USA - dumb teens expose abysmal education system

[MobBoss]

Knowing the snarkiness of many teens here in Washington State, i'm pretty convinced they are giving incorrect answers on purpose.

 

[Agent327]

Seeing the content of this thread, I can only conclude my education has been superior.

 

[IdiotsOpposite]

Knowing the snarkiness of many teens here in Washington State, i'm pretty convinced they are giving incorrect answers on purpose.

Would we do that?

 

[Bestbank Tiger]

Knowing the snarkiness of many teens here in Washington State, i'm pretty convinced they are giving incorrect answers on purpose.

Possible.

On the other hand, there might really be people that dumb. You can do this with any group of people if you get enough tape. All you have to do is cherry-pick the worst.

Pretty sure I've mentioned this here before, but I knew a few guys who visited the Freedom Trail on spring break. They found a local elementary school group on a field trip and quizzed them on American history. The kids did great. Then they encountered a high school group from Montana and got answers like this:

"What was Crispus Attucks' profession?" - "He was black"

"Who made the ride with Paul Revere?" - "His horse??"

Finally they found another college student and the dude was too drunk to even give a coherent answer. He just asked why the statue of the horse was anatomically correct.

The theory for all that was we do a good job teaching history in elementary school but after that, it all drains out of their heads.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

It's as mind-numbingly basic as "name a slang term for the pound beginning with Q", that any Briton who's even remotely thinking should be able to answer.

"Quid" - I forget when I first knew that - probably from a book, when I was young. Later, I recall it from "Are You Being Served?".

That you're 17 and your geography classes consist of colouring mountains is probably a worse reflection on the state of the US education system than anything else that's been posted in this thread.

I minored in geography in college, and WE had to bring our pencil crayons to class and to exams. We colored maps, drew ocean currents, did contour maps, drew diagrams of the water cycle, etc.

That, and from what I've been told American teens are taught blatantly incorrect things in school, such as "Columbus discovered that the Earth is round, back then everyone thought that the Earth was flat"

And then there's that notion that "Columbus discovered America"... I have yet to meet a Mormon missionary who doesn't think that's what really happened.


I've been asked a couple of really stupid questions about Canada:

1. What time is it in Canada?
2. You mean the Calgary Stampede doesn't go year-round?


But it's not always the kids you wonder about... In junior high, I had an English class where we were supposed to write an essay about something. The teacher docked me marks for capitalizing "Earth." I asked her why, when she hadn't docked me marks for capitalizing "Saturn."

Her answer: "Because Saturn is a planet."
To which I responded, "So is Earth."
To which she got the most moronic, surprised expression on her face...

 

[Bestbank Tiger]

And then there's that notion that "Columbus discovered America"... I have yet to meet a Mormon missionary who doesn't think that's what really happened.

I'd call that an oversimplification more than an inaccuracy. He was far from the first explorer from the Old World to visit the Americas, but the earlier contacts were lost/forgotten. The Columbus expeditions established contact for good.

It's just a matter of liking our history nice and neat when history is neither.

 

[classical_hero]

Maybe so but even then , li'l ol' me can get you for the AFL thing

Well you've got problems too, especially the middle part of your name.

 

[REDY]

My class mate asked teacher: "EU? Thats some country?" She also couldnt find Prague on map, but she was like 12 that time.

 

[Arakhor]

"Who made the ride with Paul Revere?" - "His horse??"

That is technically correct, I suppose.

 

[DirtyFinger]

Yes, they were in WA State, and many didn't know the state capital...

I had a friend once, his wife asked my german ex-gf the following to questions...
1) What language do they speak in Germany?
2) Does the sun look the same over there?
I was stunned, I knew she was a brick, but I didn't realize anyone was that bad.

well, i think that woman isn't representative of the american population. hollywood and video games will never let you forget what language germans speak (with a strangely american accent, though).
And DOES the sun look different over here?

Anyhow, interesting aside, one kid was wearing a shirt that said "Olympia", yet didn't know it was the state capital...
And, the interviewer at one point wears a shirt with the insignia of my old army unit on it.

This type of video was also made about Obama voters last election... however, I'm sure you could've made the same video of McCain voters...

I'm sure the video was edited to give us a best-of-the-best experience.
Still, Obama & McCain voters are both americans.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I'd call that an oversimplification more than an inaccuracy. He was far from the first explorer from the Old World to visit the Americas, but the earlier contacts were lost/forgotten. The Columbus expeditions established contact for good.

It's just a matter of liking our history nice and neat when history is neither.

Why don't you like your history accurate? The Viking colonies may have been lost/forgotten for awhile, but we know about them now. So why aren't they being taught now? I learned about this in Grade 7, in my social studies class. That was in 1975! Later on, in high school and college, I did more in-depth studies for essays, term papers, and in private study after I joined the Society for Creative Anachronism (because somebody mentioned the Varangians) I learned about the eastward expansion.

 

[Ajidica]

That is technically correct, I suppose.

I probably would have answered like that. High school students are very good at giving technically correct answers even if they know the 'right' answer.

 

[NickyJ]

Why don't you like your history accurate? The Viking colonies may have been lost/forgotten for awhile, but we know about them now. So why aren't they being taught now? I learned about this in Grade 7, in my social studies class. That was in 1975! Later on, in high school and college, I did more in-depth studies for essays, term papers, and in private study after I joined the Society for Creative Anachronism (because somebody mentioned the Varangians) I learned about the eastward expansion.

Like he said, it's oversimplification more than an inaccuracy. When the Vikings came, they made a settlement, and then were forgotten. The New World was not known to the rest of Europe. When Columbus found it in the Age of Exploration, he was the first to let his discovery be known by all of Europe. Therefore, people tend to remember the more popular discovery by Columbus than the Vikings.

I mean, after all, when you think of North and South America being discovered, do you think of Viking longships landing in Canada, or Christopher Columbus in the Caribbean?

 

[kochman]

well, i think that woman isn't representative of the american population. hollywood and video games will never let you forget what language germans speak (with a strangely american accent, though).
And DOES the sun look different over here?

Agreed... she was the left side of the bell curve, to be sure...
And, from my experience, no, the sun was the same, but I saw much less of it due to poorer weather than where I live!