Asymmetrical Information

That was so far beyond painful...

I've watched thoracic surgery before. It's actually quite fascinating if you can get past the smell.

I couldn't make it through the Miss Teen clip.

Not impressive, but the question wasn't particularly sharp either. Can one reasonably explain what is wrong with the way geography is taught in the US in 45 seconds?

The short answer to the question as posed is that the US is a big country, so Americans are less likely to have spent time overseas or understand how events outside of the US affect them than citizens of smaller countries would be.

Of course, that's just an argument for why American teenagers don't learn that much geography on their own. The next question is whether secondary schools should be putting extra effort into geography relative to the many other things which surveys also show that American teenagers don't know at even a minimally adequate level.

I'm not going to try to answer that because I'm already over the 45 seconds that she took.

If it helps, foreigners seem, when you look at their test scores, to be not much better.

I recall seeing the results of questions asked to British children, and their ignorance was equally laughable. I've heard tell of massive ignorance in the French, too, and I suspect it's pretty much universal.

Thoracic surgery? Which "House" episode was that? I think I missed it.

... and World Peace!

I felt very bad for her. First, it was a stupid question to begin with. And I suspect that the first thing that actually popped into her head was that Americans that can't find the US on a map are stupid, but, of course, she was precluded from saying so, and in her desperation to find a PC answer, just stumbled, and stumbled, and made a fool out of herself.

That answer really was mind numbingly idiotic. On the other hand, beauty pageant contestants tend to want to get into the entertainment industry. The "gaffe" got her on the Today show the next morning, along with just about every cable news show the next night, and made her an internet megastar. Also note that, at least based on my experience living in that part of the world, valspeak is very uncharacteristic of people from SC - unless by SC you mean southern California. I wonder how long she's lived in Carolina, why she moved there, and whether she has any connection to the first person who posted that video on YouTube.

J,

Interesting. Maybe she is a genius. It looks like she will be more famous and wealthy than I will ever be.

You and me both. I don't know that she's a genius, but I wouldn't be surprised to find out she has an agent who's worth every penny.

I don't like all of the snobby gloating about this, it's not right to revel in another's misfortune.

I agree that it was a stupid question. Still, what got to me even more than the politically-correct 'we need to help the children of South Africa and Iraq and such like', was the way she tried to use 'sophisticated' phrases without showing any knowledge even of what those phrases meant. Some coach tried to dress up her vocabulary, and she just memorized...

I'm so glad to see Mindles still posting here! He didn't posted nearly enough before, in my opinion, but perhaps we'll hear more from him now.

Blimey, which post would I have to go to to compete with the sheer number of your commenters? Still, that J... Galt for your signature, and shop, is a strike of genius:-) The not so real John Galt might be impressed. K

Or he might just shrug.

True.

I've heard tell of massive ignorance in the French, too, and I suspect it's pretty much universal.

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