Are Americans really this uneducated?

[Leonis]

Originally posted by Craig Alexander: quote: Originally posted by Leonis: I've never heard of an Australian not knowing where Australia is...

Australia is in Europe somewhere isn't it? [/QUOTE]Well it used to be, but it's been annexed by the USA now. We are the newest United State of America, known as 'Howard's End'.

[Iron_Ranger]

Well the poll is probably wrong. But yeah, most american kids dont know a thing about geography, or history for that matter.

[skywalker]

Originally posted by Larry_OHF: I don't beleive that survey. Afterall...they did not interview every kid in the U.S., so the numbers are based on presumption. The kids surveyed were probably lower-class, struggling children and are uneducated on many things besides geography. I think surveys can go either way, depending on who is conducting them and what the conductor wants the survey to say.

You don't think that rich spoiled kids would not know some of this stuff? I think it's pretty unfair to characterize poor kids as uneducated. I'm sure you did not mean to use such a wide brush on that sector of society.

Mark

Don't blame the kids, blame the school systems that teach multi-culturalism and homosexual acceptance instead of geography. Geography is not even in the curriculem here. History is only very lightly touched on. Its more important when living here to have a well developed sense of self esteem and to feel good about yourself, than to know anything about the world

[Wilbur]

Who knows, they could have picked a hundred illegal immigrants who can't even speak English. Those of us who care about it are educated quite well, others unfourtunatly seem to have different priorities. All it comes down to is a poll that is probably not accurate and is only made by more people trying to make America look poorly. I'm sure that you could come up with the same results in any European country if you wanted to.

[LordKathen]

These kind of posts bug me! There are so many different levels of educated and achieved people and kids in the world. Who is anybody to judge any body else for what they may or may not know? Most of the problem with schools these days is not the teachers or funding or anything else, Its the lazy a$$ parents who dont take a role in there childs life. How boring for us to sit around and post about surveys and crap about what 30 or 66% of whatever compared to the 52 or 75% of another. I for one worry about me and mine. Not you and yours or they and theres or everyones IQ level. Hey, maybe Ziroc should start testing everyone for spelling and grammar and IQ, before they can post here.

Mind your own business, thats what I say. But hey, we all have a$$holes, right?

[Vaskez]

On a funny note, I was watching The Weakest Link game show the other day and a question put to a woman was: "What is the capital of the Czech Republic?" Now in my opinion all adult Europeans should know this but not only did she not get the correct answer she said: "Croatia" !! I was ROFLMAO for 5 mins
Yes the capital of a country is another country. Indeed.

[skywalker]

Originally posted by Wilbur: Who knows, they could have picked a hundred illegal immigrants who can't even speak English. Those of us who care about it are educated quite well, others unfourtunatly seem to have different priorities. All it comes down to is a poll that is probably not accurate and is only made by more people trying to make America look poorly. I'm sure that you could come up with the same results in any European country if you wanted to.

I think it is unlikely that the National Geographic Society would skew the poll in a given direction by purposely picking certain kinds of people to ask these questions. They do have a reputation to think about. I could be wrong, though.

Mark

[Aelia Jusa]

Originally posted by Iron_Ranger: Well the poll is probably wrong. But yeah, most american kids dont know a thing about geography, or history for that matter.

If most Americans don't know anything about history or geography, wouldn't that point to the survey being accurate?

I agree with Magik that the school system is partly to blame here. There was a big kerfuffle a while back in Australia about people not knowing who our first prime minister was. But there was a very good reason for that, at least people of around my age - we never learnt it in school. We never learnt any Australian political history until year 10, when it was no longer compulsory to learn history; primary school we learnt about explorers every year until year 7 when we learnt about bushrangers. I did think it was strange that learning about outlaws was more important than the people that shaped our nation

[Azred]

Originally posted by MagiK: Don't blame the kids, blame the school systems that teach multi-culturalism and homosexual acceptance instead of geography. Geography is not even in the curriculem here. History is only very lightly touched on. Its more important when living here to have a well developed sense of self esteem and to feel good about yourself, than to know anything about the world

Quite right! Belle and I have already decided that we will have to fill in the gaps in the education TJ will receive from the public school system here in Texas.
How do I know the public school system in Texas lacks quality? I went through the system. Fortunately, I did more learning on my own outside of class....

Vaskez, many Americans still refer to the Czech Republic as Czechoslovakia. [img]graemlins/dontknowaboutyou.gif[/img] jak se mas? dam si cerny pivo, prosim!

Getting back on topic...yes, many Americans are really undereducated on many topics. What a shame, too. *sigh*