Marginal
Senior Master
No. Listening to focused, laser-like stupid tends to kill my interest in the person.
Why one in five Americans cannot find USA on map.
- Thread starter Gordon Nore
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Blotan Hunka
Master Black Belt
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.
MarkBarlow
Purple Belt
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.
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....
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....
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.
Steel Tiger
Senior Master
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.
Given that tactic, I hope you never have the opportunity to address a crowd in Madison Square Garden......:uhohh:
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?
Steel Tiger
Senior Master
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.
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.
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.
Blotan Hunka
Master Black Belt
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.
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.
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.
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.
Mr. E
Blue Belt
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.
JBrainard
Senior Master
To all you stuck up hoity toity elitist globe spinning map havers...Try and be a little more understanding next time...
:lfao:
She does have better command of the english language than George W.
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:.
.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:.
That leaves people, well at least one person, asking the all important question of our time:
Is our children learning?
JBrainard
Senior Master
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.
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.
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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