June 12, 2005

Rating intelligence by public school performance is like rating attractiveness based on the abdominal region. Sure, it plays a part, but there are much more important places to judge.

But some northerners have always had this idea that the South is stupid. I dated one once. It didn't work out. I don't guess she could cope with me being smarter than her. I wouldn't be surprised if a study that lists southern states as doing badly was somewhat biased, or at least flawed. Many studies like this are.

And Mississippi is 47th. Ouch. Not far enough on the list from New Jersey...

Interesting to note that the evaluation considered the points that are most important to educators such as student/teacher ratio and funds spent per pupil. I would prefer to see a ranking based on the number of graduates that could fill out a job appication for a place other than a fast food joint or the number that could qualify for the USAF or USN when taking the Armed Forces Qualification tests.

Readin and writin and rithmatic as the song goes--

While Yankee ingenuity has faded away, northeastern delusions of supeiority flourish.

New England, especially Massachusetts, has flattered itself as our nation's intellectual and spiritual leader since the states were British colonies. The citizens of the other regions know damn well that a failure to live up to their progressive notions is no indication of backwardness.

I have a serious problem with any school study that would rank Vermont as the 3rd 'smartest' state in the Union. I'm sorry, but when I think of the attributes of an average Vermonter, 'brains' isn't the first thing to come to mind.

Hey, I moved from #1 (Massachusetts) to #47 (Mississippi). As far as my personal happiness goes, I made an equal jump in the opposite direction. Book learning is fine, but Southerners have something which is rare in the North: Common sense by the boatload.

Yeah, we have this history, see. Northerners fed us so much shit and gave us so much shit that we have a yankee shit detection system built in to out DNA code.

Another view: Heartlanders is stupid 'cause they ain't accepted diversity and entitlements as the Ultimate Virtues, but Coastlanders is smart because they like the ever-declining public school system and bathe themselves and they kids in the trashy culture that's vomited all over the masses by New York and Hollywood.

It is almost like when they give ratings for states for liveability. They always include as plus points the high price of real estate and the high incomes. However, they don't seem to think it is important what you can buy with your money or how much you can keep.

I notice here they are rating per-pupil expenditures, class size and pupil/teacher ratio. If you don't spend your money wisely it don't help at all. After all DC has the highest per pupil expenditure in the country and the lowest school ratings. Same with class size and ratio. If the teachers aren't backed up in taking care of their classes, you could have a one-to-one ratio and you still couldn't educate the pupils. They have weighted the statistics so that any area that spends money wisely and supports the teachers loses out. BTW if you look at the SAT scores, South Dakota and North Dakota are just about tops in the country. They get scores like some of the special schools up here in the Northeast and do it at half the cost of the schools here but that does not help the ratings.

I worked for 10 years in Massachusetts and while the people I worked with were nice, not a one had the sense to come in out of the rain. They just did not seem to understand the idea of cause and affect. Good at fixing one thing at a time but terrible at figuring out that if you do something here, it affects something else way down there. As you say, no common sense. I am not from the South but I am from a small town in the midwest and I know for sure that I got a better education out there than these idiots do in the blue states of the Northeast.

BTW please, not even in jesting, don't mention Kerry and the word President in the same sentence. We had a close call in 2000 and another close call in 2004. Don't do anything that might cause a close call in 2008. Just cross everything in sight that we luck out again!!

From the linked article:

"States were graded on a variety of factors based on how they compare to the national average. These included such positive attributes as per-pupil expenditures, public high school graduation rates, average class size, student reading and math proficiency, and pupil-teacher ratios. States received negative points for high drop-out rates and physical violence."

With the exception of "reading and math proficiency", WTF does any of the rest have to do witht "Smartness!" Jebus!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Seems to me if you put a few vegetables in a well funded school with good teachers you'll head up the list! Damn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1