so whats America really like?

Avalon said:

@Mr Bobbins:
AFAIK, Duval is the name of a town in Belgium, and it doesn't mean devil.

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I'm all disappointed now. I thought that was a really cool name for such a wicked drink neye:

Murlyn said:

It's interesting how it works.. When I drank, I noticed that the Guinness on the west coast of the US was not very good, while bottle was never good, canned was usually ok, then the further east you went, the better the Guinness was, as long as it was on tap. Then when I went to England, man it was awesome there!, then when I went up to Scotland.. it was even better! I never did make it to Ireland, but Im sure it was even better there.. and now that I don't drink.. when I do visit.. Ill have to test their water and juices I was a dark beer type of guy.. I couldnt stand lite beers.. it didnt matter what type it was, or where it was from. They needed to be dark

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I hear there is a pub in Dublin Ireland that has a tap running stright from the guinness brewery

also i can only drink brown beer w* natural ingredients English, German
and can't tollerate Fosters, Budweiser, Carling etc. :closed:

Danster said:

also i can only drink brown beer w* natural ingredients English, German
and can't tollerate Fosters, Budweiser, Carling etc. :closed:

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No, all that forced brewed beer is bad for your head. Horrible stuff !!

iWhat said:

I never had a problem cracking up watching reruns of "So Graham Norton" on BBC America. Dame Edna is also really funny, I understand his, oops, I mean her jokes.

CaptainMack,

Ah, yes, Dayton, my family and I always pass through Dayton on vacation. Hey, doesn't it seem that Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati get all the attention in Ohio, and Toledo and Dayton get left behind?

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I'm near Cleveland

James said:

Besides that the school systems in this country have really taken a nose dive and really don't teach the children anymore, more like they endocronate them. They come out of high school basicly ignorant of our countrys history, hardly able to fill out a job applacation and thinking the government owes them a living for the rest of their life.

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I have to disagree with this statement. A lot of my friends and family are educators and I KNOW they try to teach these kids. The problem is not what is or is not taught in school, the majority of the problem is that the parents of the kids don't care. They don't support the kids, they can't help the kids, they are disconnected from the child's education. They view it as "free daycare".

Once parents take back responsibility for raising their kids and a much stronger interest in their education, you'll see a difference.

Find me a smart kid and I'll show you parents who care...

My biggest problem with the education system is that the schools are being too careful not to hurt kids and get the parents mad at them. My sister who is in 6th grade has like a 98 average. Her and her friend were talking one day about the Honor roll and advanced courses, something like that and they asked my mom what grades they needed and she said 90 or above, my sister asked "well isn't that pretty much everybody". My sister has always been a good student but when she is getting higher grades than me and the middle sister in the same school (I won national merit scholarship, younger sister just aced the new SAT's) I think it shows something about the standards they are setting

I've found (at least in Texas) that the new standardized tests are determining whether the teachers have taught their students well enough. What happens? Teachers drill whats going to be on the tests into the kids and worry about them failing it rather that giving them a thorough and well-rounded education. I also agree that there is a severe lack of personal responsibility in this country and IMO it shows most from parents through their children.

deus_ex_machina said:

I've found (at least in Texas) that the new standardized tests are determining whether the teachers have taught their students well enough. What happens? Teachers drill whats going to be on the tests into the kids and worry about them failing it rather that giving them a thorough and well-rounded education. I also agree that there is a severe lack of personal responsibility in this country and IMO it shows most from parents through their children.

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That is exactly what is happening in Indiana also, except the test the students have to take is required for graduation, I didn't see it as a big deal but some people really have trouble with it.

trpnmonkey41 said:

My biggest problem with the education system is that the schools are being too careful not to hurt kids and get the parents mad at them.

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That's called The Trial Lawyer effect .

Seriously, you'd be amazed at what parents sue over. A lot of school districts are getting rid of honor roll because parents are suing because it's "traumatizing" to their children to not be on it. It's just a continued example of the lack of responsibility in this country which is I think our biggest flaw as a nation.

Why take responsibility when you can sue over it? A perfect example is all the talk recently of overweight people suing "Big Food" since they obviously all conspired to make people fat, you know, forcing them to shovel that 4th Big Mac in their face by gun point.

schweb said:

Seriously, you'd be amazed at what parents sue over. A lot of school districts are getting rid of honor roll because parents are suing because it's "traumatizing" to their children to not be on it. It's just a continued example of the lack of responsibility in this country which is I think our biggest flaw as a nation.

