From: y41@aix320a.urz.uni-heidelberg.de (Jeffrey Hazelwood)
Subject: Re: D O E S   A M E R I C A   S A Y   Y E S   T O   J A P A N ?
Organization: University of Heidelberg, Germany
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 92 11:43:26 GMT

In article <SMITTIE.92Dec11173519@beach.csulb.edu>, smittie@csulb.edu (Smittie) writes:
|> First off I wish Mr. Hazelwood would learn how to use an editor and then remove
|> those lines of the quote which are not necessary to understand the post. There
|> was no reason for all of us to reread the entire previous post. Talk about
|> LAZY.

I can use an editor, thank you very much.

|> >The problem with the U.S. educational system is that everyone is afraid
|> >to put the blame where it lies.  The students are the fucking problem.
|> >Lazy, don't-give-a-shit-attitudes are present among the majority of
|> >students.

I stand by this.

|> 
|> If there is anything I've learned in 33 years of life it is this. People who
|> offer simplistic answers to complex problems usually don't understand the
|> problem. 

What's complex about being lazy?  That's exactly the problem with the majority
of Americans.  They think all of the problems are sooooo complex.  That's why
absolutely none of the politicians have ever eliminated ONE problem from 
America.  Drugs, guns, homeless people, education system, health care, national
debt, auto industry, electronic industry, computer chip industry, etc., etc.
The only thing they know how to do is to spend more money. Talk about a
dumb solution!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

|> Moreover, the simplistic answers that they present are seldom of any
|> use in finding the real answers.

What exactly are the real answers??? If the answer is simple, why go looking
for some dumb complex solution?  If your computer is not plugged in, why
go complaining to the electric company? If you haven't learned in 33 years
of life that most of the answers are simple, then I wish you better luck in
your next 33 years.

|> smittie


Smittie, you missed the point of the argument.  Everyone says the system is
bad, the teachers are terrible.  Yet, when I went to school in the states,
I constantly witnessed foreign students doing VERY well in those so called
shitty American school systems.  (and a few studious Americans!)  The problem 
is that the politicians, etc. always make a simple problem into one of such 
complex proportions that they then become perplexed as to what the solution 
could possibly be!  Whether or not a student learns is up to the student.  
How much time does the average American student spend outside of class reading, 
studying, etc.?  Very little! Because that's not COOL! God forbid that Americans 
aren't cool.  Tell an American how much the average Japanese studies and the 
response will likely be, "What a bunch of nerds...". That's why a very large
proportion of the research done in America is done by foreigners.  The question
ought to be, How can we make the average American student study more
efficiently and devote more time to studies in general?  Instead of....how
much more money can we spend? Why are are teachers lousy?.....$$$$$$
                                                                    $$
                                                                     $
 

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Jeffrey T. Hazelwood                    Universitt Heidelberg
EMAIL: y41@ix.urz.uni-heidelberg.de       Heidelberg, Germany 

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Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan