Kids these days...

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

A young man, maybe 17 yrs old at the most, outside in front of Win-Co Grocery seems to think that "calling girls out" in front of 5 or 6 of his friends is the way to a woman's heart.

Right around the time that wifey and I walk out of the store, 2 young ladies between 20-25 yrs old walk out and the young man determines that this is his opportunity. When the young ladies continue forward through the parking lot towards their car, the young man hollars "Yo, why you frontin?", to which the older looking of the young ladies appropriately replies, "We're ignoring you". The young man then asks "Why you ignorin' me?" She responds with, "I'm too old for you". He then says, "Iaaaain't too young, I'm fawty too". She turns around, smiles, then turns back around continuing to her car. He says, "Why lookin all confooosed girl".

At this time, I feel it is appropriate for me, as an man with many years of marriage, parenthood, and grandfatherhood experience under my belt to intervene with appropriate counsel, saying "Perhaps the young lady is wondering why a man who claims to be 42 years old would position himself as a candidate to be considered for a future protector, provider, man of honesty, and cherisher of her heart, when he raises his voice across a parking lot in a condescending manner, lying without pause, would be more concerned with impressing his friends than earning her heart, and yet still cannot afford a belt in order to keep his pants secured around his waist while wearing underwear that doesn't match anything else that he's wearing".

His response, just a single open mouth, jaw dropped significantly.

 

[Dan025]

i'd have probably just said "you're stupid" or "quit being stupid.. stupid!"

 

[line6man]

I do not inherently blame the younger generation for its collective lack of manners and common sense, when the previous generation is much at fault for failing to raise children properly. $10 says that kid's parents never taught him any better, or simply don't care.  :dontknow:

 

[AutoBat]

Kids these days are just as dumb as we all were.  The older generation always thinks that about youth.

 

[line6man]

Kids these days are just as dumb as we all were.  The older generation always thinks that about youth.

No, this generation really is getting dumber. People can't even tip their waitresses anymore without a smartphone app to do the math. But that's a different rant. :blob7:

 

[alterbridgefan]

:blob7:

Subscribed... Can't wait to see where this one go's.

 

[Cagey]

Kids these days are just as dumb as we all were.  The older generation always thinks that about youth.

No, this generation really is getting dumber. People can't even tip their waitresses anymore without a smartphone app to do the math. But that's a different rant. :blob7:

Not just that. Many kids don't have parents, plural. They have a working mommy with no time for them and no known or available father. Public schools function as little more than a government-sponsored babysitter and food service, with little or no education, discipline or oversight, so you basically end up with wild animals that have no usable/saleable skills. Then the gummint is happy to underwrite massive loans for them the go to college and get useless liberal arts degrees, assuming they make it even that far. Then they're in incredible debt with no useful or saleable skills. So, they go to work at [FastFoodJoint] where they can't even operate a cash register unless it has pictures of the food on it, and can't make change for a buck without the machine telling them how many quarters/dimes/nickels/pennies to give back. It's pretty sad.

 

[hannaugh]

On behalf of all womankind, I thank you TonyFlyingSquirrel.  For the record though, I have had "men" of all ages yell similar things at me. 

I do not understand what they think they are trying to accomplish, since the first thing that comes across my mind when that happens is "Uh oh, it's a creepy weirdo who yells at strangers like a baboon.  What can I use as a weapon?" 

 

[swarfrat]

Hurray for TFS.  I'm a guy, and I'm with Hannaugh on this one. Suppose for a minute I am a self centered misogynistc creept bent on conquest. The behaviour hardly seems like good tactics. Generally when hunting, the idea is do everything humanly possible to not spook your quarry. The real goal then must be showing off for his peers

 

[sixstringsamurai]

This "man" (I use this in the loosest sense possible.)regardless of age, "Hangin on the corner" acting like some low class wanna be gangster....
I believe the were called Scrubs in the 90's
I call them losers, plain and simple, you're a grown ass man, act like it or leave the herd.....

Thank you TFS on behalf of real men everywhere.

 

[Dan025]

Kids these days are just as dumb as we all were.  The older generation always thinks that about youth.

No, this generation really is getting dumber. People can't even tip their waitresses anymore without a smartphone app to do the math. But that's a different rant. :blob7:

it's happening so fast too. besides the obvious cultural problems of kids with no dad and a mom with a propensity to make bad decisions. the influence of pop culture, there is the whole no student left behind thing and in new york kids have to use calculators from 4th grade on. in my day ( a whole 10 years ago) we couldn't use a calculator for tests. some things we did in class we used them but these kids have math classes where the teachers are to have the students do the arithmetic so they depend on the mandatory calculator. not to mention all the buget cuts tha removeds music, shop, and art programs so we have a generation of kids who can't write, read music, build, do arithmatic, or learn to respect women or raise kids because they don't have a dad to set the example and it's all ok because enforcing standards might hurt someones feelings.

