Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt

[sleeplessdwarf]

I first posted this in the Education section, but it was the wrong place I guess. So, since she is a CTist I will try my luck here.

I am not sure if this has been discussed here or not, and given where I first heard this lady speak(Alex Jones) it might first appear that it belongs in the CT thread. I was reading her book "The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America" and ignoring all the CT info I was wondering what is the current status of our school system. Since I do not hold onto the belief that it was all by design, what is the reason that our schools seem to be less apt to do the job than they used to. Or maybe they never really did and I was just delusional back then. I have 4 kids the oldest being 14 and a freshman in high school, and it just feels that our kids are not as smart as they used to be. Ofc, there are always the more gifted and I am sure we have some of those here, but I would like to know if this woman has any real info to offer, minus the deliberate part.

I think I need to do more investi-googling on this to get some answers I am looking for but I am still curious about this lady and if anything in her book is worth reading.

[CurtC]

Never heard of her, but I don't have the impression that our students are dumber than they used to be. On the contrary, my two boys (8 & 12) know lots more than I did at their ages.

ETA: and I wasn't a slouch scholastically - we didn't have kindergarten back then, but when I started first grade, they bumped me up to second grade because I already knew all the first grade material.

[moon1969]

Popular culture made kids dumb and kids today watch too much TV.

[sleeplessdwarf]

She was a senior policy adviser for the education, research and improvement office under Reagan. Being that she held a high position in that part of Gov. I decided to at least hear what she was saying. If she does not mention her CT views, she seemed to be a very knowledgeable person. As for the smartness of today's children I did not mean individuals. Shoot, my 2 yr old is very able to use a computer for his cartoon needs on youtube, and is obsessed with his ABCs. But I was referring to the US's placement worldwide in areas like math and science. I may be less informed than I know which is why I said I needed to do some more research.