It's unfortunate...

[A Black Falcon]

No, so you can say "sir" and "ma'am" like polite and respectful human beings. Instead kids today call authority figures such wonderful things like bitches and motherfuckers to their face. Certainly a welcome alternative to sir and ma'am, right?

Kids calling adults sir or ma'am in normal coversation isn't something I've ever seen anyone who isn't from the south do... its a southern thing. It doesn't mean you aren't polite or something, but being that formal? Why would anyone do that?

As I said, its a regionalism. Like soda vs. pop. :)

Oh, there would most definitely be standards. Those schools will be fighting for those kids to get into their school, they can't help but have higher standards unless they really don't care about money.

But if they are private they aren't as obligated to follow them. And poor schools in districts with little money? Forget it...

You really come across as someone who never really experienced the world. Were you a rich kid from a private school? Pompous liberals often are. How easy is it to concentrate on schoolwork when you have good reason to fear for your life while you're there?

Actually, I was in public school. I thought ours was pretty good. Fear for your life? Er... in inner cities, maybe... but even there I think you overstate it for almost all cases.

Sure some kids had behavior issues, and were in special ed... but its not like it does major harm to most of the students or anything. I would say that in Jr. High there were some problems, but doesn't Jr. High stink everywhere?

The old, inaccurate history of the world is infinitely preferable to the new, even more inaccurate history of the world that considers us to be a race of evil and terror, whereas everyone else was kind and benevolent. Suddenly America is genocidal but Communist Russia and China are not.

Right, right. Because trying to teach the whole story means you teach that Stalin and Mao are good people... yeah...

I see no connection between saying history as it happened and saying those were good people. Because they weren't...

Oh, and us a force of evil and terror? Hardly! Have you read many highschool history books? While they are a bit better than they used to be in being balanced, they still show us as usually good... because we are...

You just must acknowledge things like what the Europeans did to the peoples of the Americas and Africa. Its a MAJOR part of our history.

No, the American Indians and African tribes weren't great perfect examples before the evil white men came and killed them. That is a myth. They fought eachother, did destroy land by fire, killed species off (like all of North America's really big game), etc... but compared to what we did to them? Tame.

Why should we adapt to foriegn customs? Other countries don't do that for us! If you move to a foreign nation, you should learn to adopt their language and customs as your own.

First, no one has to adopt foreign customs.

Second, America is a unique nation in the world -- we are a nation immigrants. I know it sounds dumb but it really is true...

If America was like Western Europe and Japan and had almost no immigration we would be having their problem right now: declining population. Our population is only growing because we allow huge immigration...

And because we allow that, we have to acknowledge their cultures. Yes, they will assimilate to some extent, sure, within a generation or two... but they shouldn't forget their heritage, like we made people do until not that long ago!

As for us learning about other nations I'd think that that could easily be very relevant for some people.

History, philosophy and languages all have real-world applications.

So do multicultural studies.

What did you learn from it? I sure didn't get anything out of it except a few new vocabulary words. My dad taught me more in one day than I learned in five years of school-based sex ed. Maybe your parents weren't competent enough to teach you, but that doesn't mean everyone's are.

I don't think I learned much from them either... something but not much. I don't really remember my parents ever telling me, maybe they did. I don't know. There was this program in church we did when we were 13 or 14 or something... and probably a little from school. Not a whole lot. But I bet that for some people they do learn from the school programs...

You missed the point. Again. Why do I bother?

How is this anything other than a reply to your statement several posts ago that we were discussing in that quote?

I wasn't responding to DLN, I was responding to you. And you obviously have no clue.

I guess you missed the posts I did where I said essentially the same thing he did. But he said it better, so I referred you to his post... his most recent one is quite good too (along with the others). I think it shows that private schools aren't the answer, really...

Yes. Taxes are usually wasted. Direct payments are not.

I would definitely not say that taxes are wasted... well some are, but not the vast majority of them.

They wouldn't HAVE a media like us, because people back then would not have allowed it. Unfortunately, the liberals came to power, and then the media went to shit.

Democrats were in office from 1932 to 1952.

Hmm... yet you talk about the 30s and 50s...

Oh, and they couldn't stop the media any more than we could. What would they do, make cable TV and the internet illegal?

Of course it's not taught well. NOTHING is taught well anymore. And it should not be taught at all by schools. But contraceptives are ALWAYS talked about, and there are very few rightwingers who object to it.

I wouldn't call the whole Catholic Church "very few". No way. And they object. So while it is taught in most places the issue is really danced around and they almost always deephatise it and try to push abstinance... which is fine for some people but won't stop anyone who wants to. And those people need the stuff on contraception... in school and preferably not from their friends or some sort-of-conversation with their parents.