# Why one in five Americans cannot find USA on map.



## Gordon Nore (Aug 27, 2007)

It's all explained here...


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## rutherford (Aug 27, 2007)

I even heard this on the radio today.  

The contest winner had a much more interesting question.  "Which do you like better of Lindsey Lohan, Nichole Richie, or Paris Hilton?"



man what.



How did we get to the point where our beauty queens are asked about Paris Hilton and put into Jay Leno skits like "point to America on a map"??  Used to be they had to sing about solving world hunger and play the piano for a cure for cancer.  

Of course, the swimsuit competition has always been My favorite.  Kids these days.  HEY, GET OFF OF MY LAWN!


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## Senjojutsu (Aug 28, 2007)

So watching this beauty's brain fart on video I have a question to all you young "US American" Males:

*Does it matter?*

:lol:

If you had a chance for a dinner date with Miss South Carolina you would listen to her prattle ALL NIGHT LONG.


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## Brian R. VanCise (Aug 28, 2007)

Poor thing she was like a politician on that question trying to find a way to fit in her South Africa and Iraq worldview into a question about why people in the US cannot find the United States on a map.  Seriously she was not trying to answer the question but keep to her points of interest and unfortunately for her it failed.


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## JBrainard (Aug 28, 2007)

Senjojutsu said:


> If you had a chance for a dinner date with Miss South Carolina you would listen to her prattle ALL NIGHT LONG.


 
I wouldn't. Talking to stupid people makes me a: get mad and point out how stupid they are or b: want to leave before I get mad and point out how stupid they are.


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## Mr. E (Aug 28, 2007)

No I wouldn't.

Been there, done that (in high school).... and will never do it again.

Some of us were hostages to our hormones. Now we tend to see that a person is really beutiful from the inside out, and not the other way around. To have someone you can relate to, who undersands obscure jokes and can follow conversations about things other than Paris Hilton or the latest TV show, *that* is a treasure worth spending time with.

And they are so precious due to their rarity. Intelligence is so rare in anyone these days that you need to go looking to find it. And the scary thing is, these people vote!


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## Brian R. VanCise (Aug 28, 2007)

Mr. E said:


> No I wouldn't.
> 
> Been there, done that (in high school).... and will never do it again.
> 
> ...


 
How true Mr. E!


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## JBrainard (Aug 28, 2007)

Mr. E said:


> Intelligence is so rare in anyone these days that you need to go looking to find it.


 
Sad but true.


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## bydand (Aug 28, 2007)

Oh, that was painful to watch.  20 years ago I could have overlooked the lack of brains for an abundance of boobs, but at this point in my life... nope.  I would have to ask if it was an act, or she was really that numb.


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## Makalakumu (Aug 28, 2007)

To all you stuck up hoity toity elitist globe spinning map havers, here is the perfect response in defense of Miss Teen South Carolina...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGc278Vjo0o&mode=related&search=

Try and be a little more understanding next time...


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## MarkBarlow (Aug 28, 2007)

My wife used to be a frequent judge at beauty contests all over the state.  She often asked me to help her come up with questions for the girls.  You would think after being married to me all these years, she'd know better than to trust me not to toss in a few "interesting" questions.  She always caught herself before she asked the entire question but my two favorite were "Are those real?" and "What is it about older men that you find so attractive."


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## agemechanic03 (Aug 28, 2007)

Senjojutsu said:


> So watching this beauty's brain fart on video I have a question to all you young "US American" Males:
> 
> *Does it matter?*
> 
> ...


 
YEEEEEAAAAHHHH, I feel THAT much more dumb after watching that vid that there is NO way on EARTH that she would get a date with me! I would hate to ask her on a date, "What do you want in a guy?" Never make it home!


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## Kreth (Aug 28, 2007)

bydand said:


> Oh, that was painful to watch. 20 years ago I could have overlooked the lack of brains for an abundance of boobs, but at this point in my life... nope. I would have to ask if it was an act, or she was really that numb.


I agree completely. I'll take a bit of extra baggage and a personality over hot but stupid any day.


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## terryl965 (Aug 28, 2007)

I find this very and at the same time where our country is going.


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## MA-Caver (Aug 28, 2007)

Saw on the news this morning that this "cry-baby" is now wanting the final judges decision re-evaluated and she wants to be asked the question again because she/they (?) flubbed the question. 
Seems to me she's realized that she's seen how stupid she looked on TV and wants a recount. 

Seeing this made me think that the announcement in a couple of years when she gets to be 19-20 is going to be somewhere along the line of "Coming to a Playboy issue nearest you!"... 

Yeah she's gorgeous... but she isn't helping the cliche of dumb blonde. Pretty sad. 

I couldn't last the evening with a gorgeous girl like that if she couldn't hold her end of an intelligent conversation. I mean pretty is nice but if there's nothing else to it... what's the point?


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## kalikg (Aug 28, 2007)

My reply to her answer:  Wow...such as...wow. I don't mean "wow" as in; "Wow, she's really hot!"  I mean, "Wow; that's really unbelievable. Wow."  
I'm sorry she put herself in that situation; I'm sure she is very embarassed by her stumble and wishes it had never happened.


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## Andrew Green (Aug 28, 2007)

Politics is here future I think.

Damn... that was painful...

But I suppose in her defence what would you say to a question like that when on stage and never even heard the stat before?  "Because they are a bunch of ignorant twats."


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## crushing (Aug 28, 2007)

Andrew Green said:


> Politics is here future I think.
> 
> Damn... that was painful...
> 
> But I suppose in her defence what would you say to a question like that when on stage and never even heard the stat before? "Because they are a bunch of ignorant twats."


 

No kidding.  I'll bet there are a great many people that are very glad that the perception of their intelligence isn't soley based on a single question, as a teenager, at a moment of high pressure.


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## MA-Caver (Aug 28, 2007)

> * Pageant contestant re-answers question*
> 1 hour, 10 minutes ago
> http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070828/ap_on_re_us/miss_teen_south_carolina
> COLUMBIA, S.C. - This time, the question was a little easier for Miss Teen South Carolina. After being stumped by a Miss Teen USA pageant question on live television Friday night, Lauren Caitlin Upton's confused, mangled response has been drawing a lot of attention.
> ...


Well, she's made an effort to show she smart not think as dumb is she... :idunno: She should've been paying attention to the question. As a contestant in a major pagent like that you don't get there without being in dozens of more like pagents i.e. the one that got her Miss Teen South Carolina in the first place and so on... *experience* would/should've kept her head cool enough to know how just as important to be LISTENING to the question as giving the best answer to the question whatever it may be. 

I think she's just miffed because she lost. Hey, it's a mistake and you live with it... get over it. Do better for the adult title when you're old enough to be in it.


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## elder999 (Aug 28, 2007)

Well, she choked....that's about it. It's an interesting, and hard to believe statistic, until you see these:

 One in Five Americans Report Doctor Diagnosed Arthritis 

 One in Five Americans Speaks a Foreign Language At Home 

 One in Five Americans Believes Sun Revolves Around Earth 

 1 in 5 Americans Has a Disability 

 1 in 5 Americans Has Genital herpes 

...and so on...1 in 5 Americans are under the age of 5-hows that for a reason why they can't identify the USA? :lol:


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## Marginal (Aug 28, 2007)

Senjojutsu said:


> So watching this beauty's brain fart on video I have a question to all you young "US American" Males:
> 
> *Does it matter?*
> 
> ...


No. Listening to focused, laser-like stupid tends to kill my interest in the person.


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## Blotan Hunka (Aug 28, 2007)

Ahh..give the kid a break. This is the problem with todays instant media, 24 hr news, get it while its happening society. We are like a gang of snickering, gossiping HS kids mocking everybodys gaffes on a nationwide/worldwide scale. When I was a kid this would either have never come to the surface or we would have had a little snicker and forgot about it. Today its BIG news. I think its rather pathetic...on our side of the equation... actually.


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## MarkBarlow (Aug 28, 2007)

Blotan Hunka said:


> Ahh..give the kid a break. This is the problem with todays instant media, 24 hr news, get it while its happening society. We are like a gang of snickering, gossiping HS kids mocking everybodys gaffes on a nationwide/worldwide scale. When I was a kid this would either have never come to the surface or we would have had a little snicker and forgot about it. Today its BIG news. I think its rather pathetic...on our side of the equation... actually.



