Why don't American kids learn basic stuff?

[Clinton Huxley]

Fear not, CES, our stupid people are just as stupid as your stupid people, if perhaps slightly less well-armed. From a recent Private Eye:-

Gameshow host: Name any state in the USA that has a coastline?
Contestant 1 (a teacher): Mexico
Contestant 2 (also a teacher): Orlando.

Gameshow host: The road known as Watling Street, which now incorporates part of the A5, was built by which ancient civilization?
Contestant: Apes.

[tattuchu]

Not just kids, though kids seem shockingly ignorant these days. There's a middle aged woman at the bank I go to who works as a teller. Nice woman, don't get me wrong. Very personable. But she can't count! Takes her ten minutes counting out money every time I cash my check. She counts it out multiple times, using a calculator. And then she counts it out again
I paid a bill last week. I gave her two fifty dollar bills, and five twenties. Two hunert bucks. Simple, right? Not for her. I was in line for so long that I was late getting back to work from lunch

Complain to the manager. If she can't manage that level of basic numeracy she shouldn't be working in a bank

Many banks have policies requiring tellers to count in a specific manner, and to do it twice to make sure they always get it right. If a teller miscounts and their drawer is off, it's a big strike against them. So, they count, and recount, in a set pattern, so they do the same thing every time and always make an accurate count. Even when there are only a couple of bills - they don't deviate their practice so they can honestly report that they "always" follow a specific procedure.

Yup, that's what I figured, that it was S.O.P. But for some reason the other tellers could do it very quickly, while the ginger woman took ages. I always dreaded getting her, and would secretly offer up a prayer to the bank gods while standing in line, asking to time it just right in order for me to get one of the other quicker more competent tellers. If I got the ginger woman, I knew I was going to be late coming back from lunch, particularly if I needed to make another transaction besides just cashing my check.

[tattuchu]

Fear not, CES, our stupid people are just as stupid as your stupid people, if perhaps slightly less well-armed. From a recent Private Eye:-

Gameshow host: Name any state in the USA that has a coastline?
Contestant 1 (a teacher): Mexico
Contestant 2 (also a teacher): Orlando.

Gameshow host: The road known as Watling Street, which now incorporates part of the A5, was built by which ancient civilization?
Contestant: Apes.

[FBM]

Fear not, CES, our stupid people are just as stupid as your stupid people, if perhaps slightly less well-armed. From a recent Private Eye:-

Gameshow host: Name any state in the USA that has a coastline?
Contestant 1 (a teacher): Mexico
Contestant 2 (also a teacher): Orlando.

Gameshow host: The road known as Watling Street, which now incorporates part of the A5, was built by which ancient civilization?
Contestant: Apes.

Everybody knows it was the gorillas.

[Clinton Huxley]

Fear not, CES, our stupid people are just as stupid as your stupid people, if perhaps slightly less well-armed. From a recent Private Eye:-

Gameshow host: Name any state in the USA that has a coastline?
Contestant 1 (a teacher): Mexico
Contestant 2 (also a teacher): Orlando.

Gameshow host: The road known as Watling Street, which now incorporates part of the A5, was built by which ancient civilization?
Contestant: Apes.

Everybody knows it was the gorillas.

The contractors only paid peanuts.

[FBM]

I hope they got assalted for that.

[Coito ergo sum]

Fear not, CES, our stupid people are just as stupid as your stupid people, if perhaps slightly less well-armed. From a recent Private Eye:-

Gameshow host: Name any state in the USA that has a coastline?
Contestant 1 (a teacher): Mexico
Contestant 2 (also a teacher): Orlando.

Gameshow host: The road known as Watling Street, which now incorporates part of the A5, was built by which ancient civilization?
Contestant: Apes.

Well, we have a show in the US called "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?" It's dedicated to demonstrating that people are stupid, and it succeeds marvelously. This woman thought Europe was a country, and that Budapest might be the capital of France. And, she did not know that Hungary was a country. Never heard of it. How can you go through your life never having heard anything about Hungary at all..... she's hot, though.

[Coito ergo sum]

How is this even possible? I mean....how? It was too hard to "do the math?" WTF??? Is't this just basic "counting?" [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmz39XOE ... re=related[/youtube]

[Clinton Huxley]

Ah, CES dear chap, people freeze when on TV and make asses of themselves.

[Coito ergo sum]

Ah, CES dear chap, people freeze when on TV and make asses of themselves.

That wasn't freezing....that was a whole hot mess 'o steaming stupid.



[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esbS_vT2 ... re=related[/youtube]

[Clinton Huxley]

There are many types of stupid:-

[FBM]

stupid-people-posters-stupid-people-shouldnt-breed.jpg (36.03 KiB) Viewed 1558 times

[Coito ergo sum]

There are many types of stupid:-

Yep...
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bujvnUO ... re=related[/youtube]

[Svartalf]

There are many types of stupid

But America seems to make a point of displaying them all

[Coito ergo sum]