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I don't know a link to the NG test, but on the radio this morning they said that on it, only 1/7 Americans (between 18 and 24, I think--old enough to know better) could place either Iran or Iraq, and "things weren't much better" with Afghanistan.

I'm an American and I know where what's what is. I hate it when people generalize.

But I must say.....we do have very stupid people and kids too. Anyone that knows about the NYC public school system knows that around 60% of students are stupid. I'm in it and i'm part of the 40%

Cyaround,
Jason
P.s.- The numbers could be wrong but it tells of the majority of the stupid kids growing up here in NYC.

Now this is sad:

http://www.cnn.com/2002/EDUCATION/11/20 ... index.html

I refer to the 11 percent of Americans who could not find their own nation on a world map...

jegs2 wrote:Now this is sad:

http://www.cnn.com/2002/EDUCATION/11/20 ... index.html

I refer to the 11 percent of Americans who could not find their own nation on a world map...

Jesus Christ,when I attended at the compulsory public school here in Italy and I had to study the US geography I was supposed to know at least roughly the position of all the 50 states ,the dislocation of the major population centres the climatic zones etc (and of course I had to be able to explain what the various parts of the US flag stand for).During the oral test the teacher took a blank (without the internal borders and nomes of the states) map of the US and asked "where is Montana/Delaware/Washington(favourite trick question apparently)? and each of the examined students had to point the position on the map (I hated that part).I do not know however if this would be a standard or my teacher was a bit sadistic.
However considered that my maths professor at what I suppose is the equivalent of your college gave us to do a 50pages research on the genesis of the non euclidean geometries for summer holiday I suspect that this would not be uncommon.

jegs2 wrote:Now this is sad:

http://www.cnn.com/2002/EDUCATION/11/20 ... index.html

I refer to the 11 percent of Americans who could not find their own nation on a world map...

If we change the pledge to "one nation under Canada", then kids will know where we are.

jegs2 wrote:Now this is sad:

http://www.cnn.com/2002/EDUCATION/11/20 ... index.html

I refer to the 11 percent of Americans who could not find their own nation on a world map...

Evdently only 30% of the world 18-24 could find the Pacific.

Well, I know I at least got an education that taught me where the states are and what're their capitols. Thank Og for (secular) homeschooling during middleschool (considering how deplorable of a social experience it is, the little groupy bastards. I hardly did any math in 7th grade and in eigth did nothing for 4 hours a day but read books and watch the History and Discovery channel, and I still whomped their asses in Freshman year of highschool. 3.8 GPA, no studying, no notes. God, what the fuck did those morons do for the three previous years?! (besides be bastards to people outside/inside thier clique.).

Hell, some people think there are 48 or 52 states, or not know who the president is (at least half of them knew not to pick Gore).

Darth Utsanomiko wrote:Hell, some people think there are 48 or 52 states, or not know who the president is (at least half of them knew not to pick Gore).

And in Florida, the other half picked Buchannan by mistake.

Honestly, how can those American students can be so fucking stupid. They never even looked at a fucking map in school? Were they doing drugs even in elementary school or something?

This is what happens when the politicians worry more about whether or not creationism should be taught in schools and how much their new yacht will cost rather than "Do our schools have enough books".

Dalton wrote:This is what happens when the politicians worry more about whether or not creationism should be taught in schools and how much their new yacht will cost rather than "Do our schools have enough books".

I fear to ask if you are kidding, but I also fear that you might be right.
You guys need a centralised, secular, education system.

Sea Skimmer wrote:

jegs2 wrote:Now this is sad:


Evdently only 30% of the world 18-24 could find the Pacific.

Thats wrong. 30% could NOT find the Pacific. But this

Particularly humiliating was that all countries were better able to identify the U.S. population than many young U.S. citizens. Within the U.S., almost one-third said that population was between one billion and two billion; the answer is 289 million.

Here are some questions from the test.

http://cybercafe230.nationalgeographic.com/geosurvey/

As shocking as those '30% of people don;t know where so & so is' stats are...I no doubt need remind you that they can be made up to suit any purpose & the population of any country...

All you need to do is a survey & then you can tally up how stupid your local population is...

Thunderfire wrote:Here are some questions from the test.

http://cybercafe230.nationalgeographic.com/geosurvey/

Damn, I wish they had asked me to participate in this survey. I did just fine on those 20 sample questions (20/20--they're cake). Of course the actual survey was longer, but if those questions were of the same difficulty, that's money, baby! Anyone else taking it?

Dalton wrote:This is what happens when the politicians worry more about whether or not creationism should be taught in schools and how much their new yacht will cost rather than "Do our schools have enough books".

No, this is what happens when the NEA takes over. One more reason my kids
are NEVER going to pubic skuel. I'll homeschool 'em or send them to
Catholic School.

Pfft as sad and deporable our Public schooling is...it's what you take from it.

Sure it produces morons but then again Georgetown gave me a freebie into their university because of my grades and I succeeded well enough.

