>>This is the part I don't understand. To me, PC is just a way of speaking, trying not to use names which may offend certain (groups of) people; there may be other aspects of it I am not aware of. How did it affect education?
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>Because it was used/is being used as the 'social control' weapon in support of legislation known as the "Great Society", signed into law by Pres. Johnson in the middle 60's and expanded on a regular basis by additional periodic 'entitlement' laws every since.

While still not understanding the purpose and intent of these laws, it seems to be the net result is pretty much the same as with my students - they expected a passing grade for doing nothing (I even once asked a guy who finished the year with just one passing, in PE, "Why were you coming here at all" - "The building is heated..."). America went pampering itself. "Indulge" is probably the keyword.

Reminds me of Yugoslav self-management socialism, where the employees were running the companies; Workers' Council in lieu of Board, and Congregation of Employees instead of Stockholders' Assembly. In many cases, you got people who never got the job done, but were very loud in protecting their rights. Probably the only thing which stood between this enterprise-level democracy and utter chaos was the authority of The Party, who almost always had sufficiently eloquent members who would sway the public in the desired direction. Of course, they did it to protect their own agenda, which also included the general development of the country, and also suppressed the "let's put all the money into our pockets" tendency, which naturally existed.

So the nation got only partially pampered, and had a very bad hangover when the party was over (pun intended).

Now I'm getting to understand why we do so well here (my present situation is not my fault): coming from a wild capitalism freshly reborn on the ashes of soft socialism, we had to build a good work ethic. That's not a rule at home, though, but there's no problem finding people who will do the job right. Surviving Milosevic and the madness of his time we also had to learn to be quick. We had to invent separation of business logic in our apps simply because the laws were changed several times a year; we had to build automatic adjustments for the ever growing number of zeros in the 1993 inflation, and more for the five denominations (money would lose six digits overnight).

I'm still amazed with the slowness of American banks... back home I've seen sixtuple transactions being performed in half an hour.

When I come back from these digressions, I find America which really didn't feel the need to wake up from this comfortable slumber. Why are the kids here content with the education they get, and the work ethic they have? Because they can get away with it. I've seen people here who work five days a month, and are happy with it. Can't live long that way in most of the rest of the world.

>By the way, Cassius Clay, aka Mohamed Ali, was/is a very intelligent person

That's exactly the story we received back then. Keep in mind that Yugoslavia was not behind the iron curtain. I think he actually had too much coverage then - we were on Vietnam's side then, until they invaded Cambodia, and Ali was a welcome figure of an important person who's fighting imperialism.
While I agree with your opinion here, the reason I mentioned him is that he was the first guy I know who publicly denounced modesty and said "I am the greatest". I wonder whether the educators used him later as a role model for "I can do it" attitude. I see that attitude still being pushed in kids' movies (still waiting for my daughter to get sick of Disney channel), and I can only figure what hoops the educators jump through not to discourage those who discover they can't do it. This way or other, I am getting an impression the kids are led to believe they can do it, without really testing their abilities, fearing they may stop trying and become a bigger problem. But then, they didn't even start trying, and still believe they are in the top 10% or so.

Having seen "Renaissance night" (a misnomer, IMO, should be "recognition night") at the HS here twice, I was swayed by the sheer number of diplomas handed out - a few hundred. And the school was proud to announce their team ranked high in state-wide spelling competition, among others. I somehow assumed elementary and middle schools should provide literacy and socialization, high schools should bring education. I couldn't imagine I'd find a HS senior competition in mere orthography.

And still this school ranks high on SAT and other tests.

>No, in my opinion, "Political Correctness" is a direct result of Lyndo Baines Johnson's main legislative package, known as the "Great Society". The graph of every educational, social and moral indicator shows a sharp reversal at and following the passage of that bill. It is the reason why education is so poor and still costly, health insurance costs so much but covers so little, the manned space program had been all but abandon, save for a puny space station and the occasional shuttle flight, and a general maliase had suppressed the American spirit.

The rest of the world believes the space program was shot for two main reasons:
1) its TV ratings have dropped constantly after the first landing on the Moon
2) once Russians are done with it's not such a prestigious thing.

I still believe nothing happens here without the consent of big money. If the education and health cost so much, follow the cash flow. While the original intentions of this package may have been noble and praiseworthy, I fear the implementation was twisted to suit whichever particular interests were strong enough at the time.

>Only after Desert Storm did the malaise start to go away, only to be supressed by wave after wave of political propaganda from agencies like HUD, academia, and the left side of Hollywood. The explosive outburst of American pride following the WTC attack is already being rained on by our national "news" broadcasters. You constantly hear Americans being refered to as 'being scared', 'jittery', 'panicy', and yet I see none of that by anyone anywhere here in Lincoln, or those whom I meet on the internet.
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>50,000 Americans were killed in auto accidents last year. Ten times the number killed at the WTC, but American aren't running around in hysteria everytime a car rolls by. No, I beleive that Dan, Tom and their friends are up to their old manipulation techniques, disinformation, misinformation and push polls. And, it's making me mad.

Feeling of national pride and self-esteem born in a war never lasts long. Been close, haven't done that, and alive to report.

I have also seen vast signs of manipulation as early as 9/11 evening. It's just the shift in the agenda which happened meanwhile. I'm getting a feeling that there's no witch hunt on the horizon, only a search for scapegoats. Somehow, I see the left being served on a silver platter. But then, that may also be just more manipulation.