There's a lot of truth to that.  Think of how many things you've done in your life that would cause you to crawl in a hole and hide if someone had recorded it and shown it all over the world.  On an average day, I probably do a dozen noteworthy stupid things.  Thankfully, nobody cares enough about me to follow me around with a camera.

Several years ago, I was a guest speaker at a library symposium on providing services to the handicapped.  It wasn't a large group, maybe 20 to 25 folks and everyone was sitting within a row or two of the stage.  When I was introduced, I stood up to walk to the podium and broke wind.  O.K., let's be honest, I ripped one.  We're talking a sheet-shredding, knock down the walls fart and everyone in the place knew it was me.  I walked to the podium, straightened my papers and looking out at the crowd said, "Now that I have your attention, let's begin...."  Thankfully, everyone laughed but most importantly, there were no cameras around.


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## grydth (Aug 28, 2007)

I presume when the fuss dies down, Miss North Carolina will be returned to the factory in Stepford for repairs.

I saw a news report that this one had something like a 3.5 or above average at school (Is that perhaps out of a possible 100?).... but seriously, you have to wonder what a kid from there with only a C average must sound like!

Or - do we have to wonder at all? Maybe the posters who asked:" Does it matter?" have the best view....


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## Brian R. VanCise (Aug 28, 2007)

MarkBarlow said:


> There's a lot of truth to that. Think of how many things you've done in your life that would cause you to crawl in a hole and hide if someone had recorded it and shown it all over the world. On an average day, I probably do a dozen noteworthy stupid things. Thankfully, nobody cares enough about me to follow me around with a camera.
> 
> Several years ago, I was a guest speaker at a library symposium on providing services to the handicapped. It wasn't a large group, maybe 20 to 25 folks and everyone was sitting within a row or two of the stage. When I was introduced, I stood up to walk to the podium and broke wind. O.K., let's be honest, I ripped one. We're talking a sheet-shredding, knock down the walls fart and everyone in the place knew it was me. I walked to the podium, straightened my papers and looking out at the crowd said, "Now that I have your attention, let's begin...." Thankfully, everyone laughed but most importantly, there were no cameras around.


 
Now Mark that is one hillarious story.  I am sure it was not too funny at the time but needless to say it is now. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





  Thank goodness that camera's are not following us around all day.


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## Steel Tiger (Aug 28, 2007)

Blotan Hunka said:


> Ahh..give the kid a break. This is the problem with todays instant media, 24 hr news, get it while its happening society. We are like a gang of snickering, gossiping HS kids mocking everybodys gaffes on a nationwide/worldwide scale. When I was a kid this would either have never come to the surface or we would have had a little snicker and forgot about it. Today its BIG news. I think its rather pathetic...on our side of the equation... actually.


 
The only reason this is news at all is because it was on a national stage.  To be sure, someone who had gotten to that level on the pageant scene should probably have been able to hold their composure a little better, but everyone has shockers from time to time.

The mockery of people like this seems to speak of something in society in general.  There seems to be an insecurity and a need to shore up our own position at the expense of others.  Particularly those who choose to be in the public eye.

There is also some wierd voyuerism that seems to enjoy seeing others uncomfortable or embarrassed.  If not home video shows would not be so popular.


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## grydth (Aug 28, 2007)

MarkBarlow said:


> There's a lot of truth to that.  Think of how many things you've done in your life that would cause you to crawl in a hole and hide if someone had recorded it and shown it all over the world.  On an average day, I probably do a dozen noteworthy stupid things.  Thankfully, nobody cares enough about me to follow me around with a camera.
> 
> Several years ago, I was a guest speaker at a library symposium on providing services to the handicapped.  It wasn't a large group, maybe 20 to 25 folks and everyone was sitting within a row or two of the stage.  When I was introduced, I stood up to walk to the podium and broke wind.  O.K., let's be honest, I ripped one.  We're talking a sheet-shredding, knock down the walls fart and everyone in the place knew it was me.  I walked to the podium, straightened my papers and looking out at the crowd said, "Now that I have your attention, let's begin...."  Thankfully, everyone laughed but most importantly, there were no cameras around.



