The finish line is only the beginning...

So, I was reading this article about the TAKS scores being lower than they were last year, and it gave me a heartfelt laugh. I honestly thought the youth of this state were better prepared for this ridiculous excuse of a test. As you probably know, you need to pass this test every year from like 9th grade on to graduate high school. If you don't, you get put into a class that reviews specific questions so that when you do re-take the exam, you pass it. It's freaking insane how dumb the youth is now. I simply cannot fathom what it is like to worry about the TAKS exam as a serious issue. I MURDERED that test without even trying. To see people sweating and freaking out over it was actually humorous.
But this brings up a serious and critical issue. If the next generation of students cannot achieve on this exam, where does this leave us as a society? Eventually, some of these kids are going to run for office, or get jobs that can seriously have an impact on a large number of people. But more likely, we will see a large proportion of them working at jobs where they cook up patties and the like.
So a few questions arise. Do we dumb down the test for the dumbed down public? Do we keep it the same and improve out preparing methods? Or do we throw away the test in exchange for something that better targets the new needs of a new generation?
It's amazing to think that 100 years ago people were only getting smarter. Intelligence was rapidly expanding as people realized the potential they had within them. We were able to invent many new items and create new jobs for all sorts of people. This continued for some time, until in the past decade or so that things have been decreasing more than increasing. People are less informed on the going-ons of their national, much less local, governments. They are watching more television than ever before. Money is a problem for most people. Humans are working jobs they hate to purchase items that have no use at all. Pollution is killing off species and working on the atmosphere. But to the credit of out race, at least we don't have to hunt for food anymore... yet anyway...
If kids cannot achieve a passing grade on this simple test, we are in very deep shit. It wasn't too long ago that I remained an optimist about our race, but more and more as of late, I find myself trying to think through problems that seemingly have no solution. It's incredibly depressing to see the direction of the future, and to know there's so little one can do about it. To see the problem in full view and not do something about it because of lack of funds or whatever is totally ignorant. This is the future of our nation that we are talking about, and it is on the down slide in Texas.
Always, I have believed in education as a tool to make the world a better place. Tell people about the situations in Africa where people starve to death everyday and they might think twice before ordering a whole mess of food, and throwing half of it out. Show them the effects of pollution and they might see the advantages of recycling. But it seems that people are far more interested in their own agenda then anything else. It always seems like a losing battle to push the world forward for the better.
Someone commented on my last blog where I called for a revolution and made a very valid point. Basically the argument was government is corrupt and so on and so forth. But they said that the harder I push the issue, the more I will be made out to look like Alex Jones. I have to say this was a shocker, because I had never thought of it before. Just thought I'd finish off this last original blog with some things that have stayed constantly on my mind since I first started taking government nearly a year ago. And from this whole experience, I've learned that people will always believe what they want, no matter the circumstance, and that there is so very little that one can do about it. But as long as there is a small glimmer of hope, I will always try my hardest to resist this stereotype, and try to help people see the way things could be, instead of how they are.