What's wrong with American High Schools? Computers.

Get rid of computers.

They slow down the teaching.

Return to books instead.

Fund libraries instead.

they should get macs. :evilgrin:

As soon as you realize that schools are just another tool of the corporations to make more "cogs" for their machines, you'll recognize that computers, like most things, are just something else to be sold to kids.

Get rid of all the vending machines, all logos and all corporate sponsorship and you'll start to get at the problem. (Though if you've read anything by John Gatto you'll probably despair over the whole educational system.)

To be more of a problem of not teaching anything. Teaching sex ed should be done by parents. Use that time in school for mathmatics. Let's not have phys ed and teach history in it's place. Cooking classes belong in the home, fill that gap with literacy. Knock out literature classes to make room for computer science courses.

Get rid of the fluff and replae it with stuff kids need to know. My county has an average reading level of 7th grade even among high school graduates. If this continues, companies will have to send jobs overseas just for literate workers. We do need to promote books for additional learning (even among adults) but also teach computers as most jobs now require their use even if it's just to log a workers' hours.

Kids need to master the basics before they let these wonderboxes do the hard work for them.

Shoot, I think kids in high school need the computer courses. I dislike seeing anything more technical than a pencil and a sheet of paper in the lower grades.

I know too many kids who can write malware and crack porn sites within 2 minutes, but they can't make change at a McDonalds unless the register tells them how.

Here's an incomplete list of All The Things That Are Wrong With Schools:

• Computers
  
• TV
  
• Basic Cable
  
• No prayer in schools
  
• Tight skirts
  
• Tight jeans
  
• Condoms
  
• Integration
  
• Segregation
  
• Communism
  
• Raw Sex
  
• Cooked Sex
  
• Char-Broiled Sex
  
• The See-Say method of Reading Instruction
  
• Not enough paddling
  
• Too much paddling
  
• Public displays of affection
  
• Cuddle parties
  
• Public displays of affection while paddling
  
• Paddle parties
  
• Alcohol
  
• Drugs
  
• Smoking
  
• Atheism
  
• Pedophile teachers
  
• Pedophiles on the internet
  
• Communist atheist pedophile teachers
  
• Long hair
  
• Short hair
  
• Mullets
  
• Cods, hakes, shads and flounders
  
• Gourmet coffee
  
• Liberalism
  
• Lack of a Death Penalty
  
• Not enough homework
  
• Too much homework
  
• Too-heavy textbooks
  
• Not enough textbooks
  
• Progressive education
  
• Montessori education
  
• Dr. Spock
  
• Captain Kirk
  
• Comic books
  
• Bad literature
  
• TV cartoons
  
• The Simpsons (Homer, Bart, and O.J.)
  
• No more Latin
  
• The Metric system
  
• Socialism
  
• Starbuck as a chick on the new Battlestar Galactica
  
• The French
  
• Cosmetic use
  
• Deconstructionism (sic)
  
• Giga-Pets
  
• Goths
  
• Heavy Metal music
  
• Rock And Roll music
  
• Art Rock
  
• Punk Rock
  
• Chris Rock
  
• Disobedience
  
• Meat eating
  
• Patriarchy
  
• Polyester
  
• John Waters
  
• Aspartame/Nutra-Sweet
  
• White Sugar
  
• African-American Sugar
  
• Super-smart Asian kids
  
• Alien abduction
  
• Alien abduction, and the damned aliens don't keep them
  
• Baby Einstein videos
  
• Spongebob Squarepants
  
• Saturday Night Live
  
• Saturday Night
  
• Night
  
• Self-mutilation
  
• Cattle mutilation
  
• Cattle self-mutilation
  
• The decline of interest in dances, roller skating, and hand-holding
  
• Guns, knives, and other weapons of mayhem
  
• Lenient judges
  
• Hallowe'en
  
• Wicca
  
• Scientology
  
• BHA and BHT
  
• Polysorbate-80
  
• Abandonment of the Gold Standard
  
• Materialism
  
• The Man
  
• The Scent of a Woman
  
• The New International Version of the Bible
  
• Rev. John Shelby Spong
  
• Christina Ricci, Jimmy Fallon, Britney Spears, and Kim Possible
  
• Christina Aguilera, Leo DiCaprio, Madonna, Gwen Stefani, and Old Navy
  
• The Pill
  
• Vitamins
  
• HDTV
  
• Napster and downloading
  
• Michael Jackson
  
• September 11th
  
• The Death of Outrage
  
• The Death of Shame
  
• The Death of Rhymed Verse
  
• Death
  
• Teen pregnancy
  
• Abortion
  
• Bad Behavior without Consequences
  
• Solar energy
  
• Bill Gates
  
• Phish
  
• The Designated Hitter rule
  
• Science Fiction
  
• Dancing
  
• Line Dancing
  
• Tap Dancing
  
• Bone Dancing
  
• J.R.R. Tolkien
  
• Marijuana
  
• LSD
  
• Angel Dust
  
• Robitussin
  
• Oxy-Clean
  
• Easy access to automobiles
  
• Obesity
  
• That Atkins Low-Carb Thing
  
• Boy bands
  
• Reality shows
  
• William Hung
  
• Charles and Camilla
  
• Gays
  
• Goys (Goyim)
  
• The Jew Conspiracy
  
• Jews' Harps
  
• The Conspiracy of English Royalty
  
• The Priory of Sion
  
• Feminists
  
• Linux
  
• Comet Hale-Bopp
  
• Epstein-Barr
  
• A Cup of Cold Gravy with a Hair in it
  

Did I miss any?

--p!

their students expect everything to be available through Google.

As development editor of a textbook, I came down hard on an author who advised teachers to have the students "surf the Net" for information about Japan, because there is so much stupid and just plain erroneous stuff on the "Net."

One of the most irritating phenomena on travel websites is the (usually young) poster who says, "What is there to see and do in Japan?" This is usually six or seven threads above (i.e., on the same page as) the last poster who asked, "What is there to see and do in Japan?"

Duh, there are several guidebooks of several hundred pages available, so get your lazy butt down to a bookstore, put down $20 for a book (which you should be able to afford if you're going to Japan, for heaven's sake), read it (yes, read a book that your teacher didn't assign! Aren't I mean and unreasonable to suggest that?), and then come back with an intelligent question.