http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2fHQ9eULzk&feature=g-logo&context=G2053bc1FOAAAAAAAKAA

My apologies if this honestly doesn't deserve to go on main, but something needs to be said about the dropping level of importance on school and education in the United States. There's really something wrong with the country when high schoolers can't answer questions this simple. Questions that I could answer off the top of my head since I was 6. This video needs to be shared to shed some light on just how fucked we are in the future if this keeps up.

>>1 Thantos, here is your reference.

I dont want to live on this planet anymore.

You knew who was running for the 2012 Presidential Elections when you where 6?

God damn those kids are fucking stupid, I'm tempted to hunt each one down and punch them in the dick or uterus.

>>4
lol...

Yes.

"Canada? That's a state, nevermind."

Some other answers were pretty retarded, but this one made me want to shoot myself in the foot.

And the flag question. Dear lord, the flag question.

We should become the 51st state.
If anybody gets the reference.

"Name all the countries that border the United States."

"Canada...? Wait, that's a state, nevermind."

What is this, I don't even...

>>7 Either Puerto Rico or Jefferson, I take it.

...They didn't know the American Revolution...

>>10

They didn't know there are 50 states. I don't know where the hell they where pulling the other possible states out of.

>>11 Apparently, Canada.

I really want to punch those kids. They're most likely OLDER than me, and didn't know the answers!

Please tell me we are being trolled. We are being trolled right? Please.....PLEASE!!!!!! TELL ME WE ARE BEING TROLLED!!!!!!!!!

>>14
To my knowledge, we're not.
Upsetting, isn't it?

>>15 Considerably fucking so!!!!!

>>14 Well we are, partially. Everyone here realizes what this guy did right? He cut out most of the people/parts about people getting the answers correct. I mean I live in the sticks but there are kids in each of our schools from gradeschool up that could answer all of his questions no sweat. Since he was trying to show how stupid they were, why would he show the same kind of kids in that school?


Still pretty bad though, when you think about the huge gap between the two.

>>17 True.
Nobody should get things this basic wrong though.
It's really unacceptable.

>>18

This

all hail the 51-52 states of America, surrounded by the country of south america and various other countries too numerous to count. but worry not, as the civil war has taught us that we can stand up against the uropeans, with the help of our ruler osama bin laden.

That's what i took away from school, i dont see how any of these people were wrong.

(we need to invent a face for sarcasm. seriously, why is there no sarcastic emoticon?)

Oh my,

Our Country sure is in a bad sort isn't it? I wasn't aware stupidity of such levels was, in fact, possible.

Uh...what's going on...and isn't canada a country?

I think they use their tech too much

stupid kids

Its that cell phone. Why the Cell Phone?!

Haha, Kumo. I watched the video with my family, and we were all horrified.

Are these kids pretending to be stupid, Or are they just really that stupid? If that's the case, I'm going to live in a safe house to protect myself for the upcoming future.

>>27 Unfortunately, I KNOW people this dumb. In college. A major university in fact. Its insane.

Its called: Conditional Learning.

As we grow up (and begin to pursue our dreams), we tend to forget the 'small' things that makes this country, this country. I can't really blame the students for forgetting the states/countries/etc., for they're sooo focused on learning what they want to become later in life.

So yeah, don't blame the kids for being dumb. Blame the System of Education for not reviewing the students about the country itself.

Wow.. this is lame. I know the answers to most of these questions but the truth is no one teaches this in school. I learned them on my own. And to be honest, most people don't really even care about politics, American history, geography, or any of the important things like the FREAKING REVOLUTIONARY WAR! These kids are taught "how to get by" in school. Kids just "get by" nowadays. Mostly because it's so easy to. You can pass a class and not have to learn a single thing, and you can fail a class and still move on to the next grade. It's beyond tragic. The educational system of this country is in desperate need of a serious reform. Not another "no child left behind" act.

I do have to point out though, that as dumb as these kids are, I know someone who, until I TOLD her last year, didn't know what Ground Zero was. And yes she is American. And no, I don't know whether she is stupid, oblivious, or both.

This....This just hurt my pride as an American... I don't want to live on this planet anymore.

>>28 I know that feel. I walk the halls of a highschool with people that are actually dumber. People that think there is a February 30th.

Sooo...is it normal for me to not know the answers to a few of those questions if I'm not American? I really hope I'm not as dumb as I think I am...

>>34 A few, yes. I don't expect you to know who our Speaker of the House is. But you'd best know that there are only 50 states.

>>35 Yeah I know about the number of states. Thank God I still have some trace of intelligence left in me...

>>32 Don't you think that's taking it too far? O_o
If you allow me to I'd like to throw in an alternative.. Find a way for students to become more educated. Be a dollar and help make this a public outcry. Get people to understand that kids in school should be taught and retaught in school.

In school we shouldn't JUST strive to learn as much as we can but to remember just as much. But you also have to remember that people have free will, no one can make them do anything they don't want. We can either make public schools have a much more strict grading policy or they can find it in themselves to learn what matters to them most. (Which is in this case...nothing.)

Well that was just one school, so hopefully most aren't like this..... hopefully

well some teen don't exactly pay attention to political news or any news unless it benefit them in some way. like who is the vice president question is going to make an average teen scratch their head for a few minute

>>35 Indeed, Most of these questions are so obvious, that I wanted to shout at these kids for not only getting the answers wrong, but the amount of time it took them to answer.

>>40 You don't need to watch the news to know how many states there are and to know that Canada is a country. I thought those things were a given, but apparently I was wrong.

We are the 37th smartest country.
We used to be first I think.

>>43 After WWI it started going down hill i think

*screams, facepalms, roars in anger, swears, (continues in frustratinf acts*
The korean war!!! Are you fucking kidding GAAAH!!! Wtf
I have to admit i didnt think of united states, i thought of ukraine first. But seriously....WTF!!!

>>6 it is totally 51 states....if u include canada....but i almost stopped watching halfway through.

oh Gosh!!! United States!!! (my brother said Europe lol)

>>32 I have disowned my country. I dont consider myself american even though im a citizen.
>>33 i actually enjoy the company of ppl that are as smart or smarter than me (as long as they don't have a giant ego)
>>39 that is what still gives me hope.

wtf is wrong with these people i knew all the answers and im possibly younger that them

>>48 You havent disowned Wisconsin, right?!

I could understand how you could forget a few things, but really?! Even if you don't care about your own country or about history or whatever, how could you possibly forget that stuff? I don't know about anyone else, but the whole time I was in school they practically beat us over the head with American history. I've taken like five years worth of classes on nothing but American history!!
It's all common knowledge! So how... is this possible...?

These people are so Fucking Stupid! This is why everyone thinks Americans are stupid because of these people right here what the fuck? I am so mad right now, i feel like going up to one of these guys and slapping some knowledge in to them

e.e;; I'm leaving the planet.. I'm gonna go create life somewhere else.

>>52 I agree with you and
>>53 invite me to your planet ;D

>>54 :'D If you can answer those questions without fail, then you're allowed to come with. o3o

immigrants need to pass a test in order to become American citizens and these HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS don't even know how many states are in the United states

laughed so hard because i can answer these easily :3
but its kind of disterbing O_o

hahahahahahahahahahahaha

Its always been like this -_-

... I'm going to go to my corner and cry now...

Wow....

Actually, I think I would be like one of those kids... I only know half of the questions that guy was asking them... :l

>>63

Get him and hang him by his trousers till he bleeds.

>>64 ..?

I can see the problem, but I agree that the youth of today can not ask basic question. like who's running for president or what is the capital of Washington.

Who the hell are these teens and why are they still in school..Actually..why are they even that uneducated? -might as well barge over to those guys and teach them a lesson, honor's student style-

Well, you do have to cut them some slack, think about being in front of a camera and some guy asking you random questions out of the blue, you would get nervous and your mind goes blank for a moment,... that being said, HOLY SHIT! THAT MADE MY BRAINED ESPLODE! LOL

>>68 Indeed, commented on that video concerning whether they were nervous or not, but really "Oh wait Canada is a state" just pissed me off. Slack has been cut from me.

Damn, wanted to put a pic of a head desk, but can't find the "choose file"!

>>70 Mother of god. You're right.

"canada no thats a state" if they think canada is a state i loose all hope for them.

Oooooooh god it's so late tonight. Okai.

>>72 Yes, you may have lost all hope for them but..Moar studying, less entertainment = success to me, depends on your views.

.... 51 stars on the flag? oh jeebus-christy. This is just sad.

English dollar here and I could answer more questions than them, but that vice-president one was just cringy "Who is the vice-president?" then some dumbass answered "Bin Laden".........

The last one was smart.

>>76 He wasn't smart, just not fucktarded unlike some of the other students.

Well he looks smarter than the rest at least on that question,
scratch my previous one, "CIVIL WAR WAS THE WAR THAT SET US FREE"

Well, I am a US student, and personally, I think that, in school they are teaching us things we have (mostly) no use for later on in life, while instead they should be more focused in teaching us things that will be beneficial for when we actually have to have a job.

>>79 Knowing things such has how many states are in your country, who's running for president, and who's currently vice president seem pretty relevant to me. Not many people will hire someone as dumb as these kids.

so...much...anger...>.<

>>80 I really hope you don't think that we're all like that. I feel like those are the kids who can't memorize the phrase "Would you like Fries with that?" Seriously, who the hell thinks Canada is a state? Although this does concern me...

>>82 I don't, hell, I'm younger than they are. But I see this stupid bullshit in my school, (then again, I live in Texas.) and realized things are really getting....well....bad.

>>3
Agreed!

Zombies? It's the zombie apocalypse! No!

That's.....sad...

Officially disowned my country. Making my Taiwanese citizenship full.

Disowned my country and I'm now a citizen of Germany.

Now that right there...... is just plain embarrassing. How can you not know how many states there are?

I'm a grade or so below those kids and I was able to get them all right almost right off the bat. Maybe this means I get to be the hero? -smirk- .... ergh. I'm so American :(

"It's somebody...bin laden" I cracked up at that one XD

>>90 I know, right? The only one I didn't get was the vice president.

that was SAD

I... felt like bumping this.
Bump.

BUMP

bump

Oh hey look, it's Jang and Gwang. Bump

But you can't get any were in sosiaty today without education, it's like what my tech teacher says you'll end up lifting the fry pan moving it over and then puting it down and he saw someone fall at that and drop it, he made a joke that then they could only be one job for them.....being a greeter at Wall Mart but I think they will fail at that to.

Do these kids just not have history classes or what?

Many of them are pretty bad. Some are political though. I personally don't get involved in politics. The history and geography though? Ya. I've met kids at the age of 5 that know more.

The government says that you can't hurt your own children... Makes them lose their respects to other people... Lucky to be asian...

>>100 ASIAN POWA! Oh yea!

/wishiwasdead

>>101>>100 it's not child abuse, it's discipline. I should know, I'm also Asian.

Bump

bumping...

Guys, stop saying that the kidsa re stupid. It's not their fault that the schools obviously aren't teaching them what they need to know. There's a difference between being stupid and just not informed.

>>106 Yeah. Most people are just stupid - we are given this information through public schooling. Everyone is. Fucking. Everyone.

I went through a school that I KNOW taught me this shit, and I still don't know most of it.

It's not as much of a "school" problem as people like to think. Students are just as much the problem, if not more so.

.....I don't even know how to respond to that. On one hand, that was by far the funniest thing I've seen all day and I thank you for sharing that video.
On the other hand....how the actual fuck do they not know how many stars are on the flag? And that one chick thought Canada was a state!?
It's official, I'm moving to Japan.

I'm not from the us, but is very shocking that i can answer those questions...
They're not stupid, just not very into learn this things of their own country.

People are judging the whole nation from the minds of one school. This interview was recorded from only a select few of students at a particular school, and I'm pretty sure all the people who actually answered it correctly were cut out of the video. Please don't call Americans idiots/dumb/stupid from just a couple of high school students who didn't pay attention in class. If anything, blame the school.

Educations is not going to get better in america. our economy stubbed and is just not able to get back up as it once was, so they will have to keep their military stronger instead of improving education. america spends about 4 trillion on military operations, plus its in debt to china about 16.5 trillion dollars. They cant be caught with their pants down because they want their people to be smarter they have to make sure that no one can come in and kill all their people because their money is useless. Although what they are doing makes sense, it will catch up to them in the long run. Just word to the wise, you better start learning Mandarin.

>>111 And thats were you are wrong, american education in general has been on the slippery slide for a long time now. People dont understand that a nation that was once number three in education is now number eight. Right above, Cuba and Africa.

p.s. I just made up the Cuba and Africa, but we have went down on the pole of education really bad. Compared to the rest of the world, americans are a bunch of idiots.

bump.

>>113
Still, a lot are pretty smart.

