny" of course, is the pat answer of our Modern Educators. Which it's as well they say that, for if they said Latin, Logic, Law, or anything that the 7th grade kids of the 19th century learned, they'd be lying.
I read your response and am well able to see your teaching credentials. You come upon a blog written by a man who in his very profile speaks of his affinity for Thoreau and Rand - two names you'd have to google to know of - and still post as if anything a Ritalin Pushing Illiterate Child Indoctrinator wrote of could possibly have any relevence.
Oh, but I should do more then just complain? Ahh, but I do, my tax stealing educator, I do.
I publish blogs like this, encouraging parents to save the minds of their young ones - for as you yourselves so love to say, the children really are our future. I know how to make public schools better - privatize them, so parents can send their kids to places where they can get to learn how to read, to write, to do mathematics. Not how to put condoms on bananas, take field trips, and jump up and down at the sound of a bell.
I also advocate tax vouchers for private schools in the meanwhile - something your two largest Teacher's Unions bitterly oppose, as they oppose anything that in any way would let things improve.
As to volunteering my time in our nation's schools - what, you mean besides the time and money you steal from me already? Some nerve. A mugger could with as little morality ask me to come and do his dishes, and perhaps some light dusting.
You utter fool. Yet that is obviously what you are, in a "profession" that promotes based on Union Seniority, not personal merit. No, never merit, for then you'd all find yourselves unqualified to mop out the locker room floors.
They aren't my "Nation's Schools". They are Indoctrination Centers of the United States government, with the sole purpose of turning out docile and easily led factory workers and voters. And cannon fodder for the very military who's recruiters abound in your cafeterias and guidance offices.
Here's a thought for you, Ms. Teacher of the Year - go get 100 copies of the GED test, call the press, and say, "I challenge all our professional and well educated teachers to come and pass this test!"
See how long you keep your job. See how many actually take your challenge. lol...see first if you can pass it!
Don't bother to come back and tell me how it went. The contempt I have for your like is beyond anything you could possibly imagine, and I only regret that my own education at the hands of ignorant propagandists like you has left me unable to as fully express it as I most strongly feel it.
Dean
At March 3, 2005 6:42 PM,
Dean West said…
Harrytru,
Some day they will reproduce...indeed. Glad you liked the article.
Take care,
Dean
At March 3, 2005 9:13 PM,
Anonymous said…
Excellent post Dean!
Every parent who really cares about educating their child should read it!
"Publik skools" have never been about educating young people. they were started during our country's industrail revolution as an aid to prodcing factory workers, not as a means to teach our children.
Just as an aside, read over Kiki's post, where she says "..teachers are held accountable like they never have been before.."
She should have said "AS they never have been before" not LIKE they said. I hope she isn't teaching English grammer.
Peace,Sharyn
At March 3, 2005 9:15 PM,
Anonymous said…
Please forgive my typos in my previous post. I hit send before proof reading.
S
At March 3, 2005 9:28 PM,
Dean West said…
Sharyn,
Your support on this important issue is greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
Dean
At March 3, 2005 10:09 PM,
Anonymous said…
Dean, when my children were small, they were not allowed to watch hour after hour of mind-numbing TV.
there were shows on that their friends watched but that my own children weren't allowed to watch, either because we felt them too violent or too mindless.
Not using the TV as a baby sitter may not have always been convenient, but it was well worth it.
Home schooling is a lot easier today than it was when my husband and I did it. We had to battle local school systems where as homeschoolers today are more likely to gain acceptance. The net has been a boon for homeschoolers as well, with a wealth of sites out there from which to glean information.
Schools are great for free baby sitting and not much else IMHO.
I think that we should also place some of the blame on disinterested parents who are too lazy to parent their kids. They are too busy climbing the corporate ladder or they have subtance abuse problems of their own that negatively impact on their parenting skills.
I find it somewhat chilling that of my own (now adult) children's circle of friends, they are the only ones from an intact family.
Peace,Sharyn
At March 4, 2005 9:03 AM,
Richard said…
Dean,
You may wish to avail yourself of "spell check" prior to posting an attack on the education system.
Milton Friedman is an excellent source for information on vouchers.
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