High school kids can't answer basic questions

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kids can't answer basic questions
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2fHQ9eULzk


[SPOILERS]
This is an amusing video in a high school wryly enough about high school kids being questioned about their off the cuff knowledge of basic geography, politics and history. Among some of the less informed responses were, that Bill Clinton is the vice president, Bin Laden is the Vice President, America gained its independence in the Korean War, and that Seattle is the capital of Washington state; with the students being from Washington state, of course.

Last edited by Widget on 25 Oct 2015, 8:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I loved when one kid answered "The Civil War". It is so obviously incorrect because it implies that America was already a country.

"Canada. That's a state, never mind."

I feel as though this might be contrived. I cannot simply believe this stupidity!

To be fair, I don't give a s**t about these subjects either.

Some of them are simple questions. Such as,

"Name a country that starts with 'U'."

They live in the United States of America. They should know that. It's not a matter of recalling something, this is a matter of intelligence.

Some of the responses didn't qualify as understandable ignorance or even stupidity.. more like inane.

Like the girl saying '...America?' in response to the question of 'what are the countries that border America? reminds me of this

Esurance Sorta Marge Commercial 2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CvBJAuPW2U
.

Social Studies was my worst school subject and yet I know more about it than these kids. Wake up, Americans, you're raising a nation of dunderheads.

Being in the presence of audio video equipment lowers people's IQs. They can probably muster up enough brain power to pass True / False or Multiple Choice tests, but in this case a lot of their mental resources are squandered on concern about how they look and sound on camera.

Well this high school student knew the correct answers to all the questions, so it's not entirely hopeless. Then again I am not a product of the public school system.

Last edited by EzraS on 26 Oct 2015, 3:50 am, edited 1 time in total.

I feel like this is staged, or something to that extent. Like they took the worst performing school in the area, and asked the worst class in that school. A example would be like Kassem G. He goes to Venice Beach, and obviously picks people who aren't the sharpest tools out there. That's my opinion though, and it might be wrong.

Jay Leno did something similar in one of his re-occurring sketches where they found such people on the street.

It seems less implausible if you watch 'Ridiculousness' on the regular with Rob Dyrdek, there's over 125 30 minute episodes of video after video after video of the type of people you could imagine saying stuff like this. From my personal experience at school and in daily life, I've heard acquaintances say things like, "Does the Earth revolve around the Sun" " Did WW2 happen in Europe" "Do polar bears have gills" "If the Earth is round then why don't we fall off" that thought the government has teleported pigs, that elevators at train stations can move horizontally over train tracks like a Wonkavator , etc

I love these 'Watter's World' style videos, but sometimes they give me history/geography/political heartbreak.....

Indeed he did, I believe it was called Jay-walking.

The fact that high school kids can't answer basic questions and can't use their brains doesn't surprise me at all. What do you expect from a system that doesn't educate them to think, but rather indoctrinates them in what to think.

Good point!

I never thought I'd consider private school for my kid, but there doesn't seem to be another option. He's already too smart and schools already seem to offer too little.

What do they teach kids in school these days since they don't know those things? I'm seriously asking. Does anyone have a teenager or young adult, or is one, who can tell us?