Comments on: No Dearie, Ignorance Really Isn’t Bliss…

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 03:25:00 +0000

In defense of some Americans, it all depends on where you are educated in the country as to just how much you know about the rest of the world. I grew up in Iowa, which most people outside of bordering states always assume is Idaho. I used to think how fucking retarded are these people.

Then I moved to Ohio and got involved in a local school. Those students, high schoolers, didn't learn anything even close to what I did. I was absolutely flummoxed by the ignorance. The last straw for me was when a political science teacher informed her class that there was no such thing as Jews, in relation to heritage. I quit the school, and told my husband we were moving back to Iowa.

My children received excellent educations in Iowa. They learned world history and geography, as well as the state's history beginning in elementary school and continuing through high school.

In all truth, most athletes still get cut a great deal of slack when it comes to the pass or fail and its relationship to eligibility. So IMO they shouldn't be relied upon to show the general aptitude of the country.

Shirley

By: bonnie

bonnie — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 00:26:00 +0000

It is so sad that so many Americans barely know the geography of their own state much less the whole of the US and very much less the whole world. I remember when I was soph in high school, our world history teacher assigned us a uber-easy assignment: label a world map with major landmarks. At least my best friend and I thought it was uber-easy. The rest of the class had to resort to asking us where crazy things like the Amazon River, Australia, England and the Nile River were. I was flabbergasted! That was when I realized that many of the students around me weren’t interested in anything beyond their own limited scope of experience.

By: byrdloves2read

byrdloves2read — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 16:44:00 +0000

Those comments about New Mexico are so spot on! Twenty-five years ago when I moved from Virginia to New Mexico my fellow workers wanted to know if I had to get shots and a passport. Sigh. And I was working at an insurance company at the time. The Ugly American just keeps going and going like the Energizer Bunny. Big Sigh!

Oh yeah, and athletes in the USA are a privileged species. No doubt about it.

By: Eve Vaughn

Eve Vaughn — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 14:43:00 +0000

This isn’t surprising at all. This idiot is clearly a product of what happens when you excel at sports in the US. From very early on teachers are told to look the other way if the star athlete cheats or can’t read beyond a first grade level which is the case with a lot of pro athletes over here (not all but a significant amount). Education is not emphasized when you can toss, catch, hit or dunk a ball. When I attended college, damn if any of the atheletes ever showed up to class and somehow they still managed to get passing grades. Just sad.

By: Sam

Sam — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 14:35:00 +0000

I lived in the US Virgin Islands. People came into the shop I worked in and asked me what language we spoke.
Others asked us what money we used.
Still others wanted to know if the island floated.
There's something about tourism, maybe, that makes people say dumb things.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 18:50:00 +0000

A guy from New Mexico applied for a scholarship from Harvard. He was advised to apply within his own nation of Mexico. So an American, gainfully employed at Harvard, didn’t realize that New Mexico is part of the US. Yeah, we largely retarded when it comes to geography.

–Jackie L.

By: Shannon Stacey

Shannon Stacey — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 16:38:00 +0000

Could you imagine if he had kids with that Miss America contestant-slash-geography whiz?

Wow.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 15:22:00 +0000

He was being interviewed on a male oriented morning show and he was joking.

By: Karen Scott

Karen Scott — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 06:20:00 +0000

Hey, Blogger finally put in follow-up comments via e-mail, about time too!! Oh crap, you have to have a GMail a/c! Oh well, at least it’s a start.

By: Karen Scott

Karen Scott — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 06:11:00 +0000

I once had a fellow American tell me she wouldn't be comfortable visiting Sante Fe because she didn't speak Spanish.

OK, now that is HILARIOUS!!!

Florida is nice and all that but I think it sucks your brain dry or something.

Teddy, there's at least one person in Blogland who that applies to.