Sure private school can steer you a tad easier but honestly unless the child wants something from it...short of downloading it directly into his noggin, she's not going to take it in.

MKSheppard wrote:

Dalton wrote:This is what happens when the politicians worry more about whether or not creationism should be taught in schools and how much their new yacht will cost rather than "Do our schools have enough books".

No, this is what happens when the NEA takes over. One more reason my kids
are NEVER going to pubic skuel. I'll homeschool 'em or send them to
Catholic School.

Don't send them to a Catholic middleschool unless you start from kindergarten, for the love of El-Shaddai! Jesus Hatfucker Christ, they are vicious at 11-14. If your kid is so much considered a possible outsider, they will shut them out and make their life hell.I've seen too many kids wind up as either anti-social lunatics or spineless vegatables after a year or two of middleschool with Catholics.

That or teach them to whup ass and take names

Honestly I had to take one year of that....dear god I can't remember how many fights I got into because I was 'outsider'...course I get transferred to the public school after a month...I wonder why

Ghost Rider wrote:That or teach them to whup ass and take names

Then you end up with an asshole fucktard that everyone dislikes in highschool. The real solution is to never put preteens around eachother in situations where they'll try and form cliques.

Zaia wrote:

Thunderfire wrote:Here are some questions from the test.

http://cybercafe230.nationalgeographic.com/geosurvey/

Damn, I wish they had asked me to participate in this survey. I did just fine on those 20 sample questions (20/20--they're cake). Of course the actual survey was longer, but if those questions were of the same difficulty, that's money, baby! Anyone else taking it?

That was extremely easy. People must have to be pretty ignorant to do really badly on that mini-survey.

Some teachers are just as bad as the students. A few teachers out there think Brazil is in Asia! And, despite being unqualified in the subject, end up teaching it anyway!

Perhaps if we give the kids school vouchers, they'll be able to a textbook that isn't the Sears catalog, and a computer lab that actually has computers in it.

Did you also notice that some of the worst-performing school districts spend the most on students? That's the NEA for you.

Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi wrote:Some teachers are just as bad as the students. A few teachers out there think Brazil is in Asia! And, despite being unqualified in the subject, end up teaching it anyway!

Perhaps if we give the kids school vouchers, they'll be able to a textbook that isn't the Sears catalog, and a computer lab that actually has computers in it.

Did you also notice that some of the worst-performing school districts spend the most on students? That's the NEA for you.

What really sucks is if you're in a class and you're smarter than the teacher and know more about the subject. Annyoing as hell.

Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi wrote:Some teachers are just as bad as the students. A few teachers out there think Brazil is in Asia! And, despite being unqualified in the subject, end up teaching it anyway!

Ok, I need to explain/vent about this for a moment. Teachers WANT to teach their own subject area. Not only is it what they are well informed about, but it is also what they most enjoy doing. How would you like to get up in front of a room full of people and lecture and demonstrate on a subject you know next-to-nothing about? It is not a pleasurable experience.

Speaking as an instrumental music teacher who has been asked to teach subjects varying from history to floral design to computer technology, it is NOT the choice of the teacher to teach outside his or her content area. I personally find it insulting on behalf of the students when the school system decides to stretch the teachers it already has to cover all vacancies. Somehow, they can afford to give those in administration a 5% raise, but somehow can't afford to hire a sufficient number of teachers to cover all subject areas properly.

Yes, obviously it sucks when teachers are out of their element and art teachers are teaching geography (and it is a shame if you actually know of one who thought Brazil was in Asia), but they suck it up for the love of their students and what they do. It's incredibly hard for any decent teacher to think about students getting no education whatsoever, because that's the only alternative in those situations. Either those students get a second-rate education from someone who knows little on the subject area, or they get no education whatsoever.

Of course, if the school systems had more money to begin with, this would never be an issue. Reminds me of the bumper sticker about how nice it would be if the schools had more than enough money to do their thing (ie: educate students) and the government had to have bake sales in order to do its thing (ie: make weapons of mass destruction)...

The one thing I want to know is how did they choose who to survey? American high schools accept all students, while most European ones have to be tested to be gotten into, according to a friend of mine from France. I've read studies suggesting that once the percentages are balanced out (i.e. the top x% of students are examined, where x is equal to the percentage of students accepted in other nations), the United States is not that poorly off compared to other nations. I'll look to see if I can find that study again, but it's been some time.

The Dark wrote:The one thing I want to know is how did they choose who to survey? American high schools accept all students, while most European ones have to be tested to be gotten into, according to a friend of mine from France. I've read studies suggesting that once the percentages are balanced out (i.e. the top x% of students are examined, where x is equal to the percentage of students accepted in other nations), the United States is not that poorly off compared to other nations. I'll look to see if I can find that study again, but it's been some time.

If it is in anyway a reputable survey it will be done SRS style. Basically it is a completely random survey of American high schools. Probably one grade tested in different schools in different parts of the country.