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IMHO and experience, I endured much "education" to make me exceptionally stupid, thanks to the World's Greatest Propaganda Ministry. "They" have expended years, fortunes and resources to dumb down the American public.
Thus the "average" educated American is as uninformed as the "average" uneducated American, if both pay attention to the mainstream media.
The inverse relationship between test scores and per pupil spending gives credence to that.
To illustrate:
99% of Americans believe they have a democracy (or constitutionally limited indirect democracy) or a "constitutional republic."
Apparently few have bothered to read Art. 4, Sec. 4, U.S. Constitution, where the people are promised a "republican form of government" (not to be confused with a "republic")... or comprehend the actually meaning of that clause.
I'm not American but Americans are often singled out for their ignorance - especially geography, history, current events.etc. At least from people I know, mostly online, I haven't found Americans any more or less ignorant than most nationalities. Honestly, there are plenty of ignorant people here in Australia.
Do you think there's any truth to the idea or is it anti-American propaganda?
No they are about average for a developed nation. There is only so much people can learn
If I met an American who couldn't point out countries like France, Germany, Japan, the U.K. or Spain on a map, or didn't know what the boot of Italy was, then I would consider that person to be uneducated or mentally handicapped. That is simply general knowledge.
Now, if someone didn't know where Slovenia was, then that's understandable.
I do too. But the American school system has so many schools of different qualities and priorities.
Parents matter too. Look at some of these American kids making scientific, medical, and technological inventions for problems that adult scientists with doctoral degrees haven't been able to resolve.
But when you look at these kid's parents it only confirms the thesis in the book Talent is Overrated.
Information thrown at a child or adult does not suffice. At least not when that child or adult is still in their formative years of learning a subject. Practice, of course, makes perfect.
I have memorized every country on the African continent for a Africology course I had. But without practice I've forgotten about 99% of them. Recent anthropology courses on human development has reintroduced me to a few of them but just a few. Africa has something like 50 countries on that continent (arguably, one of the reasons for so many conflicts--it could use fewer countries and fewer currencies).
I basically know where China, India, Tibet, Russia, Spain, Italy, and Britain are roughly. Austrilia is easy for me to identify. So are Mexico, Canada, and Brazil in the Americas. I roundly no where Indonesia is and thereabout the Philippines. Thereabouts. I can cirlce out a large area but I might point out the wrong islands.
I doubt most American kids could point out Brazil or Canada on a map. Seriously. That does not mean a minority of them couldn't. Just that I doubt most could. Partly, because Canada and Brazil do not make much conversation within the typical U.S. conversation. Mexico more so due to so many Mexicans coming into the USA.
I have memorized every country on the African continent for a Africology course I had. But without practice I've forgotten about 99% of them. Recent anthropology courses on human development has reintroduced me to a few of them but just a few. Africa has something like 50 countries on that continent (arguably, one of the reasons for so many conflicts--it could use fewer countries and fewer currencies).
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No, no no no no no! Fewer counties would likely make the problem worse for Africa. The problem Africa has is that the borders of the current countries were drawn by the colonial powers, irrespective of the natural ethnic boundaries. So when those countries got their independence, people who haven't gotten along since the beginning of time were now sharing a country built on the model of the 19th century nation state. Issues were almost unavoidable.
Tell me why?
Maybe it was just my school, my school was the 3rd best private school in cincinnati ohio. We were required to know where many countries were at a young age. Unlike some schools my school had a specific class for geography!
If I met an American who couldn't point out countries like France, Germany, Japan, the U.K. or Spain on a map, or didn't know what the boot of Italy was, then I would consider that person to be uneducated or mentally handicapped. That is simply general knowledge.
Now, if someone didn't know where Slovenia was, then that's understandable.
I dont believe that, every american i have met can point out many countries.
As though there wasn't selective editing done to exclude people who know what they're talking about. Even the one guy who everyone laughs at for referring to the Leaning Tower of Pisa as the Leaning Tower of Pizza seems as though he knows that the guy is messing with him ("the original one was in Australia." "Really." "But isn't Italy's something like five hundred years old or something like that?" "Yeah, yeah. But ours is older. It was built by the aboriginies." "I did not know that.") seems like he knows the guy is full of it and they're trying to make fun of him, he just doesn't want to be confrontational on camera.
I'm sure that if you planted yourself in a third-tier city in the UK, France, Germany, etc., set up a camera, and started asking people who were out for a walk to get groceries random geographical and political trivia about the rest of the world, you'd come up with enough off-the-wall asinine statements to make a youtube clip, as well - how many auto factory workers in Perm are going to know that Thailand and Cambodia are right next to eachother and have a long-standing border dispute that results in occasional skirmishes? How many bogans in Australia know that Bashar Al Assad is the dictator of Syria and is engaged in a war against his own people? How many Tunisians hanging out in a cafe are aware of the ongoing Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands dispute between Japan and China?
Tell me why?
Maybe it was just my school, my school was the 3rd best private school in cincinnati ohio. We were required to know where many countries were at a young age. Unlike some schools my school had a specific class for geography!
Good for your school. But from what I can see online that majority of young americans don't have a single clue where anywhere is. Its as simple as that really. But to be quite honest with you I think British people are just as bad. The education system is rubbish.
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