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That's the point.

Once a stock price is involved, you're just another line item on a spreadsheet; something to be minimized and managed as much as possible for the sake of maximizing profit.

You're not a human being. You're part of a collective metric called labour. And as such, they only need you to be as smart as you need to be to use the tools required for your job. Any smarter than that and they run the risk of losing control.

Ultimately, it's why there has always been a conservartive demonization of the Liberal Arts (Ars Liberalis) and a large push to be the "party of the average joe" who likely goes to a trade school.

Let's be super real though. The multiple choice questions on those exams are fucking horse shit. Nobody gives a fuck about the content of those passages. I skimmed them and circled all c so I could leave.

And as a physics professor, the math is fucking horse shit. Cave dwellers like me will use things that are proximally related as viewed through a telescope. Everyone else learns it for these exams and nothing else

The only thing these exams test is the color of people who can afford after school test prep to learn how to best and most brainlessly eliminate the wrong answers and guess. (It's the white people)

I say dropping scores are progress. Let's bottom out and hopefully we take the shit basket we call education more seriously.

The school system is becoming dumber and dumber. They are blaming kids for the failures of the system. They are making decisions to teach what’s on the tests instead of the material. School is suppose to give kids options. Not teach everyone the same slop

I am seeing reading ability go up in middle school. There was a huge drop as the wave of elementry year covid wave of students go through. My current students were in 1st grade when they were sent home and are far better at reading and writing than the group I had 2 years ago who missed 3rd grade. The group that missed 5th grade had more behavior issues. I believe data will get better as the disturbance gets farther away.

Lol explains all the anti vaxers and anti science maga idiots

You can tell. It’s been obvious for years.

As planned.

And it just gets worse. Pardon me while I rant.

Here in central Louisiana, a state historically in the bottom 3 in education, they've now opened an "ag only high school", obstensably to teach trade school and "farming" skills. When I was in high school ag classes were offered where they basically taught welding. At least that's all I ever heard anyone talk about, oh and maybe some husbandry, but not with actual livestock.

The gist of it though, is now all of those kids who were in the non-college ag or business track can now take just ag classes, and it's in a completely separate campus about 7 miles from my old high school. They don't commute from another high school and I can't imagine they have much more than a basic English and Math curriculum, if that. And a not insignificant portion of them will upon graduation go work for their families.

There's also a "magnet" school (pardon the excessive quotes, it's Louisiana and nothing is ever as it seems) in the county seat that seems to only be useful for draining off the non-sports smart kids... which might be good, except I suspect this is being facilitated by Louisianas take on the Republican school-voucher programs. Which if you didn't know is a way to drain funding from "under performing", i.e., poor, usually minority, schools.

So that can't be helping any national reading or math scores.

My states largest district is an online charter school/massive embezzling scheme. Self paced online classes, with a teacher that may/may not ever meet the student. I work with a client who just graduated from there.

They had no idea how to solve a one step algebra equation until today. Today we struggled through such exercises as “2x+4=8.”

I briefly worked for that school and had a high school student who had no idea what Christianity was. Really, the concept of religion in general was entirely new to him.

It feels deliberate. The in person/actual schools also suffer - students passed from class to class without knowing how to read or work with fractions, because it’s not even really necessary to have a bachelors degree to teach anymore. I guess it’s the kind of population that will grow up to vote R, to fall for whatever stupid shit the rich use to stay in power.

My only real hope is that the pendulum will swing back eventually. I at least hope that I will be able to personally take advantage when the need is recognized again, that at some point someone who can teach a high schooler logarithms is considered a valuable member of society worth paying a living wage.

We've been on a nation wide teacher shortage for 40 years now. The poorest school districts are lucky to have 50% trained teachers. The rest are people off the street that could pass a background check. (no degree needed) Not saying those individuals aren't needed but being an effective teacher takes years of experience and schooling to teach effectively. We have more OF models in America than teachers.

It's ok Trump doesn't believe in science anyway.

A dumb America keeps the billionaires fed

BREAKING NEWS : AMERICANS STUPID AND IN RUINS

wow

This is sad, well beyond the educational aspects.

Imagine not being in a mental position to enjoy books. The Hobbit. Asimov’s Foundation or Robot books. The Expanse. D H Lawrence. Jane Austen. Vonnegut. Stephen King. Lewis Carroll.

Even worse, not having the capacity for the full nuance of Terry Pratchett or Douglas Adams.

Just heard a piece today about AI that tangentially mentioned historic lows for "student engagement" -- where kids are interested in learning rather than just sitting through their classes and waiting to leave. The main point was that using AI is not as simple as using calculators because students don't learn to think when AI does all the work. AI removes the necessary pain of learning to put things together before a deadline.

Oh, and they were talking about some plan to replace teachers with AI instructors where adults would still be present, but not in charge of the learning. I guess the adults will just be there to mete out discipline?

skibidi generation is going to have it rough

I think I've been reading this headline for 30 years.

One doesn't need an education to work in the fields.

I wanna see a comparison with european countries. To get a reference.

How much of this can be attributed to conservative families finally getting the chance to enroll their kids into private religious schools via voucher programs?

Actually, how much can be attributed to voucher programs in general?

Yeah, but if it makes us feel any better, future us weoll haven killed for scores like this.