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Does this scare the hell out of you?
Old 11-06-2014, 08:02 AM   #1
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Does this scare the hell out of you?

Video of how little today's college students know about our country. Short video filmed on the campus of Texas Tech, but it could be anywhere...

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Old 11-06-2014, 08:20 AM   #2
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Ouch!
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Old 11-06-2014, 08:31 AM   #3
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The kids at TT who got approached and wanted to be filmed aren't too well versed in US history and current events, are they?
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Old 11-06-2014, 08:32 AM   #4
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I find it shocking, but it is a very small sample. Are there any population surveys?

Here is a survey of young people in Canada:

Elections Canada Online | National Youth Survey Report
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Old 11-06-2014, 08:33 AM   #5
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But I bet they know where pot is legal.
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Old 11-06-2014, 08:38 AM   #6
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This report is about 7 years old, but looks deeper into the question. Young people in Europe know more than those in North America.

http://irpp.org/wp-content/uploads/a.../wp2007-01.pdf

I wonder if social media are making any impact?
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Old 11-06-2014, 08:49 AM   #7
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Today's adults aren't any more knowledgeable, you see similar person-in-the-street videos demonstrating same all the time, Leno used to do them often.

At least today Siri can tell you anything you need to know in an instant. Kids know how to use Siri, many older adults have no clue...which is scarier?
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Old 11-06-2014, 08:55 AM   #8
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I live in a pretty highly rated school district and a former high school principal announced that kids don't need to learn what country Paris is in, they need to learn how to find out what country Paris is in. We wondered why they couldn't learn both....
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Old 11-06-2014, 09:08 AM   #9
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Just remember these brilliant minds will be supervisors, bosses, decider of your next raise, will choose you or not as employees. Even scarier, will be lawmakers.

Eh, never mind stupid is as stupid does.
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Old 11-06-2014, 09:11 AM   #10
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These kids are smart. I would never have known who Brad Pitt's wife was.


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Old 11-06-2014, 09:16 AM   #11
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I knew Angelina Jolie but I couldn't answer the question about Pitt's previous wife.
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Old 11-06-2014, 09:21 AM   #12
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In the 80s there was a book called "Cultural Literacy." It argued that there was an essential core knowledge that everyone should possess in order to understand the world around them. Maybe some educators should buy that book on Amazon.

BTW, I didn't know anything about Jersey Shore till I googled it just now. In fairness, I suppose I should be up on what the big TV shows are in order to be culturally literate...
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Old 11-06-2014, 09:25 AM   #13
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These kids are smart. I would never have known who Brad Pitt's wife was.


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Who is Brad Pitt?
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Old 11-06-2014, 09:30 AM   #14
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What is Jersey Shore?
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Old 11-06-2014, 09:48 AM   #15
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What is Jersey Shore?
It's a town in Pennsylvania.

Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Old 11-06-2014, 09:54 AM   #16
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Wonderful place to be from. Pine Creek is, or used to be, very nice.

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Old 11-06-2014, 11:16 AM   #17
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Originally Posted by Midpack View Post
Today's adults aren't any more knowledgeable, you see similar person-in-the-street videos demonstrating same all the time, Leno used to do them often.

At least today Siri can tell you anything you need to know in an instant. Kids know how to use Siri, many older adults have no clue...which is scarier?
We have a local version of Jay Leno's recurring "Jaywalking" bit called "On the Spot," where News12 (Long Island, New York) reporter Lily Stolzberg goes to local shopping malls or diners and asks a bunch of questions to random people about a topic. Her latest was politics and it was pretty scary some of the wrong answers people gave to simple questions such as "Who is the governor of New York?"
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Old 11-06-2014, 11:26 AM   #18
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These kids are smart. I would never have known who Brad Pitt's wife was.


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I wouldn't know who Brad Pitt is without Google. Must not be very important to what is going on in the world.
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Old 11-06-2014, 11:55 AM   #19
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Here is an interesting version - Jimmy Kimmel's are you in favor of the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare:

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Old 11-06-2014, 11:56 AM   #20
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Video of how little today's college students know about our country.
It's actually pretty typical of the population in general, not just college students.

Here in California, 40% of likely voters did not know the governor was running for another term.

I suppose Entertainment Tonight and US Magazine just aren't doing that great a job of keeping the public informed about their country and political issues.

More media won't solve political ignorance - Chicago Tribune
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Many Americans don't know how the government works, they don't know much about who runs the government, and they're clueless about how government programs work. For instance, a 2006 Zogby poll reported that only 42 percent of respondees could name the three branches of government. In another survey from that year, only 28 percent could name two or more of the five rights in the First Amendment, and a 2002 study indicated that 35 percent believed that the words "From each according to his ability to each according to his need" could be found in the Constitution. CNN found in its 2011 poll that Americans estimated on average that foreign aid consumes 10 percent of the federal budget when it actually takes up less than 1 percent.
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