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This is sad. Very sad. The only explanation is that so many Americans are so spoiled by the nation's past success that they became so vain. I mean, kids are nat

This is sad. Very sad. The only explanation is that so many Americans are so spoiled by the nation's past success that they became so vain. I mean, kids are naturally inquisitive. Given the right nurturing, kids should love STEM. Heck, they should be obsessed with STEM because STEM subjects are full of wonders. Yet, what do kids nowadays think cool? Having access to alcohol and drugs is cool. Bullying people who take studying seriously is cool. Sports jockeys who think nothing is important other than their games with another high school are cool. When hearing people enthusiastically talk about technology, making a face as if he just ate s*&^t is cool (just like the stupid and weak Jesse did in the finale of Breaking Bad when Walt explained what "exothermal" meant). Whining about STEM are being too "hard", too "boring", too "irrelevant", too "nerdy" is cool... And tell me the parents didn't have very bad influence to the kids. I find this phenomenon puzzling. STEM is foundation of the modern civilization. And it is Europeans and Americans, after all, who have largely advanced modern science, technology, engineering, and math in the past hundreds of years. I can tell fascinating stories about the great minds and great achievements for weeks. Yet, the great history, the great subjects, and the people who love STEM are being looked down upon by American kids? What.The.Fuck. It was not like this in the country where I grew up, though. In our country, STEM are cool in school. Seriously cool. Teachers, kids, and especially parents take studying of STEM seriously (though to be fair, the parents took every subject seriously as they cared about grades too). Biographies of famous scientists are popular readings. Names like Archimedes, Newton, Curie, Paulin, Ernest Lawrence, and so on are household names. No one in my school got despised because he or she studied hard. That would be absurd to even think about. That's why I was initially bewildered by Paul Graham's Why Nerds Are Unpopular. And what's the result of all these? Straight-A students couldn't pass a community college's placement math test, as reported by NYT a couple of years ago. I don't what could be worse than such drama.

vezzy-fnord 13y ago
Yet, what do kids nowadays think cool? Having access to alcohol and drugs is cool. Bullying people who take studying seriously is cool. Sports jockeys who think nothing is important other than their games with another high school are cool. When hearing people enthusiastically talk about technology, making a face as if he just ate s&^t is cool (just like the stupid and weak Jesse did in the finale of Breaking Bad when Walt explained what "exothermal" meant). Whining about STEM are being too "hard", too "boring", too "irrelevant", too "nerdy" is cool... And tell me the parents didn't have very bad influence to the kids.* Please don't act like this is some isolated problem with today's generation. Drugs, vices, jocks and willful ignorance have always been the rage. You're having delusions of grandeur that your generation was somehow one of superior calibre, and you're regressing into idealized memories of the past as part of a reactionary mental process to the perceived decadence of today. But it has always been decadent. In fact, if the Flynn effect and other factors are anything to show, you were probably worse. I see you don't live in the USA, though. I come from a European country myself, and I have no idea what school you went to, but the way you describe it is rather... unrealistic? Names of famous scientists are household names? In a school environment? They always have been, honestly. Biographies of famous scientists as popular reading? They're part of the curriculum. The way you treat your school as some sort of a society in its own right leads me to believe you went to a boarding school or something similar. Perhaps just a higher class private school, because really, yours isn't the norm.
- g9yuayon 13y ago
  Not really. I grew up in a developing country, where there were only public schools. And my school was by no means elite. Biographies of scientists were not part of curriculum either. It's really the culture. Parents did care about kids' academic performance, a lot. The whole society advocated studying hard with the right approach (whether it's really right is debatable). Even state media devote significant time to STEM related news and documentaries. Drug was never the problem because even carrying drug is capital crime. I'm not saying every every in every city was like that as our country had tons of social and economical problems. However, kids' education especially STEM education is THE focus of parenting.
  - vezzy-fnord 13y ago
    Sounds like the typical case of a poor nation. There is no incentive to stay, the country is in a dreadful economic state, a large socio-political diaspora is present and so forth. In times of desperation like this, it's usually the same everywhere: parents strongly guide their children into entering fields that are profitable and flourishing in academia. Their intentions are benevolent, but the way they accomplish this is often forceful, egocentric and driven not by the virtue of knowledge and intellect, but rather the expectations of prosperity. Very often, although there is a superficial appearance of high intellectual culture, the reality is that many of these people are doing it to appease their parents and are actually mediocre in their fields. Also societies which insist on formal education this much tend to teach in a very flawed manner: mere rote memorization with no immersion. In the end, you breed soulless parrots who can recite lectures and academic papers, but show no passion or intimate understanding and desire to refine their skills. This is how you get dull, 9-to-5 code monkeys who can write instructions in PHP and Java in a sort of cargo cult way with no sophistication. Drug was never the problem because even carrying drug is capital crime. Aye, when will people learn prohibition never works?
  - g9yuayon 13y ago
    Well, I think you're into another extreme. Developing, yes. Poor? Maybe. Desperate? I'm not sure. At least our school days are full of fond memories. And my classmates seemed happy, and I was definitely happy. More importantly, we did enjoy learning.