Given that tactic, I hope you never have the opportunity to address a crowd in Madison Square Garden......:uhohh:


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## grydth (Aug 28, 2007)

Steel Tiger said:


> The only reason this is news at all is because it was on a national stage.  To be sure, someone who had gotten to that level on the pageant scene should probably have been able to hold their composure a little better, but everyone has shockers from time to time.
> 
> The mockery of people like this seems to speak of something in society in general.  There seems to be an insecurity and a need to shore up our own position at the expense of others.  Particularly those who choose to be in the public eye.
> 
> There is also some wierd voyuerism that seems to enjoy seeing others uncomfortable or embarrassed.  If not home video shows would not be so popular.



It genuinely is not news in any meaningful sense - except in the minds of the media that feed us this brain destroying pablum and (falsely) label it as such.

When it comes to knowing useful "news" in a timely fashion, facts which we as citizens could use.... well, most of us are functionally as ill informed as this uberbimbo... we just won't admit it.  I know any nymber of guys who can run sports stats at you for hours - but ask them who their senators are or what dates their kids birthday are... and you get the same bovine looks as you saw on Miss New Speak.

I saw it reported about a year ago that 1/3 of students could not find New Zealand on a map.... New Zealand students. Perhaps we are seeing devolution on a planetary scale.

Somebody once asked me a question about invoking the Fifth Commandment when under police interrogation.... when I inquired if perhaps they didn't mean the Fifth Amendment, I got a very annoyed "*Whatever*!"

As long as we are predisposed to watch human train wrecks like this, we won't make nuisances of ourselves by getting involved in government. Did we ever expect that beauty queens actually did know the way to world peace?


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## Steel Tiger (Aug 28, 2007)

grydth said:


> When it comes to knowing useful "news" in a timely fashion, facts which we as citizens could use.... well, most of us are functionally as ill informed as this uberbimbo... we just won't admit it. I know any nymber of guys who can run sports stats at you for hours - but ask them who their senators are or what dates their kids birthday are... and you get the same bovine looks as you saw on Miss New Speak.


 
Yes, I guess there are very few Renaissance men and women in the world today. It seems that everyone is encouraged to specialise to the nth degree. There is a part of the Tao De Ching which says lock the doors and close the windows and know the universe. If you make the universe small enough you will know it all I guess.




grydth said:


> I saw it reported about a year ago that 1/3 of students could not find New Zealand on a map.... New Zealand students. Perhaps we are seeing devolution on a planetary scale.


 
This surprises me a bit, but I grew up in a part of Sydney where simple apathy was the greatest hindrance to learning I have ever seen. I would guess that many of the people I went to school with could not find Australia on a map, and wouldn't care if they couldn't.




grydth said:


> Somebody once asked me a question about invoking the Fifth Commandment when under police interrogation.... when I inquired if perhaps they didn't mean the Fifth Amendment, I got a very annoyed "*Whatever*!"


 
I suppose some people don't like to be shown to be wrong.
Though invoking thoughts like:

*Honour thy mother and thy father* or *Thou shalt not murder *might be useful during a police interrogation.  Of course, they might have you go through a psych evaluation.
By the way, the first is fifth for Jewish, Orthodox and most Protestants, the second for Catholics.


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## Blotan Hunka (Aug 28, 2007)

Well. When teachers have to teach Sex education, Evoluton vs. Creationism, (insert some minority group here) and their impact on society, and every PC revision of history thats going around, there isnt much time left over for geography.


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## grydth (Aug 28, 2007)

Blotan Hunka said:


> Well. When teachers have to teach Sex education, Evoluton vs. Creationism, (insert some minority group here) and their impact on society, and every PC revision of history thats going around, there isnt much time left over for geography.



Reading one of my kids' "history" books is only for the staunch of stomach. No mention of Leonidas, but a big section on Lenin..... periodically history is rewritten to show the flavor group of the month was actually responsible for winning the Revolution.

The grasshopper doesn't even die in the classic fable anymore; it seems to go on some type of public assistance come Fall.

Judging by the amount of time my wife and I spend on the 4 kids' homework with them, I am doubtful of exactly how much actual teaching is at times going on.

Deep down I fear both corporate rightists and social engineering leftists do not want graduating classes capable of critical thought.... sheeple, after all, will not question ad slogans or loss of freedom too closely.


