US Students Not So Worldly Wise

no surprise.

most americans are not smarter than a 5th grader.


That said, let's turn shit around and ask the europeans about US history. yeah...
 
If you want to annoy yourself about education in the US: http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2009/09/education-spending-doubled-stagnant.html Follow the links, they are legitimate. You might have a different view of the NEA, teacher's unions and politicians after reading it, I did.

Having lived in the UK and traveled to 26 countries we do have our problems but so does everyone else. I know it would be easy to find many in the UK who couldn't find Pierre, South Dakota on a map of the US with the names on it.

That said, if you hold kids to low expectations they perform to your expectations.
 
dr.kevin said:
no surprise.

most americans are not smarter than a 5th grader.


That said, let's turn shit around and ask the europeans about US history. yeah...
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americans are not smarter than an.....American 5th grader??? which 5th graders do we speak of?
 
Good to see data backs up what I've known all along. Kids these days are dumb.
 
Im kinda impressed that 18 year old students know about a virus that was written before they were born. Same thing that they know of a bad movie that was made the year they were born.
 
Who is Fergie, and why should I know that person? I'd be happier if more people knew John Carmack then Fergie. Hell, I'd be happier if more people knew who steve jobs was. They buy Apple products, but don't know who's god of Apple.
 
Ashbringer said:
Who is Fergie, and why should I know that person? I'd be happier if more people knew John Carmack then Fergie. Hell, I'd be happier if more people knew who steve jobs was. They buy Apple products, but don't know who's god of Apple.
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Who the fuck cares about either John Carmack or Steven Jobs? Both seem to make shit products.
 
We aren't throwing enough money at our schools. More money will fix our problems. :p
 
dr.kevin said:
no surprise.

most americans are not smarter than a 5th grader.


That said, let's turn shit around and ask the europeans about US history. yeah...
Click to expand...

Ask an Italian about American revolution... they know who Benedict Arnold is.
Ask the Swiss about Woodrow Wilson, and the palace of nations wouldn't be faraway.

Nevermind the Canadian, who know by heart about the cathartic burning of the White House.
 
for some of these i'm wondering what caliber of students they were asking
for others, I mean, why Solidarity is sometimes spelled with a capital S? Some of that stuff is really stupid..........some of it I really just don't believe
 
Why does everyone blame the schools? I am a senior in college and my K-12 education was just fine. I don't like cursive but it isn't the teacher's fault, or the school's fault, its the "cursive is pointless" fault.

I would imagine most people who took this survey didn't even take it seriously.
 
Why is any of this important?

Does not knowing which Michaelangelo the questionnaire was asking about make you any less productive or effective than someone who does (unless you are an art/history teacher)?

Does knowing that Tyson used to beat people up legally, or even that he exists, change or effect anything at all?

IBM used to make typewriters? that's nice, if I'm ever writing a book on the history of IBM, or typewriters, I'll be sure to mention that.

"x% of people didn't know how long it takes the earth to orbit the sun" OH NOES! IT MIGHT SLOW DOWN!!!

Most of this bullshit is just smug, elitist, self-congratulatory onanism.

How good are they at maths?

Can they make stuff?

How many languages do they speak?

This shit is important, not knowing who all the Fergies are (everyone knows the only important fergie is Alex Ferguson)

p.s. if you have to look up "onanism" ur an moran too lol.
 
Yes, because kids today are the first generation of Americans to be dumb. How else could Jay Leno run a whole segment asking questions to clueless idiots who don't know where Canada is.
 
I'd like to add that if any politician ever ran mainly on an education platform and actually got some results, it would probably be the best thing we could ever hope for. There was a time when education meant a whole lot more to people, but now its just taken for granted.
 
If North Korea is the Axis of Evil, the we all now know USA is Axis of Dumbass
 
Public education is one of the most-unionized professions in the US. You can hardly get rid of a bad teacher in most states, which saps the morale of the good ones. Then there is all the politically-correct, social indoctrination crap going on instead of teaching the basics. So, we now have kids who can tell you everything about marginal characters from history but don't know squat about our Founding Fathers. They can talk knowledgeably about the latest STD, but can't do algebra. But they feel good about themselves because their teachers dumb everything down to the slowest students level and most of the kids breeze right on by.
 
