American Stupidity
<div class="IPBDescription">is it in our genes?</div> Or does our complete ignorance of current events have something to do with it? A survey conducted by the Nation Geographic Society revealed that America is indeed, the World's Stupidest Nation.
<a href='http://www.nationalgeographic.com/geosurvey/download/RoperSurvey.pdf' target='_blank'>http://www.nationalgeographic.com/geosurve...RoperSurvey.pdf</a>
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--><ul>
</li><li>Answering about 70% of questions correctly, young adults in Sweden, Germany and Italy ranked the highest of the nine countries surveyed. They were followed by the French (61%) and Japanese (55%). Respondents in Great Britain answered 50% correctly. Their peers in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico answered fewer than half the questions correctly.
</li><li>Young Americans show weak performance with regard to the Middle East and Asia. Despite the countries almost daily presence in the news and the potential impact of current conflicts on everyone s lives, only one in seven can find Iraq (13%) or Iran (13%) on a map of Middle East/Asia. On average, fewer than one-fifth of all young adults worldwide could identify Iraq on a Middle East/Asia map.
</li><li> By contrast, more young Americans (34%) could determine that the island used for the last season of the television show Survivor is in the South Pacific.
</li><li>While the majority of young Americans (58%) knew that the Taliban and al Qaeda are based in Afghanistan, they were the least likely of all young adults surveyed to get this question correct. Moreover, just 17% could find Afghanistan on a world map.
<b>58% of young americans know that the Taliban and al Qaeda were in Afghanistan. Fifty. Eight. Percent. How stupid do you have to be? Apparently, just as much as 42% of young americans.</b>
</li><li>A majority of young Americans grossly overstated the U.S. population. In fact, close to onethird(30%) said that the U.S. has 1 to 2 billion people, or roughly one-third of the world's population. Only one-fourth of American young adults (25%) correctly identified the U.S.population as falling within the range of 150 to 350 million. Respondents in all othercountries were better able to identify the U.S. population than are young Americans.
</li><li>On average, young adults in other countries in the study were better able to locate other European countries than American young adults are to locate U.S. states.
<b>*coughs up a hairball* I learned the states when I was in 3rd grade. Come on.</b>
</li><li>Most nations had a clear sense of the size of their country s population in relation to therest of the world. In all countries except the U.S. and Mexico, a majority of respondents— in some cases a large majority — could identify their country s population. Further,young adults outside the U.S. knew the size of the U.S. population better than did young Americans.
</li></ul><!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
That's just a portion of the article.
Sigh, I know you euros are going to love this. I'm looking forward to moving to Japan after college.
p.s. This is also great proof that the Internet is an awesome educational tool. I know I've learned at least half of the topics I'm most familiar with are from the internet:
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Internet use also appears to be linked to strong performance in the U.S. (average of 28 correct answers vs. 17 for non-Web-using respondents). The same is true in nearly all countries studied.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<a href='http://www.nationalgeographic.com/geosurvey/download/RoperSurvey.pdf' target='_blank'>http://www.nationalgeographic.com/geosurve...RoperSurvey.pdf</a>
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--><ul>
</li><li>Answering about 70% of questions correctly, young adults in Sweden, Germany and Italy ranked the highest of the nine countries surveyed. They were followed by the French (61%) and Japanese (55%). Respondents in Great Britain answered 50% correctly. Their peers in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico answered fewer than half the questions correctly.
</li><li>Young Americans show weak performance with regard to the Middle East and Asia. Despite the countries almost daily presence in the news and the potential impact of current conflicts on everyone s lives, only one in seven can find Iraq (13%) or Iran (13%) on a map of Middle East/Asia. On average, fewer than one-fifth of all young adults worldwide could identify Iraq on a Middle East/Asia map.
</li><li> By contrast, more young Americans (34%) could determine that the island used for the last season of the television show Survivor is in the South Pacific.
</li><li>While the majority of young Americans (58%) knew that the Taliban and al Qaeda are based in Afghanistan, they were the least likely of all young adults surveyed to get this question correct. Moreover, just 17% could find Afghanistan on a world map.
