My Faith for the Future of the U.S. is Shattered

Alex Moon · Post by **Alex Moon** » 2003-01-17 10:48am

• Only 71 percent of the surveyed Americans could locate on the map the Pacific Ocean, the world's largest body of water. Worldwide, three in 10 of those surveyed could not correctly locate the Pacific Ocean.

Maybe I'm not reading this right, but it sounds like 3 in 10 americans couldn't locate the Pacific Ocean, which would be the same number of those surveyed worldwide.

Captain tycho · Post by **Captain tycho** » 2003-01-17 11:08am

When I was but a young lad, I was aware of the vietnam war, what was happening every day, and what caused it. I had a college math level when I was 10, and a college reading level when I was just 8.
The educational system these days really screwed up.
And I remember alot of my friends who were 10-12 knowing alot more than some adults today.
The masses are stupid.
Sad, really.

Crazy_Vasey · Post by **Crazy_Vasey** » 2003-01-17 11:17am

Alex Moon wrote:
• Only 71 percent of the surveyed Americans could locate on the map the Pacific Ocean, the world's largest body of water. Worldwide, three in 10 of those surveyed could not correctly locate the Pacific Ocean.
Maybe I'm not reading this right, but it sounds like 3 in 10 americans couldn't locate the Pacific Ocean, which would be the same number of those surveyed worldwide.

Yup someone is trying to play with statistics and not doing a very good job of it there.

Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi · Post by **Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi** » 2003-01-18 12:29am

Captain tycho wrote:When I was but a young lad, I was aware of the vietnam war, what was happening every day, and what caused it. I had a college math level when I was 10, and a college reading level when I was just 8.
The educational system these days really screwed up.
And I remember alot of my friends who were 10-12 knowing alot more than some adults today.
The masses are stupid.
Sad, really.

I agree. I think it's a shame that I could read better when I was 8 than many kids in my grade can now.

And also, maky kids are geographical ignorami. I find it hard to believe that people can grow up thinking that people in Canada ride dogsleds to work. Something is screwed up in the educational system, and I don't know what.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2003-01-18 12:34am

Ignorance of geography is bad, but it's really not as bad as a fundamentally irrational way of looking at the world. Geography is, at heart, just accumulation of data. But an irrational mindset is infinitely more destructive, because no amount of information can correct it. The fact that 44% of Americans buy into such idiotic illogic as "the biosystem is very complicated, therefore it must have been designed by an omnipotent being" is much more disturbing than the fact that they think Canadians live in igloos.

I can correct such an ignorant attitude by simply showing him a picture of Toronto. But the irrational mindset that leads to 44% of Americans being YECs? Nothing short of a brain transplant will fix those people.

Frank Hipper · Post by **Frank Hipper** » 2003-01-18 01:04am

Darth Wong wrote:Ignorance of geography is bad, but it's really not as bad as a fundamentally irrational way of looking at the world. Geography is, at heart, just accumulation of data. But an irrational mindset is infinitely more destructive, because no amount of information can correct it. The fact that 44% of Americans buy into such idiotic illogic as "the biosystem is very complicated, therefore it must have been designed by an omnipotent being" is much more disturbing than the fact that they think Canadians live in igloos.

I can correct such an ignorant attitude by simply showing him a picture of Toronto. But the irrational mindset that leads to 44% of Americans being YECs? Nothing short of a brain transplant will fix those people.

Aw c'mon Darth Wong, just because they fall for intelligent design "theory" doesn't make them YECs does it? Not that one is much better than the other.
And you're a liar, you live in an igloo and drive a dogsled to work.

Captain Kruger · Post by **Captain Kruger** » 2003-01-20 02:23am

Gil Hamilton wrote:Anyway, this all reminds me of something that happened to me in 8th grade (in 1995). At the school I went to, they had weekly trivia contests about the world and students would fill out a slip. Then a teacher would draw until they found a correct answer. One week, they asked the question "Which two countries have the 2nd and 3rd greatest population?" At the time, it was India and the United States, so I filled out my form and waited till the 3rd bell where they'd announce the answer and the winner. 3rd bell came and the loudspeaker said "The winner is such and such a person and the answer is India and the Soviet Union". Can anyone find out what's wrong with this picture? I was livid, so I took it up with the teacher in charge and he said that they said the Soviet Union because they figured none of the students knew that the Soviet Union didn't exist any longer, and I got detention when I made the strong suggestion that the teacher in question didn't know it either.

Every single member of that school's faculty should be shot in the stomach and allowed to bleed to death for crimes against American children.

Strate_Egg · Post by **Strate_Egg** » 2003-01-20 03:57pm

Ok....i am resenting this. I am a teen and im not a freaking moron as Euro people say.

I am also NOT horrible at geography or history. Where do you take these surveys???? These people asked must be the lowest of society.

pellaeons_scion · Post by **pellaeons_scion** » 2003-01-21 12:42am

I must admit, even in Australia there is a trend towards stupidity. Once we were watching a documentary on WW2, and the person I was watching it with asked me when did Hitler attack pearl harbor. Then it was did Hitler nuke Japan. I asked her who she thought won ww2, her answer was America, which was true in part. I asked her if anyone else helped, and she replied "nup"

I was stunned. I asked her if she learned anything about world history at school. She told me she didnt feel it was important. I felt like going into a mental fit. It appears that our very own education system is not producing knowledgable people, but mindless, thoughtless, un-informed drones!!

I have further incidents which would clairify the level of stupidity here, but it would take pages to relay them all

Our education minister needs to be taken out the back and shot

Alex Moon · Post by **Alex Moon** » 2003-01-21 12:56am

Crazy_Vasey wrote:
Alex Moon wrote:
• Only 71 percent of the surveyed Americans could locate on the map the Pacific Ocean, the world's largest body of water. Worldwide, three in 10 of those surveyed could not correctly locate the Pacific Ocean.
Maybe I'm not reading this right, but it sounds like 3 in 10 americans couldn't locate the Pacific Ocean, which would be the same number of those surveyed worldwide.
Yup someone is trying to play with statistics and not doing a very good job of it there.

That's what I thought.