Do you think the lack of intelligence is due to the high cost of higher education in our country?
367210
I guess so. Its actaully really sad that although one of our human rights is to have basic education, that isnt the same for tertairy studies. All the goverment is really doing is forcing unemployment to increase due to the high cost of education, rather than lowering the costs, and allow more people to gain valuable degrees, at lower cost which will only, in turn, benifit the country helping it to become even more developed!!!
929718
YES IT IS A SHAME WHEN THE MONEY THEY ARE WASTING AGAINST PEOPLE WHO ARE TRYING TO BETTER THEIR SELF WHEN IT COULD BE USE FOR SCHOOLS, AND THE POOR,  BUT I DO AGREE WITH YOU. AND FOR THE ONES THAT THINK POVERTY IS CAUSE BY IMMIGRATION, NEEDS TO SIT BACK AND LOOK AND REALLY THINK ABOUT IT.
1057839
You might think I am crazy but our society is to blame for our education disaster. Today people are not allowed to say "your child is smarter than this child" so we have to lower standards so know kid can be singled out as smarter. The other day I heard a story about a school where teens who achieved honors could not wear there cords in graduation because it might offend the kids who did not achieve high grades. So we lower our standards and only test kids on memorization so they can cram stuff in and get good scores. If we taught kids how to think and analyse they would all be better off but we don't. Instead we indoctrinate them with useless stuff and leave out vital things like financial education, realistic sex education, and other vital skills. America needs to disregard the easily offended for the best of everyone else. Let's drop political correctness so we don't get dumber. On that note, I don't believe in ADD or ADHD I think it is just bored kids stuck in a school that is not challenging them. \nwww.todaysperspective.com
449962
Our universities are really good, but our K -- 12 public education is nothing to write home about.  In terms of expected duration of education, we're 14th, but in terms of the literacy of our total population, we're 68th.  Pretty dismal for a world power.
1077891
Dear Rupal,\n            Education contributes a lot for our mental development. This can be clearly distinguished by seeing a literate child and an illiterate child. \n             From standard 1, we learn simple things, our mind opens a bit. In standard 5, we learn a little complicated things and our mind learns to tackle with complicated matters. In standard 10, we learn a bit technical education and our mind gets broader and learns to resolve technical problems.... and the series goes on and on... The more you learn, the more your brain expands and your brain gets used to tackle with difficult problems easily. We learn more and more with our experiences. You can take a man of 30 who is illiterate and a man of 30 who is literate and take their IQ test and the result we already know. By getting education, a child learns to differentiate between positive and negative, right or wrong, optimist or pessimist... How all this happens and what is the mechanism of the expansion of brain by getting education, is still a mystery.\n\nHope this helps!!
540917
no, only a few people are smart. Most of us did not discover anything new, though of anything new. We just learn whatever ppl thought up and most of us couldn't even follow the ideas becoz we are not able to think logically.
818975
I wish the British people would pay for better education. "Surly", is an interesting way to perceive this argument, but I don't think it's the right way, if you want a better country, you need to be taxed. The question is, who to tax? Big Business? The government need them in this country to provide employment. I think it shows that the British still have an aptitude to keep complaining.
571232
Do you think that the truly intelligent people are the ones that are not satisfied with the level of learning they have achieved, and are constantly trying to find ways to learn more?  And don't spend their time talking about how much smarter they are than everyone else?  : )
1025389
I would start by taking a GOOD look at our education system. It is failing. Europeans are ahead of us so are many others. If we do not cultivate the kids who will run our country down the line? more idiots. Other issues bug me but education would be my number one.
1000454
Depends on how you define education. Unfortunately, many people do just give up. One more reason we need to overhaul the education system in this country!
1038674
Yes I do. Going to college is just like buying a showroom car. It's expensive, and it keeps getting more and more expensive. If you ask me I think the government already had it figured out that way in order to keep out certain types if you catch my drift. I don't know any people who can pay for college out of pocket. Plus to get a loan or grant means you better pass and get a good paying job cause then you have to pay them back. Man has just made life unbareable, and education much harder. The new math they have now is confusing and unnecessary. I haven't seen anyone doing fractions in the grocery store or any store for that matter. Yet I have seen a lot of people having problems with $5.50 and hour. The government will increase everything but a pay check.
