Who says Americans are stupid?

[JWL]

I say there are stupid people in every country!

French "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" - HARD question!!!

Everybody knows the correct answer is The Silver Star.

[ilovemyguitar]

Holy wow. The audience even got it wrong. That's nuts.

Just how bad is the school system in France?

[AlasdairPalemoon]

That's a wow moment. I've wondered why everyone here in the U.S. seems to like making fun of the French, and I think I've been given a reason. Well, at least, what, 42% aren't ignorant dopes?

[JWL]

I wouldn't necessarily take that as an indictment against France, but rather I'd say that it's evidence that you can probably find a bunch of people to say something stupid no matter what country you're in.

[phyco126]

That was pretty funny. I though Europe had adopted teaching that the sun does not revolve around the Earth, that the Earth is not the center of the Universe, and that the Earth is NOT square...

=P


Though, those of you that will just accuse France as being stupid and that your country-men are smart, I will point out that I've seen stupider all over the world. Japan, Russia, Germany, Australia...

Though often I find the biggest idiot pool is the US Justice system...

"Hey, lets throw you in jail for spanking your child, but if your child grows up and breaks a crime, lets make the parent liable for jail, fines, or lawsuits OMG"

[GhaleonOne]

The way I've always heard it, at least in the past 5-10 years, is that while the US may lag behind some countries in the world in primary school, we generally have the best college education. I'm not sure how true that is, but I know I've read that in numerous places.

[JWL]

Though often I find the biggest idiot pool is the US Justice system...

"Hey, lets throw you in jail for spanking your child, but if your child grows up and breaks a crime, lets make the parent liable for jail, fines, or lawsuits OMG"

While we may have a deep disagreement on the topic of the other thread, we can certainly agree on that. Did you hear about this?

13 year old boys face sex abuse charges for spanking female classmates

A 13 year old who spanked girls in the hallway should get detention, not hard time in juvie hall. Good grief.

[Kizyr]

The way I've always heard it, at least in the past 5-10 years, is that while the US may lag behind some countries in the world in primary school, we generally have the best college education. I'm not sure how true that is, but I know I've read that in numerous places.

Yeah, our college education pretty much is the best in the world. That's why people will come from everywhere else in the world to try and get higher education here, if possible.

There are really only a handful of universities elsewhere that are really right up there with the top colleges in the US (UNAM, Mexico City; Todai, Tokyo; Oxford, Cambridge, etc.).

Also, it's sometimes pretty difficult to assess how good primary education is. I'd argue that a lot of aspects of the Japanese education system are seriously lagging, even though by a lot of objective measures it's much better than the US. KF

[phyco126]

While we may have a deep disagreement on the topic of the other thread, we can certainly agree on that. Did you hear about this?

A 13 year old who spanked girls in the hallway should get detention, not hard time in juvie hall. Good grief.

I did; I think it's pretty pathetic. I think sexual harrasment is a very serious thing, but with young teenagers, I mean come on, jail? I think a probationary counsling with a commuted lesser sentence such as apology letters, classes and counsling, community service, etc etc etc.

[Dark_Fairy]

Wow...people really think the sun revolves around the Earth at this day and age? Geez.

[Sonic#]

Perhaps their education system doesn't focus on astronomy. Still, I'm stupefied; to me it's common sense what orbits what. Anyone can say a stupid thing; I just hope I never get a question on certain aspects of pop culture.

As for the article JWL posted, I think they could've been given more than detention without this escalating into the courts. They were touching people inappropriately in a school environment, okay. There's in-school suspsension, out-of-school suspension, mandated meetings with a school counselor or psychologist (if they have one)... these behavors could become worse and more pronounced, and that's reason for concern, but not for such tough measures.