Can't find the United States on a map? What a surprise. Not.Last April I worried about the geographical ignorance of high school students today. [See Friday, April 20, 2007: Could They Find Baffin Bay? ] I still do. For example, today my sophomores couldn't tell me what country lies east of Israel. I clarified that Jordan is Moslem, just in case.
This week Miss Teen USA South Carolina's flustered utterances saturate news, talk, and internet. To what end? So that all can gloat over the proto-typical "dumb blonde"? So that the rest of us can feel that our 18-year-old selves wouldn't have suffered a meltdown in those circumstances?
Although South Carolina's schools have many shortcomings, let the girl's high school share the blame with whoever coached this young woman prior to the contest. Clearly she was told that, whatever the question, she should try to sound familiar with world events. Thus her peculiar references to South Africa and Iraq.
Lost in the shuffle is the original statistic. Tell me, how can voters decide what should be done in Iraq and Iran when they don't even know where the United States is? What do we do, hope they don't vote?
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