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## Makalakumu (Aug 29, 2007)

grydth said:


> Deep down I fear both corporate rightists and social engineering leftists do not want graduating classes capable of critical thought.... sheeple, after all, will not question ad slogans or loss of freedom too closely.


 
Those two groups have the same bosses and I too suspect that our education system has been dumbed down on purpose for the very reason you stated.  

Take science for instance, if you look at the kind of equipment that was available for kids for physics in HS 50 years ago, you might think that you were taking a college class.  I can go to any old school open up the store room and pull out cloud chambers, cyclotrons, Van DeGraff generators, and all sorts of other high quality highly technical equipment that I didn't see until I got to college and college professors were trying to ressurect this stuff in order to teach their students.  (The HS physics teachers no longer used it as it was broken or they did not know how.)

Now they write books that science teachers are supposed to buy with titles such as, "Physics on a Shoestring" and "Experiments for Pennies."  What happened to these expectations?  What happened to our high standards?  

In all subjects, this has been the case.  Compare reading lists in an english class 50 years ago to lists they have now and you'll see the same thing.


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## Makalakumu (Aug 29, 2007)

Another way to look at this is that perhaps we are better at counting these days.  All of the groups that were marginalized 50 years ago, especially people who were on the left hand side of the bell curve when it came to intelligence, are now expected to finish school and graduate.  50 years ago, a kid could drop out and make a living with an 8th grade education.  This, unfortunately, is not the case now.  

Thus, another factor in the dumbing down of America is probably the effort to treat everyone equally and educate them equally.  Designing our schools like factories and lowering the standards so Billy Bob can pass too is certainly part of it.

All of this does not explain everything, especially all of the crazy top down mandates that have purposely lowered the standards over the years.  Especially from people who should be ideologically opposed to this stuff.  I suspect that this has, more or less, been the elites' excuse.

The Department of Education is an Orwellian oxymoron.


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## Mr. E (Aug 29, 2007)

upnorthkyosa said:


> Take science for instance, if you look at the kind of equipment that was available for kids for physics in HS 50 years ago, you might think that you were taking a college class.  I can go to any old school open up the store room and pull out cloud chambers, cyclotrons, Van DeGraff generators, and all sorts of other high quality highly technical equipment that I didn't see until I got to college and college professors were trying to ressurect this stuff in order to teach their students.



But they may not have been used all that much. And today we do have the internet in classrooms, which puts the world at the fingertips of students _if only they use it._

The problem is not with what the schools have or do, it is the attitude people have towards education and how they push their kids. Asians set up shops in America under bad conditions so that their kids can have oppurtunities that they never had. Their kids are beating the pants off of other races. But it is not that Asians are more intelligent, just that they demand that their kids not be stupid.

After a few generations, it seems that Americans expect the school to do all their work for them and if their kids fail, it is the teacher's fault. Or the schools, or the governments.

They expect things to just be given to them. And there is no real consequence for being stupid anymore. Hell, if you fall off a ladder that means you get to sue the maker.

And that is sadder than this young woman's answer.


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## JBrainard (Aug 29, 2007)

upnorthkyosa said:


> To all you stuck up hoity toity elitist globe spinning map havers...Try and be a little more understanding next time...


 
:lfao:



Andrew Green said:


> Politics is in her future I think.



She does have better command of the english language than George W.


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## Sukerkin (Aug 29, 2007)

Darn *ST* beat me to it with an "Honour thy father and thy mother", 5th commandment gag .

I've heard this statistic about not being able to point to your own country on a map a few times.  Actually I first heard it as American's not being able to point to their own State on a map and that had the beneficial effect of my making sure I could point to my own county on a map, so it wasn't all bad .

I'm sorry for the poor lass's embarassment at making such a fool of herself on television.  I do feel that, perhaps, given the circumstances, she should have been paying more attention but I do agree that it is harsh that she's been so hounded for it.  I suspect that if she wasn't so physically beautiful the ribbing would've been correspondingly less :shrugs:.  So, "well said" to those above who have managed to put aside their ribaldry :tup:.