Check out the previous 'Mindset List' from 1998 (for the class of 2002). The assumptions made are ridiculous:

http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/2002.php

1. The people starting college this fall across the nation were born in 1980.
2. They have no meaningful recollection of the Reagan era, and did not know he had ever been shot.
3. They were prepubescent when the Persian Gulf War was waged.
4. Black Monday 1987 is as significant to them as the Great Depression.
5. There has only been one Pope. They can only remember one other president.
6. They were 11 when the Soviet Union broke apart, and do not remember the Cold War.
7. They have never feared a nuclear war. "The Day After" is a pill to them—not a movie.
8. They are too young to remember the Space Shuttle Challenger blowing up.
9. Their lifetime has always included AIDS.
10. They never had a polio shot, and likely, do not know what it is.
11. Bottle caps have not always been screw off, but have always been plastic. They have no idea what a pull top can looks like.
12. Atari pre-dates them, as do vinyl albums.
13. The expression "you sound like a broken record" means nothing to them.
14. They have never owned a record player.
15. They have likely never played Pac Man, and have never heard of "Pong."
16. Star Wars looks very fake to them, and the special effects are pathetic.
17. There have always been red M&Ms, and blue ones are not new. What do you mean there used to be beige ones?
18. They may never have heard of an 8-track, and chances are they've never heard or seen one.
19. The compact disc was introduced when they were one year old.
20. As far as they know, stamps have always cost about 32 cents.
21. They have always had an answering machine.
22. Most have never seen a TV set with only 13 channels, nor have they seen a black & white TV.
23. They have always had cable.
24. There have always been VCRs, but they have no idea what Beta is.
25. They cannot fathom what it was like not having a remote control.
26. They were born the year Walkmen were introduced by Sony.
27. Roller-skating has always meant in-line for them.
28. "The Tonight Show" has always been with Jay Leno.
29. They have no idea when or why Jordache jeans were cool.
30. Popcorn has always been cooked in the microwave.
31. They have never seen Larry Bird play, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is a football player.
32. They never took a swim and thought about Jaws.
33. The Vietnam War is as ancient history to them as WWI and WWII or even the Civil War.
34. They have no idea that Americans were ever held hostage in Iran.
35. They can't imagine what hard contact lenses are.
36. They don't know who Mork was, or where he was from.
37. They never heard the terms "Where's the Beef?", "I'd walk a mile for a Camel" or "De plane, de plane!"
38. They do not care who shot J.R. and have no idea who J.R. is.
39. The Titanic was found? I thought we always knew where it was.
40. Michael Jackson has always been white.
41. Kansas, Boston, Chicago, America, and Alabama are all places—not music groups.
42. McDonald's never came in Styrofoam containers.
43. There has always been MTV, and it has always included non-musical shows.
Click to expand...
 
MartinX said:
Why is any of this important?

Does not knowing which Michaelangelo the questionnaire was asking about make you any less productive or effective than someone who does (unless you are an art/history teacher)?

Does knowing that Tyson used to beat people up legally, or even that he exists, change or effect anything at all?

IBM used to make typewriters? that's nice, if I'm ever writing a book on the history of IBM, or typewriters, I'll be sure to mention that.

"x% of people didn't know how long it takes the earth to orbit the sun" OH NOES! IT MIGHT SLOW DOWN!!!

Most of this bullshit is just smug, elitist, self-congratulatory onanism.

How good are they at maths?

Can they make stuff?

How many languages do they speak?

This shit is important, not knowing who all the Fergies are (everyone knows the only important fergie is Alex Ferguson)

p.s. if you have to look up "onanism" ur an moran too lol.
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Agree. The article is a waste of internet space. By the way, "an moran" ? Seriously? :D
 
Reimu said:
Ask an Italian about American revolution... they know who Benedict Arnold is.
Ask the Swiss about Woodrow Wilson, and the palace of nations wouldn't be faraway.

Nevermind the Canadian, who know by heart about the cathartic burning of the White House.
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This is not necessarily a fair comparison. US culture and history due to its standing in the modern world is not doubt more known to non Americans then vice versa. A more apt analogy would be in my opinion asking Europeans/Canadians about East Asian history/culture, do you not think they would seem ignorant about those topics? I am sure the replies would be quite hilarious to the people from East Asia as well. People in general are ignorant about history/culture that is not presented to them or affects them, this isn't limited to Americans.
 
