Really Grinds my Gears
Hi Mom.
This really isn't a life-shattering, or even day changing thing, but I came across something on Facebook this morning that really bugged me, and not for the reason it seemed to bug everyone else. And of course it was one of those mass shared videos with hundreds of thousands of comments, so me voicing my two sentences of why I didn't agree seemed pointless and like shouting into a void. While BLOGGING about it is hardly any different, at least I know my mom will read it :D
The video is titled: "Our Youth...this video is truly terrifying." Sigh, okay. I understand why people's initial reaction to go to is, "wow youth today is so stupid, how could you not know the answers to those important history/present day politics questions and know all of those pop culture ones about celebrities? This generation is so jaded." It's a common thing to watch a video, agree with the masses and laugh at some poor college student that got asked to answer a question on camera out of nowhere and then immediately assume what they person portrays is what every other 20 year old in the entire country thinks. And then there's the fact that people are blatantly ignoring the first caption, "A political STUDENT ORGANIZATION at Texas Tech University asked their CLASSMATES..." So, the few students they get to stop and humor the camera are immediately the face of all youth in America...even though the girl who is asking the questions and represents a political organization filled with other peers who are...also...youths? That makes sense.
Another thing for me that seemed to click was the fact that they were asking students who were quite possibly born and raised Texans. Their 'history' classes throughout a lot of schooling, at least while I spent my childhood there, focused on TEXAN History, not so much American. I mean sure, I bet there was a "Early American" history class at some point in high school, at least for those who didn't take AP classes and keep in mind only 20% of high schools students received a 3 or above on said AP exams in the 2013 graduating class. And that's ALL AP classes combined. Not just history.
So the odds of one or more of the students questioned in the video being a 'successful' (by the AP College Board standard) student who was exposed to the higher level, *cough* non-Texas biased *cough* curriculum are slim. Especially if it had been a number of years since those high school classes and their current college major has nothing to do with history and only required a general history class.
What really grinds my gears is that most commentators or people that have shared said video immediately put the fault of this lack of knowledge on the students. It couldn't possibly be that the American Education System we 'young people' (I dislike that term to begin with) know and love that could be to blame? That maybe it teaches us to value the grade we get more than the actual knowledge that is being taught? Many in my generation, myself included at times, have been groomed to care about the grade that comes home more than the knowledge that it meant to be retained. After all, colleges are just looking at my ACT/SAT scores and judging a few pieces of paper that hold a combination of 4-5 letters at the end of every subject that I've taken for the past 12 years. It's about the grade, right? Not about the personal struggles, ever changing situations and unique lives of every single student that applies. But I digress (this blog is proof that I don't).
This really isn't a life-shattering, or even day changing thing, but I came across something on Facebook this morning that really bugged me, and not for the reason it seemed to bug everyone else. And of course it was one of those mass shared videos with hundreds of thousands of comments, so me voicing my two sentences of why I didn't agree seemed pointless and like shouting into a void. While BLOGGING about it is hardly any different, at least I know my mom will read it :D
Our youth... this video is truly terrifying
Posted by Salon on Wednesday, February 3, 2016
The video is titled: "Our Youth...this video is truly terrifying." Sigh, okay. I understand why people's initial reaction to go to is, "wow youth today is so stupid, how could you not know the answers to those important history/present day politics questions and know all of those pop culture ones about celebrities? This generation is so jaded." It's a common thing to watch a video, agree with the masses and laugh at some poor college student that got asked to answer a question on camera out of nowhere and then immediately assume what they person portrays is what every other 20 year old in the entire country thinks. And then there's the fact that people are blatantly ignoring the first caption, "A political STUDENT ORGANIZATION at Texas Tech University asked their CLASSMATES..." So, the few students they get to stop and humor the camera are immediately the face of all youth in America...even though the girl who is asking the questions and represents a political organization filled with other peers who are...also...youths? That makes sense.
Another thing for me that seemed to click was the fact that they were asking students who were quite possibly born and raised Texans. Their 'history' classes throughout a lot of schooling, at least while I spent my childhood there, focused on TEXAN History, not so much American. I mean sure, I bet there was a "Early American" history class at some point in high school, at least for those who didn't take AP classes and keep in mind only 20% of high schools students received a 3 or above on said AP exams in the 2013 graduating class. And that's ALL AP classes combined. Not just history.
What really grinds my gears is that most commentators or people that have shared said video immediately put the fault of this lack of knowledge on the students. It couldn't possibly be that the American Education System we 'young people' (I dislike that term to begin with) know and love that could be to blame? That maybe it teaches us to value the grade we get more than the actual knowledge that is being taught? Many in my generation, myself included at times, have been groomed to care about the grade that comes home more than the knowledge that it meant to be retained. After all, colleges are just looking at my ACT/SAT scores and judging a few pieces of paper that hold a combination of 4-5 letters at the end of every subject that I've taken for the past 12 years. It's about the grade, right? Not about the personal struggles, ever changing situations and unique lives of every single student that applies. But I digress (this blog is proof that I don't).
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