24 ms·

As a college student, I can't help but feel that he's exaggerating the issue. I refuse to believe that most of my classmates couldn't answer 90% of those questi

by streblo 19y ago

As a college student, I can't help but feel that he's exaggerating the issue. I refuse to believe that most of my classmates couldn't answer 90% of those questions. The only question I couldn't answer myself was who is the current SoD, and I was at least informed enough to ask myself who took Rumsfeld's place when he resigned. It makes me wonder whether the problem is with my generation as a whole or with his particular sample of it.

tx 19y ago
I haven't attended school in US and I sincerely want to believe that you are right. Although I can't help but notice that international affairs are never the topic of a conversation among my American friends: they're just not that interested, although they definitely know where Kabul is.
dill_day 19y ago
I'm also a college student and I think I agree with what you're saying for the most part... but at least for the high school I went to this article wouldn't be an exaggeration. In high school, one of my classmates couldn't tell the teacher if President Bush was a Republican or Democrat. It's sort of shocking to see how little some people know or care about anything outside their immediate world. But I wonder how bad this really is? My reaction to the article is that maybe it's not as "sad" as the author of this article wants me to believe... I know personally the world of politics and government isn't too appealing to me. I don't care about reading the huge newspapers and I can't stand the evening news shows. I'm not ignorant - I can answer almost everything he asks in the article - but most of what I do know is just a side effect and not a result of some extra effort I put in to keep up on current events. Maybe I'm just naive student, but this article doesn't convince me that I'm necessarily missing out on a whole lot.
Zev 19y ago
Maybe its not that he's exaggerating the issue completely, but college students (myself included) are used to being connected to a source of information somehow; a quick google search - phone call to someone at the worst - and we can get any bit of information we could want (slight exaggeration here but the point remains). As a result, we don't place as much importance on rote memorization of daily events and occurrences. While I can personally answer the questions, I do see the viewpoint from the people around me who look at the questions he was asking - "Who else is a democracy?" "Who's the SoD?" etc - and go "Thats on Google/Wiki, why bother memorizing it when I can look it up just as quickly?" And honestly? It's comforting in a way to know that I'm not going to have to remember random bits of information if it doesn't interest me. Is it depressing? In a way. But its the modern world for millions of people and it's not about to change anytime soon. Instead of giving an irate tirade on the issue, maybe it would be better for them to talk to the students and try to look at things from our point of view (grew up with technology and basically always connected) instead of the one they have/want us to have (technology is an aid to help us, not a crutch to rely on)
- deleted 19y ago
  [deleted]
- jimbokun 19y ago
  "It's comforting in a way to know that I'm not going to have to remember random bits of information if it doesn't interest me." The very specific example in the article was the fact that not one single student knew that their government was abducting random people around the world and disappearing them into holes in which anything could be done to them, and there was no legal process for anyone to challenge the practice in any way. Does that qualify as a random bit of information?
  - Zev 19y ago
    Don't take "random" to mean "unnecessary" Any bit of information that I'm not specifically interested in finding is random as far as I'm concerned. That doesn't mean its not important in some way.
martythemaniak 19y ago
It's not your generation or his sample, its a problem that affects everybody, he's just writing about it because he happens to be a professor. How else do you explain that 30% of americans can't remember the year of the 9/11 attacks? http://www.pensitoreview.com/page/2/?p=2665 http://www.pensitoreview.com/page/2/?p=2665 The problem is people just don't care. Whether you're talking about the environment, tech research, civics, history, it doesn't matter, they just don't care.
- hugh 19y ago
  "How else do you explain that 30% of americans can't remember the year of the 9/11 attacks?" I dunno, but I'd say at least 15% of Americans are smartasses who deliberately give wrong answers when asked stupid questions by pollsters.
albertcardona 19y ago
Then please, just perform the experiment: ask your classmates the 'trivia' questions on world history events and geography. It's easy. Just be sure to include people you don't frequently talk to -we humans have a tendency to choose as friends those who know and think like ourselves.
run4yourlives 19y ago
Come on now, I'm over 10 years removed from college and most of my colleagues can't answer those questions. In fact, I bet up to 50% of the people on this board couldn't name the capital of America's largest trading partner. It's not so much the random facts that are the issue. If you're not interested in the Middle East because you think the conflict is self-perpetuating, you might not bother to remember that Jordan sits between Israel and Iraq. The problem is that many people just don't know how to think. That's the meat of the matter, and it's certainly not being exaggerated by the author. Take a look at my question: The people on this board in large part will think that the obvious answer would be Beijing. They're also smart enough to deduce that I probably wouldn't have suggested that 50% wouldn't know it if the answer was that simple. So they'll examine what they know about the US's trading relations, and probably remember NAFTA. If they also know that Canada is in the G8, they'll conclude that the answer would be Ottawa. Those in the south might lead towards Mexico, but at least they're thinking. That's what's lacking with many people today, primarily because it isn't taught by parents and more importantly, at any level of our education system.
- a-priori 19y ago
  They may also be Canadian :) That's how I knew the answer.