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Parents get mad over teachers marking assignments off in red pen. RED PEN. They think it's hurting the self-esteem of the students, preventing them from doing better in school.

These are the parents who let a television and a Nintendo do the parenting while they go drink at a bar.

I saw a family was sueing a school because their kid fell off the monkey bars and got some bruises. Most schools don't even have a real playground anymore its all this foam and plastic stuff so nobody gets hurt.

When I was in elementary school and I fell and got beat up a bit I would come home upset but my dad would look at me and say thats a pretty nice raspberry you got there.

The only traumatizing that is occuring is the parents who think this is helping. All of the parents who immediately blame bad teachers for grades and get the kids on Ritalin so they can use that as an excuse. What happens when these kids grow up and have to get a job and do real work

my wife works in a professional capacity in an inner city school here in England and most of what everyone is discussing here pervades current society, the level of personal violence towaards teachers and total lack of respect has risen over the last decade.

some parents here have very often (imho) bypassed their responsibilities and given them over to the school!


btw specific to my area of knowledge not wishing to overgeneralise british society.

and Adnams Ales from Suffolk, England rates as some of the best Beer available as now doubt many USAF personell will attest to.

ravenstor said:

some parents here have very often (imho) bypassed their responsibilities and given them over to the school!

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That's one of the biggest problems today. Parents expect the school to raise the children for them. Coming into the first grade (or pre-school, even) I was the only kid who knew how to read, write, and do math well - because my parents took the time to teach me what I needed to know. The kids who were taught by the school knew almost nothing, and a lot of them to this day (at least those I keep in contact with) still have trouble with reading and writing.

i know some people are sensitive to this subject but many new yorkers, like myself are not too fond of what washington state had to say about us and september 11th..other than that i would suggest coming here (NYC) and then take a trip upstate NY..you'll see the best of both worlds..city and country (=

Not trying to generalize matter here, but isn't it part of the problem that parents simply don't have the time to be there for their kids anymore because they're all working from 8a.m. - 7p.m.? I know that's part of the problem here in Germany at least...


As for the german beer question:
Mainly Weißbier here in Bavaria, Pils all over the rest of germany and Cologne mainly drinks 'Kölsch'...

Kids need a lot of attention from parents and if you don't make the time for them then they are not only going to suffer because of it but are also going to be **** to live with.
I've certainly noticed that if you personally get involved in your child's education in a positive way then the teachers at school see this and do more for your child.

Aptmunich said:

Not trying to generalize matter here, but isn't it part of the problem that parents simply don't have the time to be there for their kids anymore because they're all working from 8a.m. - 7p.m.? I know that's part of the problem here in Germany at least...


As for the german beer question:
Mainly Weißbier here in Bavaria, Pils all over the rest of germany and Cologne mainly drinks 'Kölsch'...

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That's a large part of it Aptmunich. But that's the parents fault. American society pervades with the "I have to have more than my neighbor" attitude. It's about appearance rather than substance. A good example is what someone mentioned earlier that sure, alot of Americans go to church every Sunday but it's more because that's what is "socially right" to do rather than a Christian conviction to do it. You can tell that by how that act after their 1-hour of God on Sundays.

I need the bigger house, the bigger car, the better clothes, the nicer dog, the bigger parties, the better "fill in the blank", so they work more and more to make more and more money and get further and further into debt meanwhile sacrificing parenting their children.

Now of course, there are some inner city or poorer families that are forced to both work jobs, sometimes several, just to maintain a slightly above poverty existence. They don't have a choice. In that case, our society has failed them and we need to do better.

But for a large majority of the middle and upper class, they have a choice and they make the wrong one most of the time. They define happiness by things.

Is this limited to America? I hardly think so. I just notice it more here because this is where I live

Materialism is definitely a problem that people have got to learn to deal with !!

American's love debt, I don't really get it, people will go into debt to get stuff that is completely unnecessary.

mynameis said:

American's love debt, I don't really get it, people will go into debt to get stuff that is completely unnecessary.

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That's called a teenage girl :dive: