Don't you think, Today, intelligence has increased but educational standards have declined?

Question

" Today, intelligence has increased but educational standards have declined. Wherever you look the students refer to newspapers and magazines from abroad. However, they do not evince the same interest in their textbooks. They do not think at all about their own customs and traditions. Students in this modern age are accustomed to such false sense of values. They would like to engage themselves in discussion about many unnecessary things. For example, they discuss novels, making comments like "so and so author has written a book; how great it is!" They involve themselves in discussions and argumentation over such trivial matters. But they forget about their lessons in the textbooks. Thus, they go on acquiring knowledge about all and sundry and try to increase their worldly knowledge. They do not have any concern for the glory of real education."

The above is a quote, jk read of Sai Baba.

really Great answers from all these Great Ones. Really i can not decide which to be selected. hence let it go for a vote...

luv and SAI RAM,
jk

Answer 1

It depends in what country you are. But in many western countries i think actually the opposite is occurring. Children have a considerably lower span of attention these days than before. It's more difficult to explain them something today than say 20 years ago. Why? A lot of it has to do with the way the education is set: Instead of encouraging free enquiry and teach them to form theur own thoughts and train them to make their own judgements and desicions: the educational system is more dogmatic and prescriptive than informative and formative: they teach the kids the official curriculum approved by the State. if something is not aproved can not be toughts, whatever it is. Basically they teach kids what they want them to know, and because of this, generations of adults have grown up with a distorted view of history, of themselves in society, and of humanity in general.

Today youths know more who is The Rock or Sponge Bob than actual historical or important living figures. Children and youths only hear about great classics of litterature when they are made by Hollywood. And for many the only time when they have to exercise their intellect and plan a strategy is when they play Videogames. Is this increasing intelligence? I say that all this is called "dulling the senses". Giving away all your capacity of reasoning to the many enticing distractions and entertaining options available to our youth nowadays.

Classic, humanistic education, that may inlude Ethics, Philosophy, Logic,itterature, etc has been greatly abandoned in the early stages of the formation of our youuth. It is saddening.

Answer 2

I would say both intelligence and educational standards have declined. With unprecedented access to information, people learn less all the time. Teachers cannot use classic works of literature because the students can't comprehend them. Students cannot understand Shakespeare or the speeches of great orators even though they were aimed at the poorly educated masses. Cashiers cannot make change without the help of their cash registers. People may be savvy with new technology, but they are hopeless with basic skills. Today most people know minute details about celebrities, entertainment, and sports, but have very little practical knowledge. Formal education is seen as only an unpleasant necessity to be used to acquire a job. In the race to find a standard that everyone can be taught to reach, enrichment of the mind has been forgotten. The brilliant minds that still do exist are being stifled because it's easier if everyone thinks the same. I fear today's "scholars" would be soundly thrashed in an intellectual contest by a team from a century-old rural one-room schoolhouse where the students attended when farm chores allowed.

Answer 3

Our education system is going down the drain because the students control the classroom and not the teachers. In the 1960's when America's education system was the best in the world, bar none, if a student misbehaved the teacher had the authority to paddle the offending student, and the student would probably get another spanking from his father when he got home. Today if the student is even looked at in an offending manner we send the teacher to court on abuse charges. So the few misbehaving students have brought the rest of the class down to their level, since the teacher has to keep everyone moving along together, in order to accomplish that the teacher has to bring everyone down to the lowest common denomanator. If you want to improve things make the students understand that they must respect their teachers. This is what happens to the classroom when you take God and respect out of it.

Answer 4

I do not know whether intelligence has increased in the USA. A number of students that I teach seem intelligent but they have huge gaps in their knowledge base that shows forth in their comments or exam results. A professor can never assume that his college students know what certain everyday terms mean or that they even slightly grasp Einstein's theory of relativity or historical events such as the Thirty Years War. With respect to technology, however, today's students obviously appear to be more proficient than their predecessors.

Answer 5

A difficult question. Many of my elder relatives and family friends have been teachers in the UK and Australian education systems from Primary School to University and I have never gained a clear view from thier answers.

On one hand many children do appear to be developing a wonderful level of intelligence but there are also many who are not. The intelligence of students is very similar, overall, to what it has been in the past I think.

However, educational standards have changed. The level of dedication and study required seems to have increased a little in primary education but has arguably slipped somewhat in high school due to demands to pass all students with good marks. Certainly the level of knowledge prior to entering university has decreased in the past 20 years.

Similarly the level of practical skill and knowledge in a university degree has declined. Breadth has been sacrificed for depth in most areas.

Answer 6

Yes, intelligence has increased, but educational standards have not declined, it is only the children who have fallen below the standard line. If anything, schools are being more "strict" in a sense, while increasing their curriculum so they have to take more classes to get their diploma. I would really have to say that this is becoming a stereotype, not all the young people are slackers, I mean just take a look at universities and colleges, see how many actually value their education. After all, we wouldn't be able to have the doctors of tomorrow if it weren't for the people who do care about learning. You just happen to be making a comment that tends to be more true for poorer people, people who lack the resources that the richer people have.

Answer 7

Your question poses numerous other questions. Is it wrong to have more interest in today's news and world events than in what lies within textbooks that often possess a biased view of history? Is it truly a wrong sense of value to be aware of the customs of the entire planet moreso than one's own traditions? Intelligience is a measure of information and the knowledge of how to use such information. Real education should teach how to live in today's world, not in that of the past. It should, IMO, teach how to tear down the barriers of separation between people, not to encourage them through studies of traditions and customs that feed into a sense of differences between countries. We're in an age of unifying, synthesizing and incorporating tons more data into our minds than in the past. The educational system lags behind because it attempts to cling to the past instead of welcoming the changing attitudes of today's youth. If we encourage all to think on what interests them, that fosters a desire to learn more and creates a vortex of hunger for understanding and wisdom. The planet would be better off with a mass of people who know how to think and problem solve than with everyone learning the same material from the same textbooks in the same educational system of the past.

Answer 8

Today there is more interest in empiric teachings because of the historic period that we are going through. There are three periods : Youth, Development and Decline. We are in the development stage, which is the stage in which we are not so guided by traditions (youth) and still feel stong enough to feel that the Decline stage is still far in time. We trust a lot in our own opinions.

Answer 9

I totally disagree with the definition of education as reflected in your question. The students that you are talking about are literates but not necessarily educated. Ramakrishna did not know to read and write as well as the moghul king Akbar. Can you say they were uneducated, looking at their achievements? Hence degree of literacy is different from education.

Answer 10

let me add a statement more from Sathya Sai Baba, " The Youth are not useless, but they are used less.",

May be The Contradictions are also part and parcel of Divinity... may be to inject lil bit of perspectiveness only ...

luv and SAI RAM,
jk