Posted on 01/27/2015 6:52:59 AM PST by ilovesarah2012
Which is why we're in the shape we're in. Without the altitude and weed, they would still be morons.
I know of one elementary math teacher who used “@” instead of “X” in multiplication equations.
You have a point, but I must tell you that I experienced this kind of ignorance firsthand. Back in 2003, my husband and I went out to grab a quick bite. It was the kind of place where you give your order, a cashier rings you up, and then the food is brought out to your table. Our order came to $17.76. We casually remarked something like “well, that was a great year” or maybe we said, “important”. The cashier making small talk, smiled and said, “oh, what happened then?” as if it was something that happened to us in our family, like a birth or a wedding anniversary or something. So we looked at her and asked what our total was again, thinking we had misheard and maybe it was $19.76 or something like that. So she repeated that we had heard right, it was $17.76.
We looked at each other and then back at her, and asked her, “you don’t know what happened in 1776?” She said no, was there a big sporting event? We said no, and told it was an important time for our country. We asked if she were still in school and she proudly replied that she had graduated from the local public high school the year before.
At this point, the cashier next to her, a young man suggested that maybe it had to do with some war or something like that. He wasn’t any more knowledgeable than she was. So there were a few other workers there, and they started asking each other...”do you know what happened in 1776?”. No one, four people at this point, knew what happened. We even gave them clues like “national holiday”, “document”, etc. We were BLOWN AWAY! Not one knew.
Our cashier giggled and sheepishly admitted that she really didn’t pay attention to history in school. I asked how she managed to pass the state tests, and she said she only studied up for them just previous to them, and then forgot everything because it wasn’t really important to know. We didn’t tell any of them what the event was, but suggested that they look it up when they got home. In shock, we went to find a table at that point. It wasn’t until the runner came to deliver the food that we found someone who knew the answer. Four of five that we had asked had no clue about what significant event happened in the US in 1776!
When we got back home, I was still so disturbed that I asked each of our children, separately and in different rooms, did they know what happened in 1776? I started with the oldest, then a junior in HS. He knew. Then I asked our daughter, a freshman in HS, and she also knew. Then I asked our youngest in 6th grade, whom I was homeschooling that year. He said, “Of course, Mom! That’s when we signed the Declaration of Independence!” I breathed a sigh of relief, but that encounter has stayed with me.
And then they'll discuss the life of Malcolm the 10th.
Another reason to not support teachers unions. It is also the parents responsibility to teach their children, something we lost somewhere in all this mess.
I always try to make small talk with the clerk when a historical date shows up as the money due, i.e. $10.66, $18.12, $19.41.
One day $17.76 came up and I said, "Ah, a famous date in history." The 20-something man said, "Whut was that?" Stunned, I replied "Our country's birthdate." His answer? "Kewl".
I had the same thought as others here - and this guy votes? Yeah, you could argue 1783 was the real birthdate, but with this crowd, the nuance would have escaped them.
I don't know if Mark Dice cherry-picked the answers, but here's one that had me shaking my head.
I agree. This is television. A show. It is manipulated to entertain. It should not be taken seriously.
That was my first thought when I saw the question. And I know the joke about Kemo Sabe too.
Q. Much of what is seen on “Watters’ World” illustrates just how uninformed Americans are when it comes to current events. Do you edit the segments to appear that way, or are Americans really that oblivious?
A. We focus our attention on younger Americans. From my experience about half of young Americans are oblivious. Clueless people live among us. They’re everywhere. They’re in the mall, on the street, at restaurants…try asking a random person in public a simple civics question. You’d be surprised what people don’t know. I’m still surprised how unplugged people are and I’ve been doing this a while. It’s getting worse.
This summer I asked a guy: “Who’s the Vice President?” He came back with, “Dick Cheney?” That was THIS summer.
People in Watters’ World are not “dumb,” they have just tuned out the world…but they’re all good people. We usually laugh afterwards. We don’t need to misrepresent people. These people actually exist.
I couldn’t make it past 3:40 into it. I’m disgusted.
The answer I was looking for was “ourselves”, “each other”, North vs South or some variant of that.
OK, I understand that approach. The use of “we” just struck me a certain way, I guess.
Don’t forget sex!
I think she go some of them right but who cares.
Even though they were going for Germany and Italy for the answer to the question “what countries did we fight in WWII”, France was also correct.
Almost forgot Japan but I was thinking Europe for my point.
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