Well, apprently (so my parents tell me) 'O' levels back in the day were much harder than they are now?
True, but as Alt said, that doesn't reflect the intelligence of your parents generation. Artificially produced methods of measuring academic intelligence are never going to accurately reflect one's true intelligence.
Americans are getting smarter, but not relative to the rest of the world. European and Asian standards are increasing much higher than American standards.
So we are getting smarter. But relative to the rest of the world, we are falling behind.
Not exactly true. I'm Canadian, but I have friends from the U.S., and since we can't talk face to face most of the time, school is what we talk about mostly.
Judging from what he said, I think almost all of North America is developing in the same way. My high school has graduating rates of 84%, which is incredibly low from what I know.
One of the kids in my french class had an arguement with the teacher for an entire year about the fact that the "ent" in french verbs when saying "they", is not pronounced. The kid ended up with less marks than he should have got, and he finally noticed that he was wrong in May... XD
Only 27% of Americans have a degree in Higher Education. Thats the highest in the world. Take that Eurotrash. Anyway, the newest "batch" of working Americans have less than this amount with a degree and if this trend continues the rate will obviously drop.
IQ is going up, that is indeed true. But, one must ask, what exactly is IQ? IQ is a measure of intelligence by use of standardized tests. "Some researchers believe that modern education has become more geared toward IQ tests, thus rendering higher scores, but not necessarily higher intelligence" (Wikipedia, ). Also at the site you can find that the IQ for developed nations tends to rise a few points per generation, called the Lynn-Flynn effect. As the above quote suggests, American (as well as possibly the world)'s educational methods are more geared towards the same material and knowledge that is found on IQ tests, so it only makes sense that the general IQ average is rising.
That being said, don't equate IQ to "smart." IQ is simply a score on a generally accepted test, and at best can determine a person's intelligence in one or a few very specific areas. It is generally agreed that intelligence is not quantitative, meaning it cannot be expressed solely numerically. Intelligence is very complex and tests cannot take into account things such as interpretations, creativity, and critical thinking, only basic problem solving and general computational skills.
In answer to your original question, my opinion is American's are getting "smarter," but Americans in general are becoming less observant and less aware of things. We are gaining facts but losing critical thinking skills. That's my humble opinion.
well we have been investing in schools and i think some of us try but some dont. the ones who try are the smart ones,the ones who dont are probablyon drugs :P
I live In Texas, and I think of us as very stupid, especially today in History we were debating Immigration, and one question was whether Immigration allowed it for terrorists and drug dealers to come into the country, most of the people strongly disagreed and said terrorists come from Iraq and immigrants come from Mexico. No body had anything smart to say they were just saying Mexicans and racism in the same sentence over and over and most wondered why we had to pay taxes(when the question popped up).
I live In Texas, and I think of us as very stupid, especially today in History we were debating Immigration, and one question was whether Immigration allowed it for terrorists and drug dealers to come into the country, most of the people strongly disagreed and said terrorists come from Iraq and immigrants come from Mexico. No body had anything smart to say they were just saying Mexicans and racism in the same sentence over and over and most wondered why we had to pay taxes(when the question popped up).
Are people who have a different point of view than you dumber? I mean this isn't the first time you've said stupid stuff like that, you also said religious people were stupid.