LeninGHOLA said:
Cursive is mostly useless. I agree with the hatred; it serves no purpose.

Other than that, I think kids these days are smart, just not very wise. Education has always been what you make of it, some are there for the degree alone, some like to learn.

P.S. THE END IS NEAR, GET OFF MAH LAWN
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It is no more or less useless then regular. I rarely write myself as I am in IT and embrace technology, however even with that I write notes regularly. My point however was that cursive is actually easier and faster to write then regular. I really find it more then a little surprising that there is so much animosity to it.

On the other note, taught to take a test != smart. I find my self shocked at the sheer number of kids I am running into graduating from college with 2 year degrees who know absolutely nothing. Most of them passed all their tests with flying colors, but when it comes to actually learning how to do the job, they are about as deep as a rain puddle. I find it more shocking because I am only 31 and these kids honestly aren't that far behind me. I knew education was bad when I was going through it, as I had to seek out mine since the schools weren't providing. However I am honestly more then a little taken aback at how quickly it has degenerated. Too be fair though, it is not 100% the education systems fault. Parents today share a large portion of responsibility.
 
Maybe because I am an engineer I hang out with fellow informed (nerds) people, but being from the hs class of 2006, I simply refuse to believe some of this stuff.

As for the thing about Mike Tyson - who the hell cares.
 
PornoSatan said:
Agree. The article is a waste of internet space. By the way, "an moran" ? Seriously? :D
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moran.jpg


:p
 
chinesepiratefood said:
Maybe because I am an engineer I hang out with fellow informed (nerds) people, but being from the hs class of 2006, I simply refuse to believe some of this stuff.

As for the thing about Mike Tyson - who the hell cares.
Click to expand...

Also, I don't read books, I hate reading - but I sure as hell would do better on an survey like that than pretty much anyone but huge history buffs.
 
Yah, the 1998 list was completely lame too. I started college in 1997 and remember all of that or at least knew of it (like Regan's shooting).
 
I'm Canadian, but I'd trade in copious amounts of history and worldly knowledge for rationality, intelligence, and innovation. Unfortunately I doubt this is quite the situation we are viewing here.
 
I feel I gotta chime in on this one here:

First off, I'm gonna be a little stereotypical here for a bit so many of you may take offense to what I gotta say, but for the most part it is true.

I can say with confidence that at least 90% of you grew up in a stable and normal family who encouraged education and basic COMMON SENSE growing up, or that you simply have a passion for pursuing knowledge and being adept in the technical backgrounds of computers etc.

For me personally, this article speaks the cold hard truth about many teens today. For me growing up and many of my homies *yea I'm hispanic* all of our parents were divorced, we were poor, and coming from the ghetto you gotta understand being intelligent and good in school you were seen as the loser and kid who didn't get any girls. That's the life that I grew up in. It was more important having money and an image and being hard than. I was fortunate enough that even though my parents weren't married they still were disciplined enough to make sure we grew up and made it out of that lifestyle long ago. But for most of my friends, at 30 years of age, none of them have a college degree, 3/4 of them still don't use a computer, some still sell drugs, and they could give a shit about politics or the wars going on overseas. My point is that this was 12 years ago and if the mentality back then was already fucked up as it was already, so I can only imagination what today's youth has to deal with now.

And you guys want some statistical data dig this:

My first year in high school, there were close to 1000 Freshmen in attendance at the time. Come our Senior year, only 368 graduated so do the math. Also, and i say this with 100% certainty that I was the only guy who wrote in cursive, I shit you not, so that part of the article made me laugh. There wasn't exactly huge standards where I went to school fellas, trust me.

Now even though my perspective came from a rough background, it still makes my point clear that many parts of America today things are still the same, and I've been around a lot. 65% of American families are divorced, and still rising, and with today's social media bombarding us with stupid shit like American Idol, Jersey Shore, and countless other shows that I swear kill your brain cells, and don't take my word for it, youtube "Jay Walking" and you'll come walking away with even lower opinions of America. I still remember my favorite part when Jay showed a picture of Napoleon Bonaparte and Captain Crunch, I swear nobody even the older people could figure out who Napoleon was but nailed the Captain.

