are kids getting smarter?

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yesterday when i went to town, cause i was getting my haircut i noticed since the last time i was in town kids seem to be more adult. carrying phones, and acting like adults. i swear i saw this "couple" that couldnt be no older than 13 in the park making out and pretend humping. im serious, it was quit disturbing and i was the only one shocked apparently.

Yes, kids are getting smarter. I'm always shocked to see 7 year olds on the bus being spoiled rotten by these $700 flip-top phones with txt, pix and vids!! In the 1930's teenagers were almost non-existent! I'm sure one or two members around here might remember THOSE days... Starr and paolo, perhaps?

That doesn't sound smarter. Any MONKEY can COPY! Sometimes I THINK kids are getting smarter, and then I realize some MAY be, but others are certainly getting dumber. Planet of the apes WAS supposed to be FICTION, RIGHT????? I mean it looks like we are headed down the SAME path, and for the SAME reasons!! The apes may not LITERALLY be apes, and the reversion isn't so quick or total, but it IS there.

As for my impressions? I guess it is because I can't judge age too well, the better ones that are famous tend to get more press, they try harder, etc... ALSO, some may be scripted.

Steve

I agree with SteveK that it isn't smart behavior. It is just pretend play.

Popular tech gadgets are not indications that anyone is getting smarter. I remember back in the early 80's when VCRs were new and adults marvelled at us kids that could program them. They also (grudgingly) marvelled at how adept we were at videogames.
Those aren't smarts though, they are toys. The more that's available to a generation, the easier it is for the "kids" to learn them. I don't understand computers half as well as someone 10 years younger than me.
What's odd is that in my son's schools (he's been in 2 districts in the past 2 years) start teaching basics earlier, and teach them slower. They were teaching the alphabet and writing their name in preschool (I didn't even go to preschool). He's in 1st grade, reading at what is now considered 2nd grade level. But his class and classmates are stuck in the 1st grade. It's very slow and basic. The math is terrible.
The other week, they sent a letter home asking us to "help with teaching money" principles as it's very hard for them. uh, okay. I taught him money last semester. We were handling large denominations when we played Monopoly 20+ years ago.
What's happened?

I hate the grade system, kids learn at different rates and should be taught accordingly.

in some ways, yes... i have seen several 6-8 yr olds discussing the ethics of Emenim....

but i have also seen hundreds of lil 6-8 yr olds who can't read or write...

but i have also seen one lil 6 yr old who immediately, upon seeing me for the first time, came up and asked me where my uni's electron microscope and whther or not he could use it

KimJ, that wasn't supposed to say 'kids are getting smarter because of gadgets'. But that post you did was viable!

Go to any forum and you'll find MANY 12 year olds rotting away their spelling an grammarwith "OMG teh haxx0rz I c4n't beleeve th33s sheet!!1!!11!!?1!!??! !"

It's absolutely shocking. I'm glad I picked up my first computer at 10 and got internet at 12.

What monkey see, monkey do.

I`m in seventh grade now, and some of my classmates don`t read or speak english too well, and a girl that`s 5 or so years younger actully stands in front of the whole school singing in english!

It actully said in the paper a while ago that 5 year old`s dressed like 13 year old kids and kids in 3rd grade have cell phones, laptop`s and all the modern technology, that`s quite shocking in my eyes.

It was all different before the war![/war_veteran_voice]

Kids are "growing up" faster, but not getting smarter. Common sense is declining, actually.

Bush, anybody?

A guy in my Maths class saw a fake picture of a PS4 controller with 15 analog sticks and 10 shoulder buttons and thought it was legit, and went around school telling all his mates about how many buttons it had. SERIOUSLY!!

I think that they are getting smarter, due to the imformation that they can pick on, over the Internet, in relation to their educational interests. It kind of makes me feel like a Low Cog.

You're in NORWAY, right?

When do they start teaching English, and is it required?

BTW I met a woman in Denmark, and asked her if she spoke English, German or French, and she INSISTED she only spoke DANISH! She wasn't old, but she was college age or older!

As for the young girl? Hey, if she liked it, and people didn't mind, GREAT!

Steve

So what? 5 year old kids in African missionary schools can do the same. Almost any child can learn a song in another language.

Intelligence is defined as "Q" on tests. It is the raw measure of cognition. Having a cell phone and making out are social behaviors unrelated to intelligence.

In the past, educated, intelligent people could read both Greek and Latin and never imagined a cell phone. What do cell phones have to do with anything? The internet cannot make you more intelligent, it can only give you a different venue to learn information. Often unimportant, uselsess information.

I think some kids are getting smarter but most are becoming more and more idiotic (the chavs)

Intelligent people may have read Latin and Greek MM years ago but how many people were literate at the time? Intelligence is often measured in a subjective way and I'm not sure talking about average people in any particular place is going to answer our question, "Are people dumber or smarter?"
Just 150 years ago, not every child went to school and there were pockets of society that couldn't/wouldn't read much, if at all. Some farm children attended just enough school to read, write and perform math skills needed for farm labor. Some families (most notably New Englanders and their pioneer descendants in the Plains States) were very well read and travelled with their libraries, maintained extensive correspondence and entertained small children with literature.
Society has dramatically changed where we believe that everyone should receive the same education and access to that education. Average students are dramatically different now than 30, 70, and 100 years ago. So, it's going to seem that the average student is dumber because we are now witnessing kids in schools and colleges that may never have left whatever squalid situation they were born in.