Let the education system dig its own grave. Technology will make it irrelevant in time.

The current system is already developing methods of basically downloading information into the brain. We are a few years off from consumer grade models being developed. Such devices won't replace all forms of education at first, but it will replace things like prerequisite courses.

We are a few years off from consumer grade models being developed. Such devices won't replace all forms of education at first, but it will replace things like prerequisite courses.

This is not what education should be about; it is this very philosophy that is at the root of many of the problems the education system today faces. They focus on facts and information, and skip over the important things, such as fostering wonder, fascination, and interest about the world in students, and teaching people how to reason, investigate, and think critically. Those are abilities that must be taught and developed, and they cannot be downloaded into your brain from a machine.

Actually critical thinking skills are nothing mystical and like any information they can be copied and downloaded.

If you are in the 10% of the upper class (or, of the "2%" gifted students) you will probably have some difficulties...

If you're in the upper 2%, you are also smart enough to know it and to make use of it by yourself.

Contrary to what most people think, intelligence by itself is useless.

So, useless as it is useless for bicycling to have strong legs if you don't even get on the bike

Having one very strong trait means nothing if any of the other necessary traits are absent.

I don't deny that, but intelligence is an exceptionally versatile trait, since it can be used to find new solutions and in some cases circumvent the lack of other traits.

Of course, if one factor is unescapably 0, the product is always 0.

I was the same way. Any kind of math I took before calculus I got easily. But calculus I couldn't get intuitively, at least beyond the easiest parts of it. What I don't understand is why it's a required course at universities. When are you ever going to need to know calculus? It's only applicable to a narrow range of job specializations. If you're planning on becoming a history or language major then it's a waste of time, and it could serve to keep an otherwise very qualified person out of their career if completing calculus courses is a graduation requirement. This is one problem I have with the system of education we have.

Intelligence, at least the way people like Mensa measure it, seems to me mainly to be how quickly the mind can understand and solve problems or abstract ideas. Which is extremely useful in almost anything you do. It's not determination or the ability to get things done, but if you have the determination, intelligence will make everything much easier. So, useless as it is useless for bicycling to have strong legs if you don't even get on the bike or people keep telling you that you shouldn't ride, but if get a small push and you do ride, you'll easily outrun others.

Also, the American scientists who use metric are government scientists and apparently they've crashed a few spacecraft because of confusion of measurements between systems.

What will future civilizations think when they look at us and cannot tell who did what? They will have to assume we were all the same culture if a scientific report in Germany and one from this American Federation are in a WorldWideBasic language and in SI Units so that nothing can distinguish whose achievements are whose.

The Confederate States of America). But try saying this United States is. That is Ebonics, not proper English. Now think of the sentence, "The United States is the wealthiest country in the world," and see how unnoticed this has gone.

You're right. There is no such country. A federation is not a country, it is a collection of states

I've logged weeks of research into the history of these United States. I am forced to conclude that we are federated states with a federal government touted as supreme.

its our mathematical language, and it defines us, makes us unique

I do not believe a nation should so easy throw its culture away, and America should not throw away is system of measurement to meet the standard of any state or federation on the planet.

If we make our units uniform worldwide, then we must make our language uniform and so on.

This demonstrates the validity of my earlier point that we are not a country, because people were willing to go to war over whether or not we are.