Mobile
Friday, February 15, 2008
News I may be ignorant, but I'm not stupid
Posted By John Grooms on Fri, Feb 15, 2008 at 1:42 PM
Not too long ago, reader Darin Zimmerman ripped me a new one for saying that Kellie Pickler was stupid for revealing, on Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?, that she
This week, writer Susan Jacoby released a new book that explores why Americans are routinely rated as more ignorant than citizens of other advanced countries. The book is The Age of American Unreason, and Jacoby says she decided to write it on Sept. 11, 2001.
A New York resident, she was walking home to her apartment on the East Side mere hours after the WTC attacks. Feeling overwhelmed, she stopped at a bar for a Bloody Mary. Two men in suits were nearby, talking. One of the men said, "This is just like Pearl Harbor."
"What is Pearl Harbor?" the other man asked.
The first man "explained," "That was when the Vietnamese dropped bombs in a harbor, and it started the Vietnam War."
What horrifies Jacoby isn't just Americans' too-common ignorance of the world, it's that many of us don't seem to think it's important to have what used to be considered a normal level of knowledge.
The culprit, according to Jacoby, is a decrepit educational system. It's a major problem, she says, but one that can be repaired. After all, just because you're ignorant, it doesn't mean you're too stupid to learn. Jacoby's book is available from Pantheon Books.
Speaking of...
Latest in The CLog
More by John Grooms
-
5 Reasons To Buy Home Insurance Policy
-
Live review: Moogfest, Asheville 1
Five memorable performances from the weekend.
-
Dumb criminal news
Trust us, lady, you'll have more room for your stolen foot cream if you leave your crack pipes at home.
