kitchen table math, the sequel: knowledge is good

Saturday, April 28, 2007

knowledge is good




Instructivist left this link.

So....I guess we can all stop worrying that our nation's public schools are devoting too much time to rote memorization.

update

I think the entire episode of Stupid in America may be posted on YouTube.
Posted by at

22 comments:

Exo said...

It would be hillarious if it wasn't so frustrating and true...

April 28, 2007 at 4:30 PM
Tracy W said...

The puzzling thing is that a lot of this is referred to in TV shows, movies, etc.

I just love those people who identified Australia as Iraq though.

April 28, 2007 at 10:23 PM
Catherine Johnson said...

The invasion sequence is a RIOT.

Gosh, this is the single funniest -- and, in its way, most profound -- "essay on America" I've ever seen.

Two things:

1. yes, ordinary Americans are willing to invade just about anywhere on Earth if it seems like a good idea

2. however, they're not keen on invading anywhere in the world because they're not actually living in the world

This is a big country

April 29, 2007 at 6:10 AM
Catherine Johnson said...

A REALLY big country.

For instance, Utah is the size of a some countries

April 29, 2007 at 6:11 AM
Catherine Johnson said...

I say these things with affection

April 29, 2007 at 6:11 AM
Catherine Johnson said...

Tracy --

The TV question is fascinating.

People don't glean much information from TV, oddly enough.

Back when I was working on Shadow Syndromes with John Ratey, he told me about a friend of his who was severely dyslexic.

This was a very smart guy, college-educated, professional etc.

He didn't know anything apart from what he had to know for his job.

Importantly: he didn't know trivia.

This was the time of the John Bobbitt assault, and this guy had no idea who John Bobbitt was.

After John told me that I read some surveys on where people got their news.

It turned out that the biggest consumers of TV news were also the biggest newspaper readers (as I recall).

Not reading is a HUGE handicap.

Somehow, people soak up most of their information via reading.

Hirsch has some wonderful data in his book finding that people with high reading comprehension know more about "real-world" things like: What is a carburator?

(What IS a carburator, come to think of it???)

Anyway, point is: people who read know more about everything, including everyday factoids.

April 29, 2007 at 6:15 AM
Pamela said...

Yeah but this IS a set up also. I mean, if I wanted to point out how smart Americans are, I'd just film enough until I had enough footage of people who not only had basic knowledge but profound insights also.

The average American isn't this uneducated, right? Honestly, I'd expect almost all teens and adults to be able to answer most of those questions easily and quickly.

April 29, 2007 at 6:43 AM
LynnG said...

That's kid of what I suspect. They tape a few hours of people on the street and edit it down to just the few real idiots.

Of course, it still boggles the mind that anyone could think Al Qaeda is run by Yasir Arafat out of Israel.

That's a guy that knows some words but has absolutely no clue as to what they mean.

April 29, 2007 at 9:42 AM
Tracy W said...

For instance, Utah is the size of a some countries

Given that Niue has, from the CIA world Factbook, about 1400 inhabitants and covers 260 sq km, there are suburbs in NZ the size of some countries.

On TV and general knowledge - good point.

April 29, 2007 at 5:50 PM
Catherine Johnson said...

That's a guy that knows some words but has absolutely no clue as to what they mean.

Right, which is me on subjects too numerous to be named. (Remind me NEVER to respond to a CNN reporter on the subject of the Balkans.)

I don't think TV can ever give you the schema you need to make sense of any of those words and factoids.

It would be interesting to know if people whose sole source of info is TV have more fragmented, jumbled knowledge than readers.

I'm sure they do.

April 29, 2007 at 6:48 PM
Catherine Johnson said...

Do people in New Zealand not make these mistakes (Utah is a country-type mistakes, I mean)?

April 29, 2007 at 6:48 PM
Catherine Johnson said...

The big one for Americans is always

Idaho
Ohio
Iowa

April 29, 2007 at 6:49 PM
Catherine Johnson said...

I had a friend with a t-shirt that said something like, "Idaho City, Ohio, Illinois" ---- something like that

April 29, 2007 at 6:49 PM
Anonymous said...

You know these folks know who got booted off the island in season 1 of Survivor....


nicksmama

April 30, 2007 at 5:03 AM
Catherine Johnson said...

I wonder if they do???

I loved the one guy knowing the phrase "collateral damage," but not the meaning.

April 30, 2007 at 5:20 AM
Anonymous said...

This stuff is over done. From Jay Leno's man on the street interviews and Rick Mercers "Talking to Americans", the ignorance of everyday people is regularly on display. What about "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?"

People are ignorant and love to display it routinely. The problem I have with people is there reluctance to just say I don't know. Its like the world of partial credit is everywhere and they expect to get some points for some wild guess. If you don't know just say it. You can't know everything!

Sean

April 30, 2007 at 9:20 AM
Tracy W said...

Do people in New Zealand not make these mistakes (Utah is a country-type mistakes, I mean)?

Probably they do. When I was at uni a survey was done on campus where a majority of the students surveyed got the question "Which direction does the sun come up?" wrong.

April 30, 2007 at 7:58 PM
Catherine Johnson said...

The problem I have with people is there reluctance to just say I don't know. Its like the world of partial credit is everywhere and they expect to get some points for some wild guess.

I love it!

They're all doing guess and check!

May 1, 2007 at 9:07 AM
Catherine Johnson said...

I don't think that tells us anything, though. (Well....not necessarily.)

The "social demand" of the situation probably means that once you've agreed to be interviewed on camera you'll feel compelled to come up with some kind of answer.

May 1, 2007 at 9:08 AM
Anonymous said...

I even more suspicious.

I always feel like the whole clip is an insult to ME, the viewer. Why?

Because they want the viewers to be entertained and feel good about their own intellect by seeing people even more ignorant than they are. And they have to come up with REALLY dumb stuff in order to get lower than the level at which they percieve their viewers to be.

May 1, 2007 at 4:17 PM
Catherine Johnson said...

This is one of the few instances in which I do not take personal offence -- even knowing, as I do, that I, too, would have failed the "country that begins with a U" question.

Actually, I wouldn't have failed.

According to Ed, Uganda is still a country.

May 4, 2007 at 12:49 PM
Catherine Johnson said...

Of course, if asked, I would have said, "Is Uganda still a country?"

May 4, 2007 at 12:49 PM

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