Something related to this that I found rather horrifying...
So I used to be in a military family, meaning we moved quite a bit. This lead to me making numerous friends that I still stay in contact with. Eventually my father retired and took up a job in a district that has me going to a school that is somewhere around 120-150 on the top U.S. schools list.
So one day I was trying to get an out of state friend to help me out in preping for my AP U.S. History test, I figured that since he was in Honors he would know most of the stuff we discuss in AP, maybe just not as detailed.
Turns out he didn't know jack-shit about anything. Made me realize just how lucky I was and how much of a difference going to different schools makes.

Regardless of whether these kids were just the ones who got the questions wrong, some of it was pretty bad, like not knowing how many stars are on the flag or what countries border the U.S. (or even realizing that "United States" starts with a "u"). One that I actually have a lot of sympathy for is not knowing politics. Nobody I knew in high school (or younger) cared about politics. I only started paying attention when the 2008 election rolled around, because then I was old enough to vote. Before then, I had zero interest. During the teenage years, the vast majority of kids are rather self-absorbed and absorbed with their friends, so if it's not something that they care about, they're not gonna care about it.

A bit off topic from that, I laughed so hard when the guy asking all the questions said at the end, "But, they signed a legal document protecting us from any legal action. Also, my mom's a lawyer."

>>117 I'm a teenager and I'm interested in politics...

>>118 Cool. More power to ya, then! I'm sure that there are a lot of teenagers who are interested in politics, but there are also a lot who couldn't care less. And from my own experience, which is of course biased and subjective lol, more don't care than do care. Although, I would be interested to hear if that's the case where you live.

Yea your rite I gradated 2007 I should not have. no chiled left behind left our standards behind. I think more responsabiliy should be placed on our system and our lazy teachers who place to much emphasis on passing and not learning and polatics docent really matter shit is still shit no matter how you rap it dem or republican

>>119 According to my AP Gov. textbook, most teenagers don't give a damn about politics (or the world in general). Which is unfortunate, really.

>>120 NCLB definitely put a lot more emphasis on passing standardized tests. For example, my history teacher spent about half the year making us do practice STAR tests (the other half was spent watching vaguely history-related movies).

Watch the lanuage u know

You guys these are all just simple facts that don't really say how smart you are. You have to admit unless your very nationalistic as a kid you could care less about these sorts of things

im in high school in fl i have never found more stupid peaple in my life i mean im from mishagan and the florida school system sucks there are bullys every where a kid made a bomb threat to our school and no one has made any changes about it they caant send the kids home becuse they lose there funnding and all they do is send them to a room to wachtv all day i got in an fight and got yelled at for it but they get off the hook for drugs i mean a vice princible is rasis against white boys but black get off the hook what could i do i really want to get this looked at by the community but every time a teacher stands up for us they get fired for rasist remarks and no one cares omly when white peaple kid hit black kids is it concerted a hate crime plaese tell me what to do and the ancerse to my? please

>123

Emphasis on "simple" facts. Some of these questions I could answer easily, some I had to think upon. However, I barely have a face after face palming so hard at some of the kid's responses.

>>124
Looks like it's time to get some of your local dollars involved
I'd personally reccomend bringing this issue to light
like make a video of it and send it to your local news station with hard facts
post the video on youtube as well and ask everyone to advertise it w/o tell them who you are
share it on facebook
the school will change because of it's bad image
make sure not to come off as racist though and try to stay anon!

first of all get a better thread name. second of all i agree, in fact did you know on a list of all countries from most intelligent to least intelligent the USA is fourth from the bottom!! (in other words the US it the fourth stupidest country in the world) that's not good. -Anime

I'm just about positive this type of issue depends upon the system. I previously lived in a different state, and if I had stayed at the school I was previously attending, I would be dissecting a shark this year, and studying advanced programming. Instead, I ended up moving north. The new school was full of Union teachers that did nothing but sit at their desk for a paycheck. They even put me down as much as the students for being unpopular. I started at a school that had only one cop, a decent dress code, nearly no racial issues, no security threats, and many college-level classes at a decent pace. After the transfer, I was surrounded by cops patrolling the halls, girls wearing short-shorts, mini-skirts, you name it. I didn't even know schools had real metal detectors before! They wouldn't let us touch the textbooks, and many of the teachers there knew nothing about their own field. I had a web design teacher that didn't know anything but trivia facts, and had know idea what adobe flash was. She showed up to class late, every single day. Sometimes, a study hall teacher would have to take the whole class into another room. All being said, there is more to being "smart" than trivial knowledge. Our knowledge is nothing but data. If we are not wise, it is completely useless. It takes wisdom to truly apply it in our work. Some may be able to tell you DNA stands for deoxyribonucleic acid, but they will have nothing to say about the actual role it plays in our bodies.