 

[sixstringsamurai]

it's happening so fast too. besides the obvious cultural problems of kids with no dad and a mom with a propensity to make bad decisions. the influence of pop culture, there is the whole no student left behind thing and in new york kids have to use calculators from 4th grade on. in my day ( a whole 10 years ago) we couldn't use a calculator for tests. some things we did in class we used them but these kids have math classes where the teachers are to have the students do the arithmetic so they depend on the mandatory calculator. not to mention all the buget cuts tha removeds music, shop, and art programs so we have a generation of kids who can't write, read music, build, do arithmatic, or learn to respect women or raise kids because they don't have a dad to set the example and it's all ok because enforcing standards might hurt someones feelings.

I was raised by a single mom,
I must be one of the lucky ones.
I was taught to respect women,
I was made to practice(not that it was a real struggle there)
I was given what I needed, anything above that I had to work for it.
Education cuts in fine arts are appalling, and alien to me I attended a HS that put as much money/emphasis on arts as athletics.
Standards / House rules were enforced, Mom's word IS LAW.
I was held culpable for MY decisions.
It takes a village.....
Extended family is crucial
holds you to the fact of not IF you'll get caught, but WHEN.

 

[Dan025]

i didn't mean all people raised by one parent lack parenting. i was more talking about the parents that are single because they make bad decisions. but i guess being single could just as easily be a good decision depending on what type of person the other parent turns out to be. and sometimes you don't know that when you think you do.

 

[hannaugh]

Hurray for TFS.  I'm a guy, and I'm with Hannaugh on this one. Suppose for a minute I am a self centered misogynistc creept bent on conquest. The behaviour hardly seems like good tactics. Generally when hunting, the idea is do everything humanly possible to not spook your quarry. The real goal then must be showing off for his peers

I always really want to call the guy a loser who doesn't know anything about women in front of said friends when it seems like that is the case, but I don't want to risk it if the dude turns out to be a violent wacko.  Or worse, he and all his friends he's with are all violent wackos.  If that situation makes me uncomfortable and paranoid (not to mention angry because it is degrading), I bet it sends chicks who have been in violent situations into full on PTSD mode. 

 

[Jumble Jumble]

in my day ( a whole 10 years ago) we couldn't use a calculator for tests. some things we did in class we used them but these kids have math classes where the teachers are to have the students do the arithmetic so they depend on the mandatory calculator.

Man, the world is going to be so screwed when all the calculators and computers in the world vanish.

Why do people focus in on mental arithmetic so much when they're on a "kids these days" rant? If you were doing something truly important, you'd check your maths with a machine of some kind anyway. Teaching kids how to use maths is way more important than teaching them the historical methods of calculation. People that come to work with me, I'd much rather they knew how to create Excel spreadsheets that do all the maths than be able to do it all in their head. It's a more useful and practical skill in the world that exists today.

In any other field, the foundations upon which the subject is built are taught later than how to use them. When you learn woodwork, you use tools. It would be considered a more advanced stage to learn how to make tools. The same goes for sciences - we use and trust thermometers and other measuring equipment. Learning how those pieces of equipment work is saved for those who want to specialise in the subject.

What's more valuable - knowing what the right time  to use a geometric mean is, and how to make a computer calculate one, or being able to calculate the 12th root of 155 manually? Which should be learned first?

 

[sixstringsamurai]

in my day ( a whole 10 years ago) we couldn't use a calculator for tests. some things we did in class we used them but these kids have math classes where the teachers are to have the students do the arithmetic so they depend on the mandatory calculator.

Man, the world is going to be so screwed when all the calculators and computers in the world vanish.

Why do people focus in on mental arithmetic so much when they're on a "kids these days" rant? If you were doing something truly important, you'd check your maths with a machine of some kind anyway. Teaching kids how to use maths is way more important than teaching them the historical methods of calculation. People that come to work with me, I'd much rather they knew how to create Excel spreadsheets that do all the maths than be able to do it all in their head. It's a more useful and practical skill in the world that exists today.

In any other field, the foundations upon which the subject is built are taught later than how to use them. When you learn woodwork, you use tools. It would be considered a more advanced stage to learn how to make tools. The same goes for sciences - we use and trust thermometers and other measuring equipment. Learning how those pieces of equipment work is saved for those who want to specialise in the subject.

What's more valuable - knowing what the right time  to use a geometric mean is, and how to make a computer calculate one, or being able to calculate the 12th root of 155 manually? Which should be learned first?

Practical, then Theoretical.

 

[stubhead]

I got really good grades in high school - especially considering my lack of interest - but it seems bizarre to me that there isn't, nestled somewhere in all that calculus and trig - a required math class called "How to do your taxes." Or another called "double-entry bookkeeping." It is SO MUCH EASIER to learn something like math when it's combined with real practical existence. "If Bob was on a train going 37mph due west and Ralph was..." WHO CARES!

