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Comments to “Stupid in America”

1. Garrey Says:
   What do you base this on??
2. Onyebuchi Says:
   John Stossel is the worst "journalist" on television. Much, much worse than any teacher in this video. He is a corporate whore and a liar.
3. Jayron Says:
   Still, my question is LITERALLY how do you hold them accountable? How exactly would you go about it. The current system is not realistic or fair. People want to blame it on lazy teachers, but it is worth pointing out that most teachers could get higher paying jobs than teaching, yet choose to teach. Sure, there are bad teachers, but that's a very small part of the issue. In my experience there are FAR more bad parents than bad teachers.
4. KAYIN Says:
   That's why they should be self-regulated, more or less. How do you hold schools accountable? Does your school still have students [that aren't soldiers in the drug business]? Then you're accountable.
5. Cydney Says:
   The problem with the incentive idea is that you have bureaucrats using testing to show how well teachers are doing, and many teachers will tell you, again,tests don't show the whole story and teachers are forced to spend time teaching kids useless things that they'll need for standardized tests. Standardized tests aren't that reliable. How do you meausure philosophy? Religion? Granted, most schools don't have those, but they should.(I'm not religious, but it's great for encouragin free thought.
6. UZUMATI Says:
   I'm sure they don't enjoy poor schooling, I still don't accept excuses. If somebody is okay with mediocre performence from themselves or their children fine, I'm just sick of this excuse and blame others game. My big issue, again, with this article is John Stossel's "reporting" and the fact that to really look at "Stupid America" he needs to jump into the problem as a whole, not just take issue with the public school system. Yes, we have the means to fix it, and should, but stop blaming.
7. Apolline Says:
   I went to school and graduated in the middle east. class size was 35-40 and we had 7-9 subjects. we turned out to be good. We know more. My brother graduated here. class size was about 20 and subjects were about 7. In elementary school he was either 1st or 2nd in class. When he came to the USA he's grades were still high and graduated with a 3.9 GPA. However, he is barely passing in collage. I looked at his high school books and was shocked of how simple and easy they were.
8. Kalei Says:
   I am so proud to be from Europe. It's not the system thats bad, it's the students that are dumbasses. Teachers do not have to make you learn, they just have to explain things and it's up to you to learn it. If you're stupid, that's you're problem.
9. GABRIELLA Says:
   Yes, but ask those kids if they were happy in the horrible schools or thought the schooling was adequate, I bet you dollars to doughnuts there would be a resounding "No". Shitty schooling doesn't help any kids, good schooling doesn't hurt any kids. We have the means and the duty to reform public schools, it's as simple as that.
10. Jazlyn Says:
    Please. Take a look inside the Baltimore City school system. While parents and culture play a huge part, these issues can't be resolved without tearing down the monopolistic aspects that make quality education impossible. People respond to incentives, and our public school systems don't offer the incentives for teachers to do a good, or even mediocre, job.
11. Rinna Says:
    sry man but america has together with israel most jews and together with africa most niggers... how can it happen that it is not stupid ? there is no chance not to be stupid
12. Terryn Says:
    It does reinforce the idea that there's something wrong with our school system, but the biggest problem is class size. A teacher with 2 students can't put in the effort or time to teach a student math that a family member with 1 can. Another major issue is ridiculous curriculum requirements which teachers waste their time on because it's required when the teacher's know full well, and would agree with the general public, that much of the class time is wasted.
13. Avalee Says:
    It's not a sweeping generalization about libertarians, just John Stossel's reporting as a libertarian. He bothers me (not just this report, all of them) because he tries to play off opinion pieces as investigative reporting. It's true there is no ONE problem here, but I thoroughly believe the biggest issue is still parenting and our culture. Lots of perfectly intelligent and capable young people come out of horrible schools, generally because of healthy home environments, though not always.
14. MEZAJ Says:
    don't be afraid....U will hear this kind of stories all over ASIA....There is no FREE school in ASIA...U wanna get in the school u better have the money....
15. Murdock Says:
    "Its a jyoke" at 6:32... Jose is smart..
16. LYSANDRA Says:
    Why didn't the mother educate her son as well as the school and let him know that failure to learn to read was not an option?
17. SANDU Says:
    The story about the grandmother seems to reinforce the idea that there is something wrong with the educational system. I don't see much fault within the family because the grandmother cares about her grandchild's education enough to get involved (and at such an early stage of education). The school didn't do its job to teach. I would say the story about the teen who could barely read has social factors influencing the problem (why is the mom NOW getting involved?)
18. Zehavit Says:
    Issues such as this are not so clear cut as to say this or that is the real problem. They all contribute to the problem. I agree that John Stossel does focus a lot about economics more than social issues. It's unfair, though, to come off that he only cares about money because he is a libertarian. Hopefully you don't think that about all libertarians.
19. Quinton Says:
    If he would agree why doesn't he address the biggest issue which is cultural. Children are growing up in a world where excuses matter more than hard work. His example of the grandma teaching her grandchild math isn't an example of poor schooling, it's an example of how parental involvement is absolutely necessary for success. It also shows, as anybody who knows anything about child development knows, (most)children must have things explained multiple times to retain it.
20. Jenelle Says:
    Fine, he's upset that school's aren't all equal. That's fair. But what is also fair is the zoning of people to go to certain schools. He avoids all the real issues here. Why doesn't he actually say, in his own words that the government should change zoning to make the schools playing field more equal. What's getting lost in this is the fact that he's a libertarian and simply doesn't like so much money going to anything, school's included. He ignores the real problem; parents and culture.
21. ABDUL-QADIR Says:
    He is disgusted that the school has to do it in the first place.
22. Bernita Says:
    I'm pretty sure that "idiot" John Stossel would agree with the second half of your comment. Also, go look up the problems with the Detroit School district. They have more problems than a non existant foreign language program. Children should be able to ask teachers who care about their job for help when they are confused on a subject. You can't expect to get much out of something of crappy quality no matter how much you put into it.
23. BATHILDA Says:
    how the fuck is it 40 minits and yes im not stupid i payed attention to the transformer schools i imeanAHH fuck it
24. CAMEO Says:
    Everytime I watch this I get more upset about John Stossel. Acting like the school inspector checking addresses is being creepy or unreasonable. Those schools are good because they have small class sizes, and when people lie about where they live and expand class sizes it hurts everybody. John Stossel is an ass.
25. Jakobah Says:
    haha, right on

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