I know, nobody might care about my opinion, but I still need to get rid of the following:

OMG! I don't even live in the US and could have answered ALL those questions correctly!!! Seriously, dafuq?

We shouldn't take this video so seriously. It is clear that their intent was to make kids look dumb(hence all clips were of idiots) and most of those kids looked like they were joking around with their answers. This is not a valid source to base this post on! Not to mention the U.S is 14th in the world for academics.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/dec/07/world-education-rankings-maths-science-reading

>>130 Never mind, its the 18th. But regardless it is not 4th from the bottom. Also a reason to account for its rank is that it gives every child a chance to be smart, unlike China or India that only take the smartest children from 5th grade and continue their education.

I still believe that the US should be allowing Chinese students to stay. They could help the country in so many ways, but the government just ships them back off to China. I think it's pretty stupid. Now China's got all the geniuses.

>>132 Pfffft- was that a compliment?

Well, while the students in this video were pretty sad, as long as the majority of students are like this, I think we'll be fine.

...it better not be the majority.

Oh my god. XD My older bro thought Tacoma was the capital of WA. ....That is so sad. -facepalm-

>>17 This is probably the case with the video.He most likely cut out most of the students and just kept the dumber ones in.

^

I know this is an old post, but I'm gonna say something anyway. Sorry if a year later you've changed your mind about something here and you see this, but if someone else hasn't then HEAR ME:

>>24

Are you honestly going to judge these kids based on this video? Clearly, these students don't make up the entire school. Like others have mentioned, it's pretty biased in its message; making these kids look like a bunch of idiots for not knowing some basic things. And can you even call that a message?

>>23

Saying that technology is the reason behind making people "stupid" is about as dumb as saying Canada's a state when the country's right over you. You have to really wonder why there's people in this world that don't know certain things like that. There are many factors that play a part here. You can't go blaming a kid with their smartphone for everything like this 100%.

And as basic knowledge as Canada being a country is, you have to wonder if - to them, at least - is knowing that fact really important? And why someone would think that. And yadda yadda- So many things to think about.

>>38
>>128
>>130
>>131

I'm gonna agree with *most* of what was said here. Thanks.

[Off topic, but-]
>>137 Canada is a state. States are countries. It's stupid that the US calls its provinces 'states'.

>>138 Ahhh, yeah- With that context, though, it was like saying Canada's a part of the US, so that's what I meant since it's not, BUT YEAH.

UTOPIA????????????? EUROPE????? WOW, that was horrifying. I didn't even group up in the U.S and I know more about the country than they do.

my bad *grow

I don't even live in the states and I can answer more questions than that...

well...school is boring

its said and I know. many graduates from high school don't even go to college. its sad but a true fact.

Some questions that they got wrong are understandable. Not everybody know's the capital of Washington or who the vice president is. I didn't know because I don't really care for politics because it doesn't concern me until I turn 18. Some of the easy questions like which war did america win it's independence or which two countries border the states on the other hand should be common knowledge if you have been to school or seen a world map or globe.

Okay, I have a few questions for you:

What is the bottom of a wave called?
What does 'DIMM' stand for?
What type of wave is light?
What does 'x86' mean in terms of CPUs?
How fast does a proton travel?
What is the older, rounded mouse and keyboard connector called?

If there was a pop quiz asking University students these questions, you'd be able to edit together a similar video. 1 year ago, I would think anyone that can't answer these questions would be an idiot.

Now, I'm a little smarter. It's not because they're stupid, it's because they don't care. None of this is complex stuff, it's really simple to learn, but most people just won't ever need to know it unless they are trying to avoid looking like a fool. Who cares if you know what SO-DIMM stands for? When are you going to use that in real life?

So, I think this is an overreaction. I don't expect everyone can answer all of these questions because I know the answer to all of them and have since I was 12. I don't expect everyone to care about science and computers like I do. I certainly won't call anyone an idiot for not knowing this stuff.

That being said, it is a little concerning what these kids actually do care about, but no doubt the world will mold itself around whatever it is.

fact is, when students finished with their exams, they threw away all the knowledge they learned in school

Hello of which you speak?

hello???