by BigTex » Sat 26 Jan 2008, 16:00:28
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('strider3700', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Bas', 'I') see how a 6 year old could make that mistake though, mixing up the cold war with WWII but after some history classes in elementary that should be clear enough I think....
Last night I decided to watch Leno and he did that Jay walking skit where he talks with people on the street. It was all high school students this time. He only asked them geography questions. difficult things like how many oceans are there, name 1 of the great lakes, when in florida what ocean are you at, where is the panama canal...
Every single one of these questions I would have known by grade 5 or 6 except for what do you call people from denmark. I'm not sure if it's danes or danish... But these kids were morons. the reason he decided to do this was a study found that 11% of us highschool students couldn't find the US on a world map...
Never underestimate how poorly the education system is doing in some areas.
Those are the same people who a couple of hundred years ago would have been unable to read or write and would often never leave the area in which they were born. Those same people today can read road signs and they can do basic math in order to decide how much stuff they can buy. They enjoy John Grisham novels and USA Today. Most of them know what city and state they live in, and many of them can name three or more U.S. Presidents.
By what standard are you measuring people? I would say the serfs have come a long way compared to the elite (though some have clearly come further than others); the elitle were highly educated then and are highly educated today.