by streblo 19y ago

tx 19y ago

I haven't attended school in US and I sincerely want to believe that you are right. Although I can't help but notice that international affairs are never the topic of a conversation among my American friends: they're just not that interested, although they definitely know where Kabul is.

dill_day 19y ago

I'm also a college student and I think I agree with what you're saying for the most part... but at least for the high school I went to this article wouldn't be an exaggeration. In high school, one of my classmates couldn't tell the teacher if President Bush was a Republican or Democrat. It's sort of shocking to see how little some people know or care about anything outside their immediate world. But I wonder how bad this really is? My reaction to the article is that maybe it's not as "sad" as the author of this article wants me to believe... I know personally the world of politics and government isn't too appealing to me. I don't care about reading the huge newspapers and I can't stand the evening news shows. I'm not ignorant - I can answer almost everything he asks in the article - but most of what I do know is just a side effect and not a result of some extra effort I put in to keep up on current events. Maybe I'm just naive student, but this article doesn't convince me that I'm necessarily missing out on a whole lot.

Zev 19y ago

Maybe its not that he's exaggerating the issue completely, but college students (myself included) are used to being connected to a source of information somehow; a quick google search - phone call to someone at the worst - and we can get any bit of information we could want (slight exaggeration here but the point remains). As a result, we don't place as much importance on rote memorization of daily events and occurrences. While I can personally answer the questions, I do see the viewpoint from the people around me who look at the questions he was asking - "Who else is a democracy?" "Who's the SoD?" etc - and go "Thats on Google/Wiki, why bother memorizing it when I can look it up just as quickly?" And honestly? It's comforting in a way to know that I'm not going to have to remember random bits of information if it doesn't interest me. Is it depressing? In a way. But its the modern world for millions of people and it's not about to change anytime soon. Instead of giving an irate tirade on the issue, maybe it would be better for them to talk to the students and try to look at things from our point of view (grew up with technology and basically always connected) instead of the one they have/want us to have (technology is an aid to help us, not a crutch to rely on)

deleted 19y ago
[deleted]
jimbokun 19y ago
"It's comforting in a way to know that I'm not going to have to remember random bits of information if it doesn't interest me." The very specific example in the article was the fact that not one single student knew that their government was abducting random people around the world and disappearing them into holes in which anything could be done to them, and there was no legal process for anyone to challenge the practice in any way. Does that qualify as a random bit of information?
- Zev 19y ago
  Don't take "random" to mean "unnecessary" Any bit of information that I'm not specifically interested in finding is random as far as I'm concerned. That doesn't mean its not important in some way.

martythemaniak 19y ago

It's not your generation or his sample, its a problem that affects everybody, he's just writing about it because he happens to be a professor. How else do you explain that 30% of americans can't remember the year of the 9/11 attacks? http://www.pensitoreview.com/page/2/?p=2665 http://www.pensitoreview.com/page/2/?p=2665 The problem is people just don't care. Whether you're talking about the environment, tech research, civics, history, it doesn't matter, they just don't care.

hugh 19y ago
"How else do you explain that 30% of americans can't remember the year of the 9/11 attacks?" I dunno, but I'd say at least 15% of Americans are smartasses who deliberately give wrong answers when asked stupid questions by pollsters.

albertcardona 19y ago

Then please, just perform the experiment: ask your classmates the 'trivia' questions on world history events and geography. It's easy. Just be sure to include people you don't frequently talk to -we humans have a tendency to choose as friends those who know and think like ourselves.

run4yourlives 19y ago

Come on now, I'm over 10 years removed from college and most of my colleagues can't answer those questions. In fact, I bet up to 50% of the people on this board couldn't name the capital of America's largest trading partner. It's not so much the random facts that are the issue. If you're not interested in the Middle East because you think the conflict is self-perpetuating, you might not bother to remember that Jordan sits between Israel and Iraq. The problem is that many people just don't know how to think. That's the meat of the matter, and it's certainly not being exaggerated by the author. Take a look at my question: The people on this board in large part will think that the obvious answer would be Beijing. They're also smart enough to deduce that I probably wouldn't have suggested that 50% wouldn't know it if the answer was that simple. So they'll examine what they know about the US's trading relations, and probably remember NAFTA. If they also know that Canada is in the G8, they'll conclude that the answer would be Ottawa. Those in the south might lead towards Mexico, but at least they're thinking. That's what's lacking with many people today, primarily because it isn't taught by parents and more importantly, at any level of our education system.

a-priori 19y ago
They may also be Canadian :) That's how I knew the answer.