Subject:
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Re: Cheap American shot (Was: NEW Mindstorms set shown (with picture!))
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Sun, 30 Jan 2000 13:48:17 GMT
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Viewed:
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265 times
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First off all replys to this have been set to off-topic.debate
In lugnet.starwars, Dan Jezek writes:
> In lugnet.starwars, Clint Rutkas writes:
> > <snip>That's because in Europe (Eastern Europe at least) kids mature
> > earlier. At
> > age 14 or 15 they already have to pick what they want to do with their life,
> > whether to go to middle school or job training. By the time they're 18,
> > they
> > can speak at least 2 if not 3 languages while some 18yr olds in the US can't
> > even locate the US on the world map.</snip>
> > <rant>
> >
> > Easy there Jezek, I'm 18 right now and can speak Russian, German, and
> > English. I can do 7 different programming languages, have a 3.9 out of 4.0
> > GPA, and taking college classes to supplement what my current High school
> > can't handle due to costs of the equipment.
> >
> > And at age 14 to 15, if you have decided what you want to do, you have been
> > brainwashed into believing it, only at 17 did I decide I wanted to peruse CS
> > as a job, even now I'm tossing up between programming and networking.
> >
> > And yes, there are the few Americans that can't locate possible certain
> > states, but if you lived where a single state is the size of YOUR entire
> > country, my response would be to shut up and get a wee bit more informed.
>
> What I wrote are facts and not my own imagination so don't tell me to shut
> up. You may be an exception but in general, there is less expected out of
> kids that live in the US than out of kids that live in Europe. What you wrote
> in your last paragraph is typical ignorance and exactly my point. If you live
> in the US which is the world superpower then you don't need to know another
> language to get by and can afford to be more of a hillbilly. If you lived in
> a small country then you would have to know at least 2 or 3 lanugages by the
> time you went to college just to get by in today's business. For example as
> kids, we were drilled Russian from the 5th grade and English from the 7th
> grade.
Mr. Jezek,
I happen to think your steriotyping of the American culture is appalling.
First, have you ever been to the U.S. and second have you ever lived in the
U.S. If not you have no right making generalizations about any culture. Plus
I don't care who you are or where you come from expressing your superiority to
another group of people or culture is just wrong I don't care who you are.
As has been discussed at length before American's (of which I am one) are
looked down on if not just trully hated in the rest of the world. In some
ways I understand this and can see where our GOVERNMENT makes us look like
bullie's but please don't take the actions of government and generalize them to
our entire people.
We also did not become a world superpower because we are all stupid (which I
think is what you ment when you used the word "hillbilly"). We as people are
no better than any other culture or people and many (not all) of us know that
and we would expect the same out of anyone else from any other part of the
world.
> Since in Europe at 14 or 15 you already have to decide what to do, while in
> the US you do it at 17 or 18, it is more appropriate to put the final age
> range as 14 in Europe and 16 in the US which I think is the whole point of
> this debate.
Personally I don't think that pigeonholing age ranges is appropriate in any
case except for infants where choking is the primary fear. Older children do
mature differently and at different rates (although that is NOT tide to
culture) and putting age ranges on a box IMO is wrong because in general what
companies do is take the lowest common denomonator to decide what ages to put
on a box and this often keeps people from buying product for a child because
they do not fit into the age range for the product. This both hinders the
childs development and IMO encourages slower development to keep the kids in
step with their peer group.
As far as deciding what you want to do. I did not decide I wanted to do what I
am doing until I was 21 and I could easily decide to do something completly
different when I am 41. I think it is sad to think that a child has to decide
what they are going to do for the rest of their lives whether it is when they
are 14 or 17. Maybe some situations warrent it but I find it upsetting that
some people have to decide what they are going to do with their lives when they
are 14 and there is no turning back.
Eric Kingsley
The New England LEGO Users Group
http://www.nelug.org/
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