October 7, 2006, Kids today
Revisiting what was once a regular TD Saturday feature, we'll drop by our comrades at Pravda (not Neo-Pravda a/k/a the Grey Lady... but Paleo-Pravda, the one based in Moskva ba-Russya), for this discussion of the results of the recent National Geographic Society quiz given to American youth.
(In other Russia-related news at Pravda, an award winning journalist, Anna Politkovskaya, who was critical of the war with Chechnya, was murdered in an elevator in Moscow; while American journalists fear not getting invited to the better cocktail parties, or (heavens) being shut out of access to key Administration propaganda-feeders... journalists in places like Russia, i.e., journalists, actually take real chances to try to uncover and report the truth. But I digress...)
Anyway, while the numbers in the Pravda discussion of American knowledge don't add up (hey, what does?), they do indicate that the majority of Americans (18-24) surveyed couldn't find New York, Mississippi or Louisiana correctly on a map, thought Sudan was in Asia (it is in Africa), thought that the majority of India's population is Moslem (it is Hindu) and thought that the most widely spoken language in the world is English (it is Mandarin Chinese).
Assuming the survey is even remotely accurate, it would seem that ignorance of basic facts about the world (and our own country) is endemic among American youth. Hence, Foley scandal or not, it sure looks like the Republican Party will have a bright long-term future after all.
Comments
Reminiscent of an earlier query into the minds of our young. In that survey the most frequent answer to when the Civil War ended was 1965. I only hope they were dyslexic and the answer was part of the multiple choice format. Either that or Civil War soldiers listened to the Beatles.
My only regret with your post is the last line of the piece could also be multiple choice as to what one reads into the basis for the conclusion.
Posted by Stanford Matthews at October 8, 2006 6:06 PM
Ah...ignorance is bliss, is it not? Long live the GOP...UGH.
Posted by alicia at October 8, 2006 9:18 PM
My partner teaches freshmen at a somewhat selective private college. She has had students who wrote about what Aristotle "saw at the movies."
Posted by janinsanfran at October 12, 2006 1:48 AM