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## crushing (Aug 29, 2007)

Blotan Hunka said:


> Well. When teachers have to teach Sex education, Evoluton vs. Creationism, (insert some minority group here) and their impact on society, and every PC revision of history thats going around, there isnt much time left over for geography.


 
That leaves people, well at least one person, asking the all important question of our time:  

Is our children learning?


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## CoryKS (Aug 29, 2007)

Well, it certainly explains the Democrats' zeal to get young people to vote.


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## JBrainard (Aug 29, 2007)

crushing said:


> Is our children learning?


 
Unfortunately, no. We all know how pathetic our public school system is in this country (wherever the hell it is on a world map). And since the lower class is growing and the middle class is shrinking, it follows that less and less parents will be able to afford to send their children/teens to private schools. On a personal note: until we can afford to send my son to a private school, we are going to home school him. The official home schooling curriculum is much more demanding than the average public school curriculum. Case in point: My wife was home schooled until high school. At the end of 8th grade she was tested by the state to see if she was educated enough to enter high school. Her test results were at 12th grade level.


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## grydth (Aug 29, 2007)

If parents do not home school, and private schooling is not an option, I would encourage you to do what we do - go over your kids' tests and homework with them regularly. Take some real time with them. When they have trouble, instead of giving them an answer, we teach them how to reason it out or how to look it up. Make sure they know how to think and problem solve, make sure they know *why* a given answer is the right one. Spend some time showing them background and context that the PC text book leaves out.

You learn other things, too. Once while doing this I learned 2 other girls were giving my daughter a hard time. She said she, " could mop the floor with them.", but I said there was a better way. I complained directly to the head princepal - I was concerned that the bullies could come back with 4 next time.... and I was trying to avoid my karate champion daughter sending one or more to the ER.... the school stopped the bullies in a hurry, and my daughter learned some lessons never covered in text books.

This is what we were discussing in another recent thread. We need to take individual responsibility.


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## Touch Of Death (Aug 29, 2007)

bydand said:


> Oh, that was painful to watch. 20 years ago I could have overlooked the lack of brains for an abundance of boobs, but at this point in my life... nope. I would have to ask if it was an act, or she was really that numb.


Or at least say to them, "I have to numb ya first.":uhyeah:
Sean


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## Touch Of Death (Aug 29, 2007)

CoryKS said:


> Well, it certainly explains the Democrats' zeal to get young people to vote.


And support education, pay teacher's a living salary, ect.
Sean


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## Kacey (Aug 29, 2007)

grydth said:


> If parents do not home school, and private schooling is not an option, I would encourage you to do what we do - *go over your kids' tests and homework with them regularly. Take some real time with them. When they have trouble, instead of giving them an answer, we teach them how to reason it out or how to look it up. Make sure they know how to think and problem solve, make sure they know why a given answer is the right one. Spend some time showing them background and context that the PC text book leaves out.*
> 
> You learn other things, too. Once while doing this I learned 2 other girls were giving my daughter a hard time. She said she, " could mop the floor with them.", but I said there was a better way. I complained directly to the head princepal - I was concerned that the bullies could come back with 4 next time.... and I was trying to avoid my karate champion daughter sending one or more to the ER.... the school stopped the bullies in a hurry, and my daughter learned some lessons never covered in text books.
> *
> This is what we were discussing in another recent thread. We need to take individual responsibility.*



This is very true - especially the parts I have bolded.  As a teacher, I can tell very quickly whose parents are paying attention at home; kids who have parent(s) who pay attention to their kids and let their kids know that education is important are, in general (there are exceptions to everything) quieter, more attentive, better behaved, more likely to have their supplies and homework, and have better social skills.  They are more likely to read and/or be read to at home (a key factor in reading ability), have better vocabularies (another key factor in reading ability), have more experience with applications of math (ex., kids who cook are usually better at fractions, from learning to use measuring cups), are more likely to do their homework, and are more responsible in general regarding school tasks.

I say the above as I sit at the middle school where I teach on Back-to-School night, which started at 4:00 (it's 5:30 now) and goes until 6:30... and I have yet to see a single parent.


