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Why 1/5 of Americans can't locate the U.S. on a world map


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If you want to go anywhere in any career, you have to know how to write.

Don't overstate the case. Ask David Beckham how his writing skills have helped his career.

(But I almost agree with you 100%.)

MG

Shouldn't that be "I agree with you almost 100%"? :);)

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Thanks Jim. For an 18 year old, I guess it's not too bad.

Gotta disagree, and on several levels, not the least of which is the "everybody I know knows where the U.S. is on a map, so I don't know how relaible the data really is" thing.

Yeah, all you know is all there is. Right. That's the problem right there...

My daughter is 17, and her and her freinds (most of 'em anyway...) enjoy varying level of teen-girl "ditziness" (not an insult btw, it's a wonderful part of life that should be enjoyed while it can, just not as a "lifestyle", if you get my drift) can spank this "bimbo" up one side of the street and down the other when it comes to common sense and such. So excuse me if I do think that it is pretty bad.

And she's not hot.

Lauer & Coury ain't exactly out in front of the parade either. She mentioned wanting to pursue a career in graphic design & kept waiting for one of them to ask her if she planned on designing catchier looking maps to stimualte interest in geography. Logical follow-up, right?

But no.....

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Thanks Jim. For an 18 year old, I guess it's not too bad.

Gotta disagree, and on several levels, not the least of which is the "everybody I know knows where the U.S. is on a map, so I don't know how relaible the data really is" thing.

Yeah, all you know is all there is. Right. That's the problem right there...

My daughter is 17, and her and her freinds (most of 'em anyway...) enjoy varying level of teen-girl "ditziness" (not an insult btw, it's a wonderful part of life that should be enjoyed while it can, just not as a "lifestyle", if you get my drift) can spank this "bimbo" up one side of the street and down the other when it comes to common sense and such. So excuse me if I do think that it is pretty bad.

And she's not hot.

Lauer & Coury ain't exactly out in front of the parade either. She mentioned wanting to pursue a career in graphic design & kept waiting for one of them to ask her if she planned on designing catchier looking maps to stimualte interest in geography. Logical follow-up, right?

But no.....

OK - I bow to superior knowledge. My daughter was fairly seriously ill during her teenage years, so she missed all that stuff - she's making up for it now :( So I don't tend to use her as a yardstick.

MG

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Sammie has this awesome talking globe that plays all sorts of cool games. As a result, she's gotten quite good at geography. Not only can she find the U.S. on a map, she can find Iraq, Afghanistan, Korea and several other countries. The globe also plays samples of the music of each country. It's really stimulated her interest in world culture...

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Incredible story.

I had this discussion with a chemical engineer. He seemed to always look down on the arts and I told him that Americans were uneducated. Education in America is job-directed. There's a lot of niche education, while no one studies the liberal arts if they ever hope to get a job one day. In the meantime, our kids don't know how to find America in a world map, nor do they know what "War and Peace" is.

Throw all the money you want to in this system, but until Americans realize the value of the humanities in education, then we'll remain uneducated.

You're right - but alot of education is geared towards getting kids into paying jobs, not necessarily the arts. Does a mid-level production manager at Exxon care if prospective welders or engineers know where Slovenia is on a map, or have read War and Peace? From the manager's standpoint, will that have any effect on the employee's production?

But that's the source of the problem. Our education is geared towards specific jobs. So we bow to the God of Mammon while those jobs that we became trained for eventually go overseas or become obsolete within a decade. Then it's back to school again if we don't want to make minimum wage.

If you tie your education wagon to the job market, it will leave you vulnerable and unprepared for life. The American economy is a mess as far as jobs are concerned. We no longer have lifetime employment and American corporations only want part-timers or women (because they can pay them less) or immigrants. If you are lucky enough to qualify for good jobs, then you are walking on thin ice. You will be downsized or replaced by someone cheaper.

Because the arts are downplayed, we are a nation of moral midgets. We have sacrificed everything for a mythical job market.

I am sorry to say that you're not so unique in the world. In Italy just happened the same with the latest educational reforms. (thanks expecially to Berlusconi's one).

Me and my wife got University degrees more then twenty years ago, and I have to admit that compared of today's graduates our skills are hugely higher.

I would dare to say that our high school diplomas are almost at the same level that today's humanistic university degrees. Sad but true. Strictly job oriented education is one of the worst things that can happened to an educational system.

Edited by porcy62
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She acts like a future "Girls Gone Wild" star.

