Sometime around Sep Oct 2024 from memory Cant remember what month there was a survey released that showed this current generation has the lowest IQ of the last seven generations. One of the biggest issues that I see is that schools no longer teach children how to think. Everything is Internet (Google) based. If you don't know Goggle it. If you don't have access to google just sit there and do nothing, DO NOT under any circumstances go and asked someone how to do something. This is where I get to my pet hate of AI, now that they have been dumbed down lets give them AI which well dumb them down even more. Three more generations I'm not sure they will be able to breath unless told how
This isn't happening in Arizona, at least not due to curricula.
In the US, things are odd because the curriculum development happens on a state level, it's not really Federally regulated. We have a few laws on the Federal side, which did some annoying things like force the use of "New Math" instruction. (Note I do NOT have a problem with this, but it did annoy many parents) But these were knee-jerk reactions to WORSE practices, some states teaching Theology in a Biology classroom...
My kids were taught...
1.) Arithmetic to the level of Algebra before the completion of primary education.
2.) Reading
3.) Spelling
4.) Handwriting
5.) American and World History (nowhere near enough, but time is relatively limited)
6.) Introductory Physical Sciences (Chemistry, Physics, Biology)
All this in the first 6 years of primary education. I'm leaving out Jr High and High School levels because that'll double the content of this already long post!
Meanwhile, if you go here:
https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/per-pupil-spending-by-state
You'll see how Arizona is 3rd from the BOTTOM in terms of per student investment.
There is however... some serious curve balls to the above. I think most would agree the education my kids got was acceptable. Improvements could be made, but it was generally acceptable. However, my kids were in the Mesa Unified School District. If you go here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_..._districts_in_the_United_States_by_enrollment
You can find that as of 2019, it's the 66th largest school district in the US by students enrolled. Current numbers are ~54k students, over 78 schools.
The district has its warts but... it's reasonably run, has an active community of parents supporting it, local and state elections have supported it. We still have crap teacher pay, large class sizes, and resource problems like anywhere else.
All sounds great right? Not perfect... but workable.
Then leave Mesa...
en.wikipedia.org
A list of all districts in the state.
Mesa Unified, Scottsdale Unified, and Gilbert Unified, those three districts are all quite competitive and comparable.
Look at all of the rest... They are by and large... complete and utter crap. Many of them don't have the investment to operate properly, in facilities that are crumbling, without teachers worth anything due to the lack of pay, with administration that's even worse. Some of these districts have been investigated for blatant fraud!
We made the news relatively recently with a ring abusing our voucher program:
https://www.azcentral.com/story/new...oucher-ghost-students-fraud-case/79099119007/
So if you're an employer in AZ, and you want to hire a kid out of high school.... yes... the high school they graduated from actually matters. Parents are right to not trust public schooling here, but while all that happens most of the time those same parents never vote to expand property taxes the fraction of a percentage required to support the schools properly. We did in Mesa, but again... elsewhere... crap is bad.
Our average graduate is functioning on a Jr High level from a global perspective as a state.
Again Mesa, Scottsdale, and Gilbert... very different with the extremely desired mix of kids leaving to university, trade schools or directly into the job market.
Our problem as a state? How to extend this success to the state as a whole? When the electorate themselves simply do not cooperate...
Meanwhile yeah... AI... Kids are cheating left and right, and getting caught for it too, but not enough.
Dumb people make dumb kids. It used to be possible to educate our way out of that... but it seems to have broken here in Arizona. I can't speak for anywhere else, but it all makes me sad.