<b>58% of young americans know that the Taliban and al Qaeda were in Afghanistan. Fifty. Eight. Percent. How stupid do you have to be? Apparently, just as much as 42% of young americans.</b>
</li><li>A majority of young Americans grossly overstated the U.S. population. In fact, close to onethird(30%) said that the U.S. has 1 to 2 billion people, or roughly one-third of the world's population. Only one-fourth of American young adults (25%) correctly identified the U.S.population as falling within the range of 150 to 350 million. Respondents in all othercountries were better able to identify the U.S. population than are young Americans.
</li><li>On average, young adults in other countries in the study were better able to locate other European countries than American young adults are to locate U.S. states.
<b>*coughs up a hairball* I learned the states when I was in 3rd grade. Come on.</b>
</li><li>Most nations had a clear sense of the size of their country s population in relation to therest of the world. In all countries except the U.S. and Mexico, a majority of respondents— in some cases a large majority — could identify their country s population. Further,young adults outside the U.S. knew the size of the U.S. population better than did young Americans.
</li></ul><!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
That's just a portion of the article.
Sigh, I know you euros are going to love this. I'm looking forward to moving to Japan after college.
p.s. This is also great proof that the Internet is an awesome educational tool. I know I've learned at least half of the topics I'm most familiar with are from the internet:
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Internet use also appears to be linked to strong performance in the U.S. (average of 28 correct answers vs. 17 for non-Web-using respondents). The same is true in nearly all countries studied.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
Nah common. People here are also stupid. Belive me. My old schoolmates were dumb as bread. They just asked the wrong people... or maybe americans are even dumber than my german fellows. Which is highly unlikely.
<3
I'm living in Colorado right now for college, and though it does seem less pronounced then the statistics say, I do feel like a lot of people just have a lack of general culture...
So you plan to infect Japan with American dumb genes?! What a brilliantly EVIL PLAN! MUAHAHAHA!
So you plan to infect Japan with American dumb genes?! What a brilliantly EVIL PLAN! MUAHAHAHA! <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
I was born there >_>. I'd like to cite the fact that I have 100% asian blood in my defense your honor.
gogogogo viet power.
YES!
"Why don't we just nuke 'em!"
Ahh yes, don't you just love that type of kid? Met a bunch back at my old high school. I would start up a converstation about some political event with the people I had deemed capable of holding intelligible conversation, and at least one of these would always rear its hideous head.
"Why don't we just nuke 'em!"
Ahh yes, don't you just love that type of kid? Met a bunch back at my old high school. I would start up a converstation about some political event with the people I had deemed capable of holding intelligible conversation, and at least one of these would always rear its hideous head. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
OH. GOD. I have the BEST AP US history class ever. My teacher (who acts all kind and mature, but whom you can tell used to be a REAL party animal.) is a total liberal, and she's systematically shattered our illusions of American heroes.
Jefferson= Equivalent of a rock star to the ladies, quit Washington's cabinet because he wasn't feeling the wub.(From George.)
Hamilton= STRAIGHT. UP. PLAAAAAYYYAAAAAAAA. ALERT! Gets married to a rich chick, does two chicks, gets caught, does ANOTHER chick, gets elected governor, gets shot in a duel with Burr. <-- The 50 cent of the 1700s.
Washington= Picked to command because he was southerner. Nothing else. Lost most of his battles. Only won Valley Forge because he pulled the military equivalent of kicking someone in the nuts.
Half our class is communist, while the other half is so conservative you might call them reactionary. They start yelling at each other, they throw stuff, they once resorted to blows....
It's like CROSSFIRE except without stuffy old men and with more fighting.
STUPID AMERICAN!!!
"Why don't we just nuke 'em!"
Ahh yes, don't you just love that type of kid? Met a bunch back at my old high school. I would start up a converstation about some political event with the people I had deemed capable of holding intelligible conversation, and at least one of these would always rear its hideous head. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
OH. GOD. I have the BEST AP US history class ever. My teacher (who acts all kind and mature, but whom you can tell used to be a REAL party animal.) is a total liberal, and she's systematically shattered our illusions of American heroes.
Jefferson= Equivalent of a rock star to the ladies, quit Washington's cabinet because he wasn't feeling the wub.(From George.)
Hamilton= STRAIGHT. UP. PLAAAAAYYYAAAAAAAA. ALERT! Gets married to a rich chick, does two chicks, gets caught, does ANOTHER chick, gets elected governor, gets shot in a duel with Burr. <-- The 50 cent of the 1700s.
Washington= Picked to command because he was southerner. Nothing else. Lost most of his battles. Only won Valley Forge because he pulled the military equivalent of kicking someone in the nuts.
