College Stupid...

[my_name_is_jenn]

In class today, my professor created a powerpoint presentation with several slides. On each slide was a picture of somone famous. She then asked us to identify the people. We went through the slides twice, the first time writing down who we thought the people were, and the second time the professor telling us the answers. I've decided that my class

Comments

[opalcat]

Plenty of people don't pay attention to politics and wouldn't be able to put names to faces in that area, but I'm letting this through because she obviously THINKS she knows about politics, since she knows that Obama is "the guy I'm voting for in the election! He's the guy who's going to make this country better." Oy. Had she just said "I don't know" it wouldn't have been all that stupid.

[my_name_is_jenn]

That's why I submitted it. If she had just shook her head and said that she didn't know who they were, I wouldn't have considered submitting.

That plus the guy she thought she was voting for was actually the Vice President.

[opalcat]

I assumed as much. I posted my comment mainly to stave off the "but that's being ignorant, not stupid! Not everybody watches the news!" type of replies which inevitably rain down on posts like this.

[occamshairbrush]

I see you're reasoning, and I agree it's not necessarily important to know politicians' faces. It's not even absolutely critical to know that Dick Cheney is white and Barack Obama is mixed race. But for citizens of a republic, not paying attention to politics is itself stupid.

[la_jolie_vie]

Ooh, she sounds like a poli sci major

[my_name_is_jenn]

Communications actually. She claims that she just can't be bothered with anything having to do with politics because, "Politics are boring, and if something's boring, it's not important."

[la_jolie_vie]

but barack cheney is going to change the country!!

[seaofdestiny]

Yeah! He's going to bring our glorious nation of Canadia forwards into the twentieth century!

[piecqueen]

One night I caught Jay Leno, and he was going around with pictures of a number of political figures, and was asking people to identify them.

One picture was of Condoleezza Rice, one person said they thought it was Hillary.

One picture showed Kerry, identified him as "that one lockbox guy".

A picture of Obama, a guy correctly identified him. Leno then asked, "Do you know his first name." Response: "Obama's not his first name? Hmmm. Well, I bet Oprah would know it."

With the picture of Huckabee, Leno would say the first name, and try to give them a clue as to the last name, usually saying "Huckaaa-insect. Huckaaa-bzzzzz". Some responses? Huck-bzzbzz, Huckacockroach, Huckagrasshopper.

*sigh*

[chibikaijuu]

Admittedly I probably could not tell the Old White Men Republican candidates apart. (Well, possibly I would recognize McCain.) Because seriously, after a while, all politicians start to look alike.

[piecqueen]

Admittedly, I wouldn't be able to identify them all either... But I'd definitely know the difference between Condoleezza and Hillary, I know Kerry, and if you were to give me the clue "Hucka...", I'd know the rest of Mike Huckabee's name.

As for all the Republican candidates, yeah, I'd have issues putting all their names to a face, I admit.

[my_name_is_jenn]

I'm the same way. I don't know if I'd be able to tell who was Huckabee or Romney or any of the other Republican candidates. I do, however, know the difference between Barack Obama and Dick Cheney.

[aleadfeather]

..I don't think that's that bad.

It's easy to tune things like that out.

[crystalsage]

My Children know who Dick Cheney and Barack Obama are. They're aged 6, 10 and 13 respectively.

Tuning out and being completely ignorant are two different things.

[aleadfeather]

Well what a great job you did teaching them.

[crystalsage]

Oddly enough, I haven't taught them much in the way of politics. But we do occassionally discuss what's going on in the world, and they are taught some things in school.

It just boggles my mind that someone in this day an age, an ADULT, unless they have no tv at all and don't read papers magazines or anything (living under a rock, I guess you'd call it) wouldn't be able to tell the difference between Barack Obama and Dick Cheney. That's just sad.

[lamaupin]

:whimper:

[my_name_is_jenn]

*offers shoulder*

*wimpers, too*