Seems like she might be an example that we as a nation and society are succeeding in one area at least, the "dumbing down of America" area.

Anyhow, I certainly hope that she doesn't take the "ditzy" style too seriously. But, given how others adore and over-emphasis the good-looks factor, she might think that other people will take care of her because of those looks , which might be true .

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"Good girl! Good girl you!"

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20473692/

Watch the video....

Thanks Jim. For an 18 year old, I guess it's not too bad. Thought she was a bit older than that.

MG

How much older did you think she was? 19? It is a teen beauty contest.

Good thing she's not 17... you'd be locked up with that response! ;)

At that age, not only should you be able to identify every major nation on a map, you should be able to answer a direct question with a direct answer. Anyone remember the university admissions process? Essays, interviews, etc.

Ann Curry is a melodramatic personality that doesn't seem to know how to act in front of a camera unless she is reading a news teleprompter in a dry, husky tenor. I'm sure she's very nice, but she gets on my last nerve with her "overacting".

She's almost worse than Al Roker.

The girl apparently won fourth place in this contest, despite this response, and the fact that she is not at all exceptional.

One of the other questions that they showed on Today was something to the effect of "Who do you look up to more: Paris Hilton, Nicole Ritchie, or Lindsay Lohan?"

Maybe they decided that questions about reference materials were too difficult and decided to draw on television knowledge.

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This "20% of Americans can't locate the U.S. on a world map" sounds like claptrap. Let's think of what it means. It means that literally 60 million US citizens can't locate their own country on a map. Right. I think whoever came up with this was being kidded by the vast majority of respondants. But apparently they don't want to just throw away their absurd results, so they put them out to get a big media flap.

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Personally I wouldn't be surprised if those numbers are true, Bruce. But maybe I'm cynical. :)

On a related note, has anyone actually gone to or been involved in a beauty contest before? That's a whole different and scary world, right there. I have a story about a girl in college that I was trying to get with who did one of the pre-Miss Michigan contests. Wow. That's a story for another time.

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Personally I wouldn't be surprised if those numbers are true, Bruce. But maybe I'm cynical. :)

On a related note, has anyone actually gone to or been involved in a beauty contest before? That's a whole different and scary world, right there. I have a story about a girl in college that I was trying to get with who did one of the pre-Miss Michigan contests. Wow. That's a story for another time.

Oh come on, tell us about her. :cool:

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Personally I wouldn't be surprised if those numbers are true, Bruce. But maybe I'm cynical. :)

On a related note, has anyone actually gone to or been involved in a beauty contest before? That's a whole different and scary world, right there. I have a story about a girl in college that I was trying to get with who did one of the pre-Miss Michigan contests. Wow. That's a story for another time.

Oh come on, tell us about her. :cool:

Yes, it's relevant NOW, not in a week's time, Jim.

MG

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"Good girl! Good girl you!"

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20473692/

Watch the video....

Thanks Jim. For an 18 year old, I guess it's not too bad. Thought she was a bit older than that.

MG

How much older did you think she was? 19? It is a teen beauty contest.

Good thing she's not 17... you'd be locked up with that response! ;)

At that age, not only should you be able to identify every major nation on a map, you should be able to answer a direct question with a direct answer. Anyone remember the university admissions process? Essays, interviews, etc.

Ann Curry is a melodramatic personality that doesn't seem to know how to act in front of a camera unless she is reading a news teleprompter in a dry, husky tenor. I'm sure she's very nice, but she gets on my last nerve with her "overacting".

She's almost worse than Al Roker.

The girl apparently won fourth place in this contest, despite this response, and the fact that she is not at all exceptional.

One of the other questions that they showed on Today was something to the effect of "Who do you look up to more: Paris Hilton, Nicole Ritchie, or Lindsay Lohan?"

Maybe they decided that questions about reference materials were too difficult and decided to draw on television knowledge.

Oh, I didn't know, or notice, that it was a teen thing. I assumed straight off she was somewhere around twenty-two, three etc.

MG

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On a related note, has anyone actually gone to or been involved in a beauty contest before? That's a whole different and scary world, right there. I have a story about a girl in college that I was trying to get with who did one of the pre-Miss Michigan contests. Wow. That's a story for another time.

'Hey, you wanna see my organ?'

*slap*

'No, I mean my pipe organ.'

*slap*

Not that a B3's a pipe organ or anything.

Edited by Epithet
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