vezzy-fnord 13y ago

Yet, what do kids nowadays think cool? Having access to alcohol and drugs is cool. Bullying people who take studying seriously is cool. Sports jockeys who think nothing is important other than their games with another high school are cool. When hearing people enthusiastically talk about technology, making a face as if he just ate s&^t is cool (just like the stupid and weak Jesse did in the finale of Breaking Bad when Walt explained what "exothermal" meant). Whining about STEM are being too "hard", too "boring", too "irrelevant", too "nerdy" is cool... And tell me the parents didn't have very bad influence to the kids.* Please don't act like this is some isolated problem with today's generation. Drugs, vices, jocks and willful ignorance have always been the rage. You're having delusions of grandeur that your generation was somehow one of superior calibre, and you're regressing into idealized memories of the past as part of a reactionary mental process to the perceived decadence of today. But it has always been decadent. In fact, if the Flynn effect and other factors are anything to show, you were probably worse. I see you don't live in the USA, though. I come from a European country myself, and I have no idea what school you went to, but the way you describe it is rather... unrealistic? Names of famous scientists are household names? In a school environment? They always have been, honestly. Biographies of famous scientists as popular reading? They're part of the curriculum. The way you treat your school as some sort of a society in its own right leads me to believe you went to a boarding school or something similar. Perhaps just a higher class private school, because really, yours isn't the norm.

g9yuayon 13y ago
Not really. I grew up in a developing country, where there were only public schools. And my school was by no means elite. Biographies of scientists were not part of curriculum either. It's really the culture. Parents did care about kids' academic performance, a lot. The whole society advocated studying hard with the right approach (whether it's really right is debatable). Even state media devote significant time to STEM related news and documentaries. Drug was never the problem because even carrying drug is capital crime. I'm not saying every every in every city was like that as our country had tons of social and economical problems. However, kids' education especially STEM education is THE focus of parenting.
- vezzy-fnord 13y ago
  Sounds like the typical case of a poor nation. There is no incentive to stay, the country is in a dreadful economic state, a large socio-political diaspora is present and so forth. In times of desperation like this, it's usually the same everywhere: parents strongly guide their children into entering fields that are profitable and flourishing in academia. Their intentions are benevolent, but the way they accomplish this is often forceful, egocentric and driven not by the virtue of knowledge and intellect, but rather the expectations of prosperity. Very often, although there is a superficial appearance of high intellectual culture, the reality is that many of these people are doing it to appease their parents and are actually mediocre in their fields. Also societies which insist on formal education this much tend to teach in a very flawed manner: mere rote memorization with no immersion. In the end, you breed soulless parrots who can recite lectures and academic papers, but show no passion or intimate understanding and desire to refine their skills. This is how you get dull, 9-to-5 code monkeys who can write instructions in PHP and Java in a sort of cargo cult way with no sophistication. Drug was never the problem because even carrying drug is capital crime. Aye, when will people learn prohibition never works?
- g9yuayon 13y ago
  Well, I think you're into another extreme. Developing, yes. Poor? Maybe. Desperate? I'm not sure. At least our school days are full of fond memories. And my classmates seemed happy, and I was definitely happy. More importantly, we did enjoy learning.