Throughout my time at university, there was one instance that left me dumbfounded on how little the average college student knows. To provide some background, I was sitting through a geography class. Yet another completely useless classes that had nothing to do with accounting yet I was still required to take in order to get a degree.
Regardless of which major a student chose, he was required to take two lab courses. The options included physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy, geology, and geography. Physics, chemistry, and biology would have been an unnecessary headache. Astronomy was offered at unreasonable hours and geology was all taken so I was left with geography.
Thirty of us were sitting in a lab class and I think we were reviewing the topic of great circles. The instructor handed out maps to everyone in the class and asked us to locate China on the map. However, the maps were not labeled with the country name and this led to some confusion. After a minute, I noticed a girl close to me asking where China was.
And that is when it hit me. I could understand it if our instructor asked us to find a country like Nepal, Mongolia, or Yemen but China is the second largest country in the world (total land area).
If a 18 year old girl doesn't know where China is or what the outline of China looks like, it is really easy to jump to the conclusion that America is slowly turning into idiocracy. However it would be too easy to jump to this conclusion. Maybe we aren't dumb. Maybe this information is just absolutely irrelevant to the average Joe.
This girl, despite not knowing where China is located, mostly likely functions really well in the world today. She got up, got dressed, drove to classes, completed assignments, worked a job, paid bills, and spent time with her boyfriend. Upon graduating, she would probably work some job, buy worthless garbage, produce children, and watch Netflix. She would do all the things the average America does.
Every so often, I'll check zerohedge and hear some sort of article stating that most American's can't remember the stuff taught to fifth graders.
three branches of government
first five presidents
planets of the solar system
what is a pronoun
when did the civil war start
what is the biggest country
what is the most populated country
Yet, all this information really doesn't affect the average Joe's ability to function on a day to day basis.
I once had a woman, who looked down on me because I was a security guard and she had a degree ask me if cows laid eggs.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is not stupidity, is is narcissm. It makes no difference to the narcissist where eggs come from as long as they come. The world only exists so far as it can serve the narcissist. This was a jaw drop moment for me too.