I could go on and on with this sort of thing, I could give so many more examples, but this one issue just frustrates me like no other, cuz I've been through the public education system and avoided the gauntlet growing up that I'd rather just focus on my own problems then worry about everyone elses. Peace....
 
Cursive is major failure. Ever get notes from someone in college who wrote in cursive = fucked
 
Tell me about it, i've been asking around and American's have absolutely no sense of history. They apparently forgot about how they affected other countries.

#1 America destabilized the Philippines by supplying guns to the rebels (In effect, our national heroes were Terrorists by definition, they became heroes because they had america's support)
#2 America "bought" the country for $20 million dollars.
#3 Once america had turned the Philippines into an American colony. The former rebels they had 'helped' are now enemies
#4 America subjugated the Philippines for 30+ years. Over a quarter of a million filipinos were killed in the process (Women and Children included).

Americans i've talked to, have no idea what they did to the Philippines or any of the other countries they've done the same to. They may look at themselves as Vanguards of justice, but keep getting surprised when they find out other countries don't trust them. Learning from mistakes only applies to their weapon systems. Because they keep doing the same thing over and over when handling other countries.
 
Sly said:
They may look at themselves as Vanguards of justice, but keep getting surprised when they find out other countries don't trust them. Learning from mistakes only applies to their weapon systems. .
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*cigar in my mouth*

Show me whut to blow up bawwsss
 
Not knowing some of the major names in history, general, art or otherwise is just sad. I'd have had to purposefully isolate me from such knowledge or have a brain like a sieve. Is US society so nationalistic and isolated from the world that its population is only taught some very specific parts of US history and nothing else?

The only time I met someone as ignorant as this was with a girl in one of my classes during HS; she was asked during a geography class to point out a few countries on the huge world map on the back of the room, including the US, Netherlands (my country), Germany, Russia and such. She failed to identify even one. Rarely did the class have a chance to fall over laughing at so much ignorance.

Worst part was that she wasn't even bothered by not knowing such basic things.
 
dr.kevin said:
most americans are not smarter than a 5th grader.
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I've always disliked that show, because trivial / general knowledge is not the same thing as intelligence.

To build on that, judging intelligence or worth in any way on trivia is pathetic really. I'm a geek, my trivia is tech not history. It would be like my sitting down with my parents and berating them because they do not know something as simple as the difference between a bit and a byte.

Come to think of it, it wouldn't be as bad. The difference between a bit and a byte is useful. Knowing which day Regan was shot is not. Even so, it would not be tolerated even though ignorance with computers regularly causes tremendous problems.

When was the last time someones identity was stolen because they did not know who shot Lincoln?

If I want that information, I'll look it up. If I need to know what the capital of a country is, I'll look it up. It just seems to me that previous generations placed FAR too much emphasis on memorization, simply because there was no better way.

This is an old fashioned way of behaving, and in a generation or two it will be completely different.
 
Idiocracy, it was prophetic...

Go look up that last word on wikipedia if you don't know what it is...

Go buy the DVD if you need to see the future..
 
Instead of teaching history and things that are common knowledge teachers push their liberal agenda on students. Not to mention commercials are dumbing people down. With words such as "Lite" beer instead of light. Many people don;t know the difference between the words two, to, and too. go to any social networking site, twitter, or dating site and just see how retarded many adults are. Its not just America. We are jsut bad at math and geography becuase its not taught in most schools. foreign children are bad at economics and pronouncing pluralization of words. i blame the education system. you really have to take what you learn with a grain of salt... a whole shaker in some cases.... and educate yourself.
 
Decibel said:
Um... Well... Beethoven was a dog and Michelangelo is a virus.
* * *

This hits a lot of the problems our country has with education. We have many of the absolute best universities in the world here in the USA. Yet, for a first world country, we have appallingly poor primary education. Our kids can barely get into our universities.
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This is because now the US is a country for investors and to get the best profit. Let others give primary educations to Asians and then use them. They all say, fuck the Americans and the people who built this country.
 
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