864162
Yes I do.  How do I know?  Because of the way they speak and the things they speak of.\n\nBecause they can understand anything you tell them or ask them.  Who are they?  One was my own dad.  He was not an 'educated' person, but he had a very high position in a world wide business.  He invented some things that are still in use.\n\nOthers are people I have met and people I know right now.  High intelligence doesn't have anything to do with degrees or books or certificates.  It is either developed or ignored.\nBut it is always there, no matter what - or what is 'done' or not done  about it.
1035981
because there is a major lack of education, u can see that in all well educated countries, people are more civilized and thus more peaceful, in not so educated countries, leaders try to keep their power by feeding crap into everyone else's brains...i believe that until we provide good education to everyone, there will never be peace....and peace to me is internal satisfaction...
786245
In terms of a nation-wide scale, the answer is yes. It is rather common. Especially among the less educated population.
47866
Because we're way smarter than yanks lol! only joking. The following is just my theory - As a Briton I believe our basic education system falls short in many areas. For the majority this is not good, however, those with a strong desire to learn have an advantage. Because of substandard basic education, there is less purely acedemic BS clogging up the brain leaving more space for ground breaking new ideas. Put simply, liken the human brain to a computer - take away MS Windows (the acedemic BS that makes the computer 'average'), and you have a machine that is open to new ideas (OS's), ie, it can think 'outside the box', which is a vital key in inventive thinking.\n\nNow if only british government & industry would start backing our young inventors instead of forcing them to sell their ideas to the far east...
548968
looking at no child left behind... I almost start to wonder if this isn't trying to destroy an already underfunded education system... \n\nWith no public education...the wealthy would be the only ones that could afford to become educated and then keep control of their wealth through that control of education... \n\nah... capitalism at it's best...\n\nDon't you just love how freetyme813 insults basically every American with his rants on public school... almost everyone attends public school and if we're all that "stupid" then why did the majority vote for conservatives?\nTest scores are at all time highs... so if he's calling today's kids dumb... and you graduated a long time ago like I did... then he's calling all of us really dumb....\nI think we all know who the "dumb" one is here...\nSorry we didn't go to private school because our daddy was rich like you apparently did... some of us have to actually work for what we have...
609395
Yes indeed.  There have been recent studies which reveal that as much as 40% of high school students report that they were given no information at all about college.  It isn't enough to assume that the "good" kids will find the information on their own.  This is the mentality that threatens to make higher education a commodity reserved for the wealthy (if it isn't already). It isn't as if, nationally, all schools would step aside and agreeing to provide less information to their students -- its the underprivileged high school students who are left in the dark while students from wealthy families receive the information about SAT Prep, College Prep, help from financial advisors to "maximize" their financial aid eligibility, etc.\n\nBased on my experience working in Higher Education (Financial Aid), I  have no doubts that students need to receive more financial aid information.  Both students and their parents need to have more realistic expectations about the costs of education today (most know that it's expensive but they think that they'll "find a way" to pay).  Comments like the one from the above poster perpetuate the myth that "expensive schools give more financial aid." There are more expensive schools that DON'T give out good aid packages than those that DO!  It's true that they're all looking for the best students, but that doesn't mean that they can afford to "woo" the students that they want (schools that are "top" in their field like Harvard, Juilliard, and MIT might be able to, but these are the exception and not the rule).\n\nAs for my personal experiences with the process: I didn't receive ANY information either, and it made what should have been an exciting process feel like a chore. It was many years ago, but I remember being called into the guidance office with a group of about 10 other students.  They plunked us down in front of a large table piled with college "How To" guidebooks (of the "For Dummies" ilk), gave us each a piece of paper, and told us that by the end of the period, we had to list of 10 colleges we might want to apply to...  Anyone who had siblings in college knew how to narrow down the THOUSANDS of schools out there but, being the oldest in my family, I didn't even know the difference between UC Berkeley and Berklee College (or Stanford and Samford).  I didn't know which schools were "reach" schools and which would be my "safety" schools -- these aren't the sorts of things you can tell by the school's name!  When this "session" was over, I couldn't help but cry.  Eventually, the guidance counselor found me a book where I could search for schools by major.  But, sheesh, what a way to have your students "test the waters" by throwing them in the deep end!\n\nAs for what kind of information I could've used: information about the various schools' reputations.  Assuming a school has the resources, why not offer one-on-one counseling where the student is asked about their academic interests and then pointed in the right direction? Most students have a sense of whether they want a big or small school, co-ed or not, city or rural, etc. -- it would seem to be less overwhelming to start with what you know rather than drawing attention to all the "missing pieces" in a student's college search.