When I came to US, of all the things that I was eagerly looking forward to, the most anticipated one was the doing a course under an American professor with many American students.This is my 3rd Sem now and of the 11 courses that I have taken up, only 2 were taught by American profs and hardly 10% of the students were from America.
Then when I became a TA in COT, then for the first time, I came in direct contact with American undergrad students. The "customer care" effect was clear among them. They would not hesitate to ask anything and everthing even before they try to analyze it. ( whereas we Indians would always be the last ones to ask "doubts" ). After a few classes of "How did you figure that out?" "ooh! thats tricky !!" and "Thats it? Is it really so simple?" , I realized that most of them were smart but unfortunately dumb.
Then I found out that most of the smart Americans who were not dumb, went into Law or Management field. Science and Engineering is not a popular option here.Thats why so many I20s are being issued to International students.
Then I saw this film "Idiocracy". Its a dark comedy film on what is going to happen in the future.The argument made in the film is simple : the human race is getting dumber with each passing generation. Well ... it actually is talking about the % of "intelligent" people in US.
Here is the intro of the film.
I know what you are thinking : Thats a dark prediction of the future that might never happen.
yeah ? Then have a look at this :
Ok ... lets spare the poor teen ... but lets turn our attention towards the President of United States of America.
Now lets look at a TV survey. ( ok ok ... they just included the clippings they wanted only to prove their point ... )
Believe me, I worked for 6 days in a Motel.I know that chances that these might really happen in US are bright. And maybe what Asimov predicted is going to happen in the far far future after all !! Science is going to be re-introduced by an extremely small group as a religion. Because when u ain't never fear it, u aren't ever gonna respect it.
To end this blog entry, let me quote Chris Rock here -
"You know the world is going crazy when the best rapper is a white guy, the best golfer is a black guy,the tallest guy in the NBA is Chinese, the Swiss hold the America's Cup, pakistan is accusing the U.S. of not helping against war on terror, Germany doesn't want to go to war, and the three most powerful men in America are named Bush, Dick, and Colon."
Friday, August 31, 2007
Idiocratic America
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4 comments:
Amazing yet very true! I somehow felt that the element missing in American teens now is the attitude to learn. All they want to do is be as close as possible to the target as possible, irrespective of whether their actions carry them there or not!
The most shameful one was the Miss teen American contestant's answer - she couldn't even frame a correct sentence in her mother tongue! How hopeless can a person be!!!
I suggest you watch a discovery channel video on youtube on outsourcing - you will be amazed!
ill tell u wot.. we indians stress a lot on theory..they study how to live it. n i completely disagree with american teens not havin the attitude to learn .. cos we r no better in tat. and at the end of the story foreign degree is more valuable
Attitude depends on lots of factors ... it varies from person to person ... but there is something definitely wrong in the American educational system. Even the Congress knows it and plan are being made to revamp the whole system.
Listen to what Thomas Friedman of The New York Times had to say ...
"When we were young kids growing up in America, we were told to eat
our vegetables at dinner and not leave them. Mothers said, 'think of the starving children in India and finish the dinner.' And now I tell my children: 'Finish your maths homework. Think of the children in India who would make you starve, if you don't."
Hilarious last para!
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