There are other things which could be taught that might be too powerful for little kids? Like "Identifying logical fallacies" and "Seven false arguments"... I've had a decades-long interest in logic and the construction of proofs, and it's because I was lucky enough to encounter "logic" as a little bitty sub-subject in ancient Greek philosophy, where it's complicated half to death by terminology. But in digging through it you find that there are ways to construct very persuasive arguments - without the conclusion logically following the premises. And when you run across an argument or policy constructed around a logical fallacy, you sure have to ask "why?" Of course teaching the widges that would ruin advertising, politics and religion...

And the willful teaching of basic mistruths turns the smart kids into mistrusting cynics and the dumb ones even dumber. Did any child come out of high school history understanding the roots of WWII? That after the use of tanks, submarines and airplanes in WWI, every nation with a spoon in the pot realized that if you controlled the oil, you controlled the world? Yes Hitler was a bit mad, and he did hate Jews; but he went straight through Poland to get to the Romanian oil fields and used that oil to head straight for North Africa.... (what's called "the Mideast" except when Hitler's involved. :laughing3 And Japan, who's WWII started in 1933, went straight to the Manchurian oil fields. No, we can't trust children with actual facts - wars are fought over resources, FOLLOW THE MONEY... but they better not tell lies to Mommy!

It's a bit difficult for me to get past the notion that our schools exist to train 19th Century factory workers to wake up early, go do some ridiculous nonsense all day, and you'd better love it. It's an incredibly wasteful use of time and money - I am living proof that you could play the "grade game" and avoid retaining a large portion of the B.S. Nowadays one main thrust of public school is teaching "teamwork" - children get divided into small groups, and it becomes the responsibility of the smarter kids to drag the other kids along.

I'm pretty sure that's NOT what they're teaching in the exclusive private schools that kids named "Kennedy" and "Rockefeller" go to.

"Boy have we got some stooges for you..."  :laughing7:

 

[Jumble Jumble]

F'n A, man. Spot on.

 

[Dan025]

in my day ( a whole 10 years ago) we couldn't use a calculator for tests. some things we did in class we used them but these kids have math classes where the teachers are to have the students do the arithmetic so they depend on the mandatory calculator.

Man, the world is going to be so screwed when all the calculators and computers in the world vanish.

Why do people focus in on mental arithmetic so much when they're on a "kids these days" rant? If you were doing something truly important, you'd check your maths with a machine of some kind anyway. Teaching kids how to use maths is way more important than teaching them the historical methods of calculation. People that come to work with me, I'd much rather they knew how to create Excel spreadsheets that do all the maths than be able to do it all in their head. It's a more useful and practical skill in the world that exists today.

In any other field, the foundations upon which the subject is built are taught later than how to use them. When you learn woodwork, you use tools. It would be considered a more advanced stage to learn how to make tools. The same goes for sciences - we use and trust thermometers and other measuring equipment. Learning how those pieces of equipment work is saved for those who want to specialise in the subject.

What's more valuable - knowing what the right time  to use a geometric mean is, and how to make a computer calculate one, or being able to calculate the 12th root of 155 manually? Which should be learned first?

obviously you have a handle on math. and i myself hate the arithmatic. einstein sucked at arithmatic. he said he was able to work on his theories because he wasn't distracted with the arithmatic. but not everyone is an einstein, or you or me. and i feel that as much as i hated it, if i coped out and used a calculator i wouldn't have had the perspective i have of numbers today. i'm no mathematician but i have a high level of comprehension compared to people around me. i think that doing the hand work gave me a bit of mental discipline because i do have trouble paying attention and gave me a thorough understanding of numbers. i think they should learn it for the disipline if nothing else. i don't think people should never use calculators but they act like the problem people have is learning calculators. no calculators are easy for kids that grow up surrounded by machines. they have trouble learning the significance of what they are doing.  to most kids math and geometry are lame things the school forces them to do and they don't have any concept of real world applications beyond the basics. not everyone will be a craftsman or engineer or marketing researcher but that doesn't mean other people won't benefit from exercising their brains. when things are so bad that cash register workers can't give proper change without help from the machine and resturaunt customers cant figure out the tip without looking at their phone there is a problem.

i can have the same rant about the music and the arts the kids aren't learning. and censorship of literature. we aren't doing kids favors by making things easier. it's not the kids fault for being stupid. we were all stupid at one point but at least the schools had the decency to enforce some of the standards and give some of us a shot at life.

 

[TBurst Std]

And Japan, who's WWII started in 1933, went straight to the Manchurian oil fields.

"Boy have we got some stooges for you..."  :laughing7:

BINGO
How many have heard of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere?

Gordon Prange wrote an excellent book on this.