Over the last decade or so, Jay Leno would leave the confines of the Tonight Show studio and take a camera crew to interview random people on the streets of Burbank California. While this was amusing in many sad ways, I always wondered what California teachers thought of these ‘authentic’ tests of basic cultural knowledge…
The thing which always floored me was the implied notion that having knowledge of nothing beyond one’s nose was not embarrassing these random participants. This was the real core of what I expected local teachers and administrators to cringe at…
Sometimes I wonder about how little cultural information you need to be able to get by in this world; how few skills, and how much ignorance can you have…and still have some semblance of a life… Is it that there are many people out there who have been so poorly served by the education industry that they came to the conclusion that all of it was wack? Or is it that people are dumber (in the aggregate) than we give them credit for? I don’t honestly know…
No Wonder Voters Are So Pessimistic
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2011/02/028322.php
Understanding Stupidity
http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Stupidity-James-F-Welles/dp/0961772905/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1297795514&sr=1-3
