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I think America's problem is that it has no cultural identity anymore. It seems like we have lost something since the months after 9-11-2001. The younger generation (generation Z?) do not appreciate how good we have it over here. Now, this is not a new problem, but I believe it is more widespread now. The schools are teaching more global issues, and less American ones. While it's great to be educated in worldly affairs, many kids know nothing about America. The united states do not seem to be "United" by much these days. Our current president is not helping matters at all! As much as I hate to say this... bringing back the draft might be something that would bring back some unity.... just a thought
...The schools are teaching more global issues, and less American ones. While it's great to be educated in worldly affairs, many kids know nothing about America.
I run into American college students frequently, and I read forums that young Americans participate in. They clearly know even less about the world than they do about the U.S......and I don't think it has much to do with the schools. Most kids are really educated by films, internet, etc., not school
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....As much as I hate to say this... bringing back the draft might be something that would bring back some unity.... just a thought
I have thought for quite awhile that two years service in the military, or a new version of the CCC or in service abroad might be a big plus. Providing, of course, that you could rip the mobile phones out of their hands long enough to get them to actually get them involved in something other than the endless love affair with their own personal importance.
Providing, of course, that you could rip the mobile phones out of their hands long enough to get them to actually get them involved in something other than the endless love affair with their own personal importance.
No lie.
Sometimes I think the cell phone is the worst single thing that happened in the history of the world. Well next to the Black Death anyway.
Americans are increasingly ignorant and superficial and content to be so. College has become merely white collar vocational school and the college educated of today are no more intellectually curious and well informed than the high school graduates of 1940; perhaps less so.
as a teen who just finished HS this year, the US has NO CULTURE identity at all, my parents country germany looks down on the U.S, and the kids are alot smarter than U.S kids,
all people think about when you ask them about the U.S is fast food chains and walmart, what does that say about our country! also hotdogs and burgers lol, thats what this girl told me.
and teens over there are more sociable than ones over here who care about their phones( i barely use mine) and console games, most are self centered, but i think most of it has to do with U.S laws making everyone have to be 21 to do anything, in germany you can drink/smoke and club at 16
Sometime around the late 1990s schools across the country thought it would be a brilliant idea to abandon national literature that generations before read (Steinbeck, Hemingway, Faulkner, Ray Bradbury, poetry by Robert Frost and Edgar Allan Poe, Great Gatsby, Catcher in the Rye, etc) in favor of personalized literature where children can pick their own books to write and discuss in class. As consequence we now have kids reading Captain Underpants and Spongebob in 8th grade and encouraged to rite in txtspk.
Another casualty of the self-esteem bubble, radical multiculturalism and moral relativism.
Sometime around the late 1990s schools across the country thought it would be a brilliant idea to abandon national literature that generations before read (Steinbeck, Hemingway, Faulkner, Ray Bradbury, poetry by Robert Frost and Edgar Allan Poe, Great Gatsby, Catcher in the Rye, etc) in favor of personalized literature where children can pick their own books to write and discuss in class. As consequence we now have kids reading Captain Underpants and Spongebob in 8th grade and encouraged to rite in txtspk.
Another casualty of the self-esteem bubble, radical multiculturalism and moral relativism.
ive read the great gatsby and many other American books, but i went to a charter school, cause the dade county public schools are in shambles.
What new generation has not wished that they could improve their world for the better? Is not the point of educating our children to grow into adults who are not only skilled and knowledgeable, but also have the ability to exercise common sense? Not entirely the case now a days.The past couple of generations have come to develop an attitude of utter disrespect and contempt for anyone who is even attempting to counsel them for their own sake. The trend of claiming "victim" status to explain why someone hasn't been successful in their life; blame it on someone else or anything else but themselves seems to be in vogue today.Common Sense is a victim of "political correctness", another social plague paralizing or cohercing us into silence today; afraid of speaking our views for fear of reprisals.
There is the reality that there are many good, well rounded, responsible, caring, and ambitious youth who, like those in the past, are replacing the older generations who have left us and are applying themselves to the opportunities before them. They are the "salt of the earth" and help balance and maintain civility, such as it is today.
American Culture today is three things: Obesity, Ignorance, and "The world is me" attitude.
Obesity because statistics show approximately 1/3 of American people are overweight or obese. This is no doubt owed to the prevalent car culture and abundant access to cheap, unhealthy food. You might want to look at a nutrition chart the next time you order two McDoubles fatso. It has 920 mg of Sodium and 65 mg of cholesterol per burger.
Ignorance because let's face it; most Americans are stupid and brainwashed from day one to accept the establishment of government and of social class stratification. Go to school for 14 years (pre-school through high school), go to college another 4 (go ahead, get into debt its ok ), work most of the rest of your life, take a retirement for 5 to 10 years, then croak. Education is hit in miss in this country. But overall, they teach you just enough to be a functional worker. A single minded drone. If you have no idea what the capital of Iran is and who the president is, your the kind of person this message pertains to. Heres a link: Iran - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, time to get educated.
Generation "ME"- Made official when Time magazine made the person(s) of the year: You. Youth nowadays waste there time online posting on blogs (yea I know that's what I'm doing right now), playing WOW, tweeting, posting on their facebook wall, texting, and just generally acting indifferent to the world around them. Go to a park today. How many people do you see there? How many people would you have seen 15 years ago? My point exactly. This also ties into point number one: Obesity.
The past couple of generations have come to develop an attitude of utter disrespect and contempt for anyone who is even attempting to counsel them for their own sake.
Does everyone have to turn into their parents?
Frankly, I am at an absolute loss for words when some writes in the negative that "the past couple of generation blah, blah, blah..." when the fact is hundreds of thousands of these members of the younger generation have voluntarily been engaged in two costly wars from almost a decade! In just the last month, three young men, two of whom were African American and one of Puerto Rican descent all in their twenties who volunteered for military service. Before that they were full-time students holding down full time jobs. Then I think about another group of high school seniors, and young college students who I have known for more than a decade who are deeply compassionate for other humans, who are deeply committed to learning, and living creative and useful lives.
So it begs the question, who are these "couple of past generations" that you know or are talking about, because I haven't met them.
Now that I've gotten that off my chest, define culture in the context of your question.
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), work most of the rest of your life, take a retirement for 5 to 10 years, then croak. Education is hit in miss in this country. But overall, they teach you just enough to be a functional worker. A single minded drone. If you have no idea what the capital of Iran is and who the president is, your the kind of person this message pertains to. Heres a link: 
