I am definitely less intelligent now, than I was before I began to read this thread..
kidding aside tho, I think the last time I had to figure out the co-sine of the tangent.. of a.. a taco, was in high school. As I aviate for a living, it was -never- going to enter into my job field. Same with Trig, Calculus, I think you get it.. you know, we were much smarter just out of school than we are now, as the knowledge we have dragged around began to leak out as it just wasn't needed. Now those that went into fields that use trig, calculus, functions, sentence structure, poetry, chemistry, ... frog dissecting (that one was for Jessie), yes, it's used and reinforced every day.. I don't have to know or use quadratic equations to know how what happens if I get too high (and no, the wax does not melt and my feathers come off and I plummet to Earth)..
Granted, some never get that initial education others do.. a 10yr old in West Virginia, Kentucky, or PS148 in Harlem, will not have the same Math or English opportunities as a 10yr old in Oregon, Illinois, or Beverly Hills. Sadly, it has been like that for generations. And not likely to change for several more. But it is interesting to note, that many of the brightest students in the US in the past decade or so, have come from other countries. Even tho they have gone thru US school systems, they excelled.. Nature or nurture? What was the parental involvement in those homes?
A comedian had a quip in his monologue years ago.. I think it might have been George Carlin, as funny as he was, truly an intelligent man also. He commented in a joke.. "American television is just gotten so stupid.. I tried turning up the brightness on my tv.. didn't work.." ..something-something, about pouring water out of a boot too..
Intelligence has nothing to do with Common Sense, and vise-versa..
Country-bashing has been going on for a thousand years (well, ok, hundreds, maybe) and it will continue until the tectonic plates (see, Mr. Peterson, I remembered that one!) move and form Pangaea again (he would be so proud, and we are all One People again.. but Mrs. English [yes, really was her name], my English teacher, would be writhing in agony seeing all the contractions I have used). Sloppy? maybe. Lazy? Lots more likely. (overall, I think I would get a C- on this post for content, but an F on structure. =)
