“I believe it [teaching to the test] has only furthered our abilities to analyze and synthesis information on a deeper level than that of previous generation.”

Tests don’t do a good job of measuring a student’s ability to analyze and synthesize information, because the measurement of such skills is unavoidably subjective. Tests are best at measuring a student’s accumulation of facts. Thus, teaching to the test has exactly the opposite effect you posit.

Edu-babble. Nonsense. Proof, please. What do you mean by “deeper level?” How do you “analyze” information on a “deeper level?”

It’s double-speak. The reality is any education shallow enough to neglect Oedipus (I was in the play in college and had read the play in high school)isn’t going to give you a “deep” anything - except perhaps the ability to bullsh*t your way through tests.

While what you right is totally true, perhaps the real essence of the problem is the attitude of our society.
As a member of the genaration in question, I was appalled by this study - no one likes their generation being targeted negatively. However, I wasn’t shocked in the least. While I can answer all the questions that ’shockingly’ only a sole minority could, I understand the predicament of Generation Yers. Our entire educational career has been dominated by new ideas: new math, new response styles, and new tests. The latter, most dominately influenced by Bush’s NCLB standards has perhaps had the most negative inluence in conjunction with the trend (at the state level)of individualized standardized tests. All these lead to the practice of “teaching-to-the-test”. While this practice may limit the overall raw knowledge that we (our generation)individually has (such as the ability to identify Oedipus Rex), I believe it has only furthered our abilities to analyze and synthesis information on a deeper level than that of previous generation. When questioning this generation, one must keep reality in mind through self-questioning. Assuming you’re not an English professor, when was the last time you identified Oedipus, King of Thebes. Probably never. And if you can’t identify it, how can you expect us too? Instead of passing blame, maybe one should take some initiative and recify this problem. Or else.

I agree that the teaching of history is plagued by testing. I agree that the exact dates of the Civil War are meaningless. Unfortunately, coming to understand the eternal human truths that generated the Civil War (and still apply today) requires a broad understanding of many historical events. History is not a collection of individual facts; it is a gigantic painting of human triumphs and foibles, all interrelated. You just can’t understand the Civil War until you’ve seen a goodly portion of that canvas.

And the Civil War is only relevant to us today because many of the same social, political, and economic forces that led to that catastrophe are still at work today. The thought processes that stampeded us into a disastrous war in Iraq share elements with the thought processes that stampeded the North and the South into war. Indeed, I am absolutely certain that a solid understanding of history would have saved us from that blunder. Our lack of education has now cost us about 4,000 lives and at least a trillion dollars in expenses and liabilities. What would it have cost us to educate our citizenry to a level sufficient to have saved us from that mistake? Certainly a great deal less than a trillion dollars. If ever you needed a justification for more education, you can find it scattered all over the cemeteries of America.

I think it’s funny how you point out that our kids aren’t getting educated but you never mention where it breaks down. It breaks down at the School board. And yes, as a Conservative and a teacher I can tell you that it is the right wing that packs school boards with idiots who want the Bible taught as historical fact. It is Conservatives who show up at board meetings and demand that we teach kids that evolution is just a theory. It is conservatives at school board meetings that don’t want anything taught but math and a little science and business. It is conservatives who who up and tell me not to teach the BILL OF RIGHTS!!!!

The reason our kids are dumb is because conservatives have rammed their uneducated, ill informed ideological views on everyone in the school districts.

I quite 4 months short of thirty years and as I look back, I think that the truth has to be spoken.