We are a nation of mostly stupid people who have lost sight of the value of even a HS education

[Bobbieo]

I graduated from high school in 1940 in a small town in northern New York where I was the only one of 17 graduates who went on to college. Many of my classmates had already quit school to go to work. My mother, who is of Native America heritage, drummed into me the value of education. She told me that there were people in this country who didn’t want us “little people” to be educated. She never mentioned it but most of them were Conservative Republicans. She was a very wise woman.

I was thrilled to death when Arizona’s Ernest MacFarland – Governor and Congressman was instrumental in creating and passing the GI Bill of Rights which gave WW2 servicemen the necessary aid to go on to college after the war. Without it, neither of my husbands would have been able to get a college education.

I saved money during the war as a mental lathe operator at Alcoa to go on to the Univerisity of Arizona in 1944.

Young people today are spoiled rotten! They have no sense of the value of an education and that is the way the wealthy corporate American wants its people to be -stupid.

[RKP5637]

1. Quite True! n/t

[bobburgster]

2. Part if the blame is on us. IMO

[opihimoimoi]

3. Indeed, the Evil Forces want / need a a labor force to man the shops/factories

Hence the emphasis of tech / mech areas

Not so much of the Social aspects....result...low thinking level...

discussions kept on moot/minutae shit...who is missing and who did it kinda thingy.

go ask 10 peeps whats 7 x 9 and over 50% will answer wrong...

all too many cannot name the VP...its depressing

[proud2BlibKansan]

12. 63, Joe Biden

What do I win?

[opihimoimoi]

13. 3 bags of poi, 2 ahi, and 5 lbs kalua pig....+ 3 Hula Girls and 3 pc band

[shraby]

4. Part of the reason is that they've watched job

after job disappear out of the country and not just lower paying jobs, but highly skilled ones..ones needing a college education in order to get. Then they've watched the people who had them have to go back to college for another skill set and more training aned education..only to see those jobs disappear. After losing two careers to outsourcing and the inability to be able to afford another re-training, the kids who witnessed it are leery of a college education getting them anywhere. Not to mention the high cost of higher education.
Much more useful for earning a living are careers in plumbing, wiring, building and other manual skills. High school and apprentice programs will get them the skills that will stay in the country because they are almost impossible to outsource. Therein lies a good share of the problem.

[izquierdista]

5. Mental lathe operator?

Is that a Freudian slip? Do you really want to put young people in a chuck so you can hone their minds? If only you could; we need thousands of such lathe operators.

[Bobbieo]

6. No it is a dyslexic slip - I must have first have written metal and changed it to mental.

The older I get the worse my mind and typing skills become - Shit!!!
I doubt if there are any METAL lathe operator jobs left in teh country.

[formercia]

7. At least you have a skill

What does one do, when the only skill they have is loyalty to the 'Party?'

[Catshrink]

8. Remember "Heck of a job, Brownie?"

[Bobbieo]

9. You betcha that was a heck of a job at the time! It took brains and strength

and I was right up with the guys doing shift work. One of WW2's hero women - "Rosie th Riveter".

[Catshrink]

10. I've always admired the "Rosie the Riveters"

I was responding to the comment about those with no skill but loyalty to the party and thought of "Brownie" in NO after Katrina. He was what, a horse racing guy? But loyal, no doubt.

[Trillo]

11. What is a "Mental Lathe Operator"? nt

[Taitertots]

14. I blame the older people

All the damage was done before we(mid 20's) could do anything about it. Your generation created corporate America. You all built the education system we went through.