Why are kids and teens so stupid?

[Gaiyara]

The best answer I can give to this question to anyone that asks is that they are treated as if they were stupid, so they become stupid.

I brought this up in another thread, and we also talked about this in my government class. Whenever a stereotype begins propagating among a large portion of the population, that stereotype becomes reality, whether the targeted group likes it or not. That targeted group begins acting that way. This creates an unfortunate positive feedback loop that makes the stereotypes more prominent if left unchecked by society.

The sad thing is that stereotypes are true, but this is not the same thing as saying that the group of people who possess that stereotype are intrinsically that way. It also does not mean that the group of people who possess that stereotype could not change. The problem is that it is very hard to reverse once that stereotype becomes ingrained.

From the thread "5th grader makes case against homework":

Some idiot commenting on the news site Wrote:Does anyone else suspect that this article was not entirely written by a 5th grader? Or, if it was, had some heavy editing help from an adult? As the parent of one, I can't imagine the child being quite this articulate at age 10 or 11. If so, then the author should be in H.S. already where he can be properly challenged . . .it sounds like the problem is not the homework, but the boredom factor.

These morons... I can't blame them though, because it's true. My peers in high school were unbelievably stupid.

By the way, I've read about some great thinkers who were translating Plato in the classical Greek language into their language when they were 8 years old.

"Oh my god. Did this 5th grader just put together a complete sentence with capital letters and a period?! Top that off with a half-logical argument that actually made sense!!! Nowai."

No wonder our kids are so fucking stupid. School as it exists today is not a social institution that educates our children, school exists because it must exist. Over time social institutions tend to evolve such that it does whatever it can to resist change and become a permanent structure. Its original function is irrelevant. Social institutions only require the illusion of necessity, they do not have to actually be necessary.

In order for school to exist, it requires one essential ingredient:
- Kids and parents must believe that school is necessary.

Kids hate it. They all do. They might make excuses like, "Oh I really hate the homework and stuff lolol. Some of my teachers are stupid n stuff but w/e. Hey whenz prom?!"

Imagine what would happen if everyone around the world suddenly figured out, "Wow, school is a waste of time. I don't need this." School would cease to exist.

Most of the time when I accidentally open my trap (I tend to forget that people actually support public education) and start insulting school the conversation goes like this:

"Public school is the biggest failure of a social experiment in the history of humankind."
"Uh... you mean like providing unprivileged kids free access to an education and giving them opportunities they never had?"

There are so many things wrong with that response. Where the hell do I even begin?

1)

Public Schools Public Menace Wrote:From 1800 to 1840, literacy rates in the North increased from 75 percent to between 91 and 97 percent. In the South, the white literacy rate grew from about 50 to 60 percent, to 81 percent (it was illegal to teach blacks to read). By 1850, literacy rates in Massachusetts and other New England states, for both men and women, was close to 97 percent. This was before Massachusetts created the first compulsory public-school system in America in 1852 (of course, these literacy numbers did not apply to black slaves since many colonies had laws that forbid teaching slaves to read).

Homeschooled kids do far better on the same standardized tests that public schools use time and time again. I only have to provide just one counterexample to show that school is unnecessary. Fortunately I can provide millions.

2) Public school education is far from free. America spends close to $490 billion per year on public schools. Compare this to a homeschool education that is nearly free.

3) Education... You mean like force feeding kids things they don't want to learn about? You mean like teaching kids that authority figures know everything and you should shut your mouth? You mean like closing off human potential which inadvertently damages society as a whole? You mean like destroying the spirit of a child who could invent the next cure for HIV, become a social revolutionary, become a great mother, or otherwise become a person who could just enjoy life? You mean like teachings kids that relationships are fleeting and usually only go as far as your wallet? You get the idea.

4) I think you made a typo. You said, "...providing unprivileged kids...". I think you meant to say, "Forcing privileged kids (who would otherwise stay home and learn about life to receive a superior education that is nearly free) to go to an oppressive government institution that is paid for with billions of stolen tax dollars that inadvertently kills their spirit and prevents them from ever unleashing their true human potential so they eventually grow up as a dehumanized shell that merely exists to provide society with economic benefits." I fix'd that for ya.

No wonder our kids are so stupid. What's unbelievable is that somehow people are capable of coming up with innumerable responses to what I just wrote and providing endless justification for the horrors of the one of the most evil social regimes in history. Amazing how school has convinced people to fight tooth and nail to defend the imprisonment of 100s of millions of children all over the planet. The same prison cell they had to endure when they were young.

Society is a prison without walls, bars, padlocks, prison guards, or searchlights. Try to escape, and your death will come as swiftly as you realize that there is no escape. The prison is everywhere and even the closest prisonmates you grew up with will reject you and abandon you.

/done ranting