Half our class is communist, while the other half is so conservative you might call them reactionary. They start yelling at each other, they throw stuff, they once resorted to blows....
It's like CROSSFIRE except without stuffy old men and with more fighting. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
That sounds like the best class EVER. I wish I had that class in my high school days.
Except it was like mostly commies and then me and this other kid were the conservatives <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->
It was so fun, people would come up to me before class and request that I start a pollitical debate with the teacher because they didn't want to work that day!
Good times. Needless to say, I failed that class and am curently re-taking it through online classes because she didn't like my pollitical oppinions.
Its actually really sad. Sad, that is, because I have to deal with these idiots on a daily basis.
"total" meaing entirely. We can all agree that someone with that stand on things is going to see the world in a different light. So...
[quote]Jefferson= Equivalent of a rock star to the ladies, quit Washington's cabinet because he wasn't feeling the wub.(From George.)[/quote]
Are you saying he was homosexual? I really can't tell from this... or maybe he just really hated them. Not sure what you mean. If he DID quit cabinet because he wasn't getting any reciprocated sexual advances from Washington, then who cares? He still wrote some influential documents.
[/quote]Hamilton= STRAIGHT. UP. PLAAAAAYYYAAAAAAAA. ALERT! Gets married to a rich chick, does two chicks, gets caught, does ANOTHER chick, gets elected governor, gets shot in a duel with Burr. <-- The 50 cent of the 1700s.[/quote]
Yes, applying modern thoughts and ideas to political figures from 300 years ago is a real good way to teach. I'm pretty sure duels were a bit more common in the 1700s then they are today.
[quote]Washington= Picked to command because he was southerner. Nothing else. Lost most of his battles. <b>Only won Valley Forge because he pulled the military equivalent of kicking someone in the nuts.</b>[/quote]
The entire Revolutionary war was fought using dirty tactics. There were very few battles won by the Americans that didnt' involve tactics that were less than civil. You're saying he should have been more honorable and let himself get beaten by the British?
[quote]Half our class is communist, while the other half is so conservative you might call them reactionary. They start yelling at each other, they throw stuff, they once resorted to blows.... [/quote]
Uhh... yeah... I don't think this requries comment.
That sounds like the worst class ever. By your descriptions, i'm pretty sure the teacher didn't just say "Yes, and then Hamilton was found sleeping with these two women..." she probably used emphasis, modern examples, etc. into, for the most part, forcing her view of history upon people. That just sucks.
Where exactly do you live? That's kinda creepy...
heh and yeah i learned like half that stuff from the internet/gaming, yes gaming. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/smile-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
"Why don't we just nuke 'em!"
Ahh yes, don't you just love that type of kid? Met a bunch back at my old high school. I would start up a converstation about some political event with the people I had deemed capable of holding intelligible conversation, and at least one of these would always rear its hideous head. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
OH. GOD. I have the BEST AP US history class ever. My teacher (who acts all kind and mature, but whom you can tell used to be a REAL party animal.) is a total liberal, and she's systematically shattered our illusions of American heroes.
Jefferson= Equivalent of a rock star to the ladies, quit Washington's cabinet because he wasn't feeling the wub.(From George.)
Hamilton= STRAIGHT. UP. PLAAAAAYYYAAAAAAAA. ALERT! Gets married to a rich chick, does two chicks, gets caught, does ANOTHER chick, gets elected governor, gets shot in a duel with Burr. <-- The 50 cent of the 1700s.
Washington= Picked to command because he was southerner. Nothing else. Lost most of his battles. Only won Valley Forge because he pulled the military equivalent of kicking someone in the nuts.
Half our class is communist, while the other half is so conservative you might call them reactionary. They start yelling at each other, they throw stuff, they once resorted to blows....
It's like CROSSFIRE except without stuffy old men and with more fighting. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
That sounds like the best class EVER. I wish I had that class in my high school days. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Best. Class. Evar.
Wish we had one of those at MY old highschool.
And to all you people who are arguing that the teacher is putting her views into the students and that applying oddball modern concepts to 300 year old history is silly, well; perhaps she is and maybe it is silly. However, that doesn't change the fact that due to this, the students of that class not only had a lot of fun, but are also more likely to remember all the material they learned in that class. Whenever my teachers used methods like that, I always ended up remembering the information to the bitter end.