My US history class was an hour long and I always got distracted by a butterfly or something. - Edit 2
Before modification by Joel at 30/08/2012 08:52:36 PM
By "something" I of course mean "a cheerleader in a short skirt." 
' /> Really, expecting kids to pay attention and learn vital information when bursting with hormones and surrounded by members of the opposite sex is probably a fools errand. 
People writing like that today would find their Wall of Text met by a Wall of TL;DR. Any sentence with more than two clauses is simply too complex for Short Attention Span Theater, as is any document with more than two paragraphs.
Sadly, you are 100% correct about that.
If only I knew what to do about it....
That is ONE SENTENCE, not even an especially long one, by constitutional standards. Look at section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment, almost a century later:
What a great sentence, no?
Indeed.
People no longer write like that because few can be bothered to read and comprehend it. Ending government by sound bite is as simple as demanding better instead of demanding simplicity. Heaven knows we should; the Constitutions text well demonstrates most government policy is too complex to fully address in five words.
Reading comprehension is a failing of modern teaching. And that damn Twitter!
I ain't sayin' nothin'; I'm jus' sayin' when teachers spanked we didn't need no Adderall. Honestly, I think remote controls are much of it. The bottom line may simply be we have encouraged instant gratification so much and so long many people are intellectually lazy because they lack incentive to concentrate, think it an imposition.
' /> Really, expecting kids to pay attention and learn vital information when bursting with hormones and surrounded by members of the opposite sex is probably a fools errand. The founding of America is simply my favorite time in history. I'm simply in awe of the men like Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, James Madison, and, heck, even Thomas Paine. Their personal writings are mesmerizing. Nobody writes like that anymore. You could quote just about anything they wrote and apply it to an arguement about politics and blow people away. Their intellect is unmatched nowadays, sadly. Seriously, is there anybody out there right now writing such deep, meaningful things about life and liberty?
These people wrote a document that founded a country and is still, after 200+ years, almost unassailable. How incredibly amazing is that? And also sad, that we haven't managed to improve upon the foundation that was established so many years ago. This country is simply not what it was or how it was suppose to be. Still, for all the cracks in that foundation, it's still something special.
How I wish there was a founding father-type person running for election. What a world that would be.
These people wrote a document that founded a country and is still, after 200+ years, almost unassailable. How incredibly amazing is that? And also sad, that we haven't managed to improve upon the foundation that was established so many years ago. This country is simply not what it was or how it was suppose to be. Still, for all the cracks in that foundation, it's still something special.
How I wish there was a founding father-type person running for election. What a world that would be.
People writing like that today would find their Wall of Text met by a Wall of TL;DR. Any sentence with more than two clauses is simply too complex for Short Attention Span Theater, as is any document with more than two paragraphs.
Sadly, you are 100% correct about that.
If only I knew what to do about it....
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
That is ONE SENTENCE, not even an especially long one, by constitutional standards. Look at section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment, almost a century later:
What a great sentence, no?
Indeed.
Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.
People no longer write like that because few can be bothered to read and comprehend it. Ending government by sound bite is as simple as demanding better instead of demanding simplicity. Heaven knows we should; the Constitutions text well demonstrates most government policy is too complex to fully address in five words.
Reading comprehension is a failing of modern teaching. And that damn Twitter!
I ain't sayin' nothin'; I'm jus' sayin' when teachers spanked we didn't need no Adderall.
Honestly, I think remote controls are much of it. The bottom line may simply be we have encouraged instant gratification so much and so long many people are intellectually lazy because they lack incentive to concentrate, think it an imposition.