I don't think the author has very good reasoning skill themself after reading a bunch of this.
"1. The children I teach are indifferent to the adult world. This defies the experience of thousands of years. A close study of what big people were up to was always the most exciting occupation of youth, but nobody wants children to grow up these days, least of all the children: and who can blame them? Toys are us. "
Are children indifferent to the adult world, or do they just no longer perceive the adult world as something anyone actively participates in since they largely don't get an impression of it from interacting with the world around them? Could it be because the "adult world" is defined by non-interactive media rather than people? Or could it be because dual income households with diminished time for raising the children don't provide a heck of a lot of role model time?
"2. The children I teach have almost no curiosity, and what little they do have is transitory. They cannot concentrate for very long, even on things they choose to do. Can you see a connection between the bells ringing again and again to change classes and this phenomenon of evanescent attention? "
Or could it be using the TV as a babysitter? Howabout an inane commercial every 11 minutes and shrinking? There have been studies that find the average child's attention span is very similar to the average commercial break interval.
"3. The children I teach have a poor sense of the future, of how tomorrow is inextricably linked to today. As I said before, they live in a continuous present, the exact moment they are in is the boundary of their consciousness. "
howabout the fact that the media of today as well as the schools never get any deeper than a 2 minute sound bite or a 10 minute "in-depth" piece? Frankly the only source I see trying to convince anyone of causality are the internet conspiracy loons, and they aren't demonstrating sound reasoning skills 99% of the time.
"4. The children I teach are ahistorical; they have no sense of how the past has predestinated their own present, limiting their choices, shaping their values and lives. "
Perhaps it is because political correctness and activism have turned every event and topic into a hot-button that might get you sued as an educator inroduced a VERY severe chilling effect in education?
"5. The children I teach are cruel to each other; they lack compassion for misfortune; they laugh at weakness: they have contempt for people whose need for help shows too plainly. "
The author is clearly a retard.. Children have ALWAYS been like this. It also makes a lot of sense given how groups perceive threats and deal with them. Cruelty is going to be part of detecting and establishing mores and boundaries. However, with less local real interaction with your community and more PC intervention, kids don't get a realistic set of anything, much less one that makes sense.
"6. The children I teach are uneasy with intimacy or candor. They cannot deal with genuine intimacy because of a lifelong habit of preserving a secret inner self inside a larger outer personality made up of artificial bits and pieces of behavior borrowed from television or acquired to manipulate teachers. Because they are not who they represent themselves to be, the disguise wears thin in the presence of intimacy; so intimate relationships have to be avoided. "
Or it could be that society as a whole in the US moves towards isolating the individual, which is accelerating if anything. Gorwing up on the internet where there are VERY little risks to bad behavior might make the risks of real life socialization seem even more extreme. Having parents reinforce that everyone that isn't you or your single parent are just waiting for the opportunity to ddo you massive harm also doesn't help.
"7. The children I teach are materialistic, following the lead of schoolteachers who materialistically "grade everything' and television mentors who offer everything in the world for sale. "
I doubt materialism is caused by grading. Which do you think screws a kids head up more, being graded by a set of explianed rules, or the fact that they were bron into a family structure that is likely to not stay intact. They are more likelly to move multiple times before hitting 16. And they are presented with ever changing values and role models all of which are shallow and questionable. Wheras barbie haws been with a girl from 2-14 presenting a consistent marketing message. Material things are easier to get a hold on of what they cost, and what they get you.
"8. The children I teach are dependent, passive, and timid in the presence of new challenges. This timidity is frequently masked by surface bravado, or by anger or aggressiveness, but underneath is a vacuum without fortitude."
What do you expect when you grow up where nothing is explained beyond an emotional level, if that. Where you are graded whit not harming self-esteem as a priority. Where even mom and dad likely aren't around when you need or want them. And where children are told that they can't make decisions for themselves for longer and longer periods of time.
It sure as hell is not just the schools.
This piece was indeed so ghastly that it brought the entire Madville site down and sent the FF PR machine into turmoil. See the power of lil peeper.
steamed
Ghastly posting. Public education is critical to the social engineering model required for today's western children. Young minds *must* be molded by their government with the parents concerns a disregard. Vouchers and home schooling are folly as they allow children to be non-conformist, independent thinkers which is no longer acceptable for a one world government. Public education, just like public housing and government ran Indian reservations are a success and an example of how Socialists principles are far superior to Capitalist failures.