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## Mr. E (Aug 29, 2007)

Kacey said:


> This is very true - especially the parts I have bolded.  As a teacher, I can tell very quickly whose parents are paying attention at home; kids who have parent(s) who pay attention to their kids and let their kids know that education is important are, in general (there are exceptions to everything) quieter, more attentive, better behaved, more likely to have their supplies and homework, and have better social skills.  They are more likely to read and/or be read to at home (a key factor in reading ability), have better vocabularies (another key factor in reading ability), have more experience with applications of math (ex., kids who cook are usually better at fractions, from learning to use measuring cups), are more likely to do their homework, and are more responsible in general regarding school tasks.



Yes. The schools and the teachers can only do so much. If the parents will not take part in what their kids do, then no matter how much you spend in terms of time and money, you just can't get the same results.

And today there seems to be more and more parents that just don't care about what their kids do. They rely 100 percent on the schools. If their kids can't read, or get into trouble, they will not take responsibility and instead blame the schools.

More folks might be able to find their country on the map if their parents took away the PSPs they got them (to shut them up) read to them as toddlers and took the time to care about how their kids will learn. But it just seems to me that year after year the number of people I know who have kids and take time with them seem to decline.


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## bydand (Aug 29, 2007)

Kacey said:


> I say the above as I sit at the middle school where I teach on Back-to-School night, which started at 4:00 (it's 5:30 now) and goes until 6:30... and I have yet to see a single parent.



Shame on them!  I cannot even comprehend *NOT* going to see, and talk, to the Ruffians new teachers at the start of the year.  Shoot I usually set up a meeting a week or so after the new school year begins.  Just to see if there is any question they have about my boys and to touch base with them and let the teacher know I will help in anyway that is needed.

We also are parents that go over the kids homework and notes every night.  The boys know, as soon as they get off the bus and come in the house, Mom or Dad is right there to go through their backpacks and get them set-up with their homework.  I know I always liked it when that happened to me (even though I bitched about it loud and long!)


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## Sukerkin (Aug 29, 2007)

Good man, *Bydand*.  If more parents took that approach maybe society wouldn't be in quite the mess it is at present.


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## Kacey (Aug 29, 2007)

Mr. E said:


> Yes. The schools and the teachers can only do so much. If the parents will not take part in what their kids do, then no matter how much you spend in terms of time and money, you just can't get the same results.
> 
> And today there seems to be more and more parents that just don't care about what their kids do. They rely 100 percent on the schools. If their kids can't read, or get into trouble, they will not take responsibility and instead blame the schools.
> 
> More folks might be able to find their country on the map if their parents took away the PSPs they got them (to shut them up) read to them as toddlers and took the time to care about how their kids will learn. But it just seems to me that year after year the number of people I know who have kids and take time with them seem to decline.





bydand said:


> Shame on them!  I cannot even comprehend *NOT* going to see, and talk, to the Ruffians new teachers at the start of the year.  Shoot I usually set up a meeting a week or so after the new school year begins.  Just to see if there is any question they have about my boys and to touch base with them and let the teacher know I will help in anyway that is needed.
> 
> We also are parents that go over the kids homework and notes every night.  The boys know, as soon as they get off the bus and come in the house, Mom or Dad is right there to go through their backpacks and get them set-up with their homework.  I know I always liked it when that happened to me (even though I bitched about it loud and long!)





Sukerkin said:


> Good man, *Bydand*.  If more parents took that approach maybe society wouldn't be in quite the mess it is at present.



You are, all 3 of you, correct.  By the time I left at 6:15, I had seen 3 parents, all of whom showed up after 6:00 pm... out of a possible 30 or so; as a special education teacher, I work more closely, but with fewer students, than most teachers... but only those 3 showed up, unless more showed up after I left to teach a TKD class; I share my classroom with another teacher, so she was going to tell me if anyone else showed up, but I doubt it; 3 is, quite sadly, more parents than I usually see for Back to School night.


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## Phoenix44 (Sep 1, 2007)

You folks are way too critical.  I think she answered the question very well...DEMONSTRATED it, actually.


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## jim777 (Sep 7, 2007)

There's a difference between uneducated and ineducable. I would wager she was surprised by the question. It may have been far different than the ones the other contestants heard. She certainly kept her poise under a lot of pressure, and that takes presence of mind. Given the fact that one question doesn't define her, and she's simply drop dead gorgeous, I'll bet we see her in the future, maybe as a weather person or something


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