"The kids in my history class are unbelievably stupid!"

[crim son]

my daughter's best friend just said to me. "What do you mean?" said I. "We were discussing smallpox and somebody raised their hand and asked if there was also a 'large'pox!"

Damn. That is stupid.

On edit: qnr said there may actually have been a largepox. Guess what? He's right! I googled it and found that largepox describes the large facial lesions associated with syphillis!

[Taverner]

1. Are we talking Kindergarten or High School?

[crim son]

2. Tenth grade.

Alarming, no?

[Taverner]

3. Fuck me gently with a chainsaw!

Yes, alarming indeed.

But not as dumb as one of my cousins classmates thinking that Vietnam was part of China.

[crim son]

4. Yeah, well... geography!

Nobody gives a shit about that! :P

[Taverner]

5. Tho I gotta admit

I always fail the "which is on the left, which is on the right?" question when it comes to Iran/Iraq, no matter how many times I try to memorize it...

[RubyDuby in GA]

23. I-raq, I-ran all the way to Afghanistan, Pakistan, then India!

It helps when you sing it in a silly tune. :)

[qnr]

25. It varies :) depends upon how far around the globe you go! n/t

[hedgehog]

32. I'm lobbying to re-name them Babylon and Persia.

[ThomCat]

30. LOL! I've never heard anyone but me use that expression.

:rofl:

It's awesome to see someone else use it. :applause:

[Taverner]

35. Gotta Love Heathers!

[ThomCat]

36. Is that where it came from originally?

Wow. I saw that movie once when it first came out. It's amazing that I picked up a line from there.

[Aristus]

46. Weeellllll...before the French came along and created "French Indochina",

the region was divided into three areas, (from North to South), Tonkin, Annam, and Cochin China. Plus the people we think of as "Vietnamese" are, by and large, ethnically Chinese. The native peoples of Vietnam are indigenous mountain tribes known collectively as Montagnards. Ethnically speaking, they differ significantly from the "Vietnamese" we think of.

Although I don't think these facts are the source of your cousin's classmate's confusion, it is understandable.

[NewWaveChick1981]

6. OMG, that deserves a Dumbass Award...

:yoiks: :rofl:

[crim son]

7. Dupe; delete..

[crim son]

8. No kidding.

Subjects like Math, English, Writing and Science have "accelerated" classes which aren't populated with fools. History though, it's one size fits all. :eyes:

[Tyrone Slothrop]

9. I once met two 19 year old girls at college

(And this was a decent college, mind you...not Harvard or anything, but a well-respected state school) who had no idea who had won the Civil War.

They knew "it was the side that was against slavery", but they didn't know whether that was the North or the South.

Seeing as we no longer live in a meritocracy, it shouldn't come as a surprise that our citizens just keep getting dumber and dumber. After all, what's the point? Intelligence and aptitude don't get you anywhere in a society based on nepotism and cronyism.

[crim son]

10. You've got that right.

In fact, if you have half a brain you run the risk of being labelled an intellectual. That just might get you 'disappeared' these days.

[Reverend_Smitty]

11. I think I got you beat...

College anthropology...somehow we were talking about the Civil War when a girl raised her hand and seriously asked this question "isn't that when we first used the atomic bomb?" When the rest of the class was finished laughing at her she sheepishly replied that "history isn't her subject"...Gee ya think? I'm not one to laugh in someone's face, but sometimes it's just necessary, and if you could see the look on the professor's face, it was priceless.

[crim son]

14. They do say that some kids graduate from HS

and are yet unable to read. Apparently.

[qnr]

12. Hmmm, it does seem a little stupid. However, it's not like smallpox is

something that is commonly discussed these days, after the supposed 'eradication.' I can see that being asked by someone that was generally curious, if uniformed. If I remember, it was named by the size of the pocks, which could imply that there was one named for larger pocks.

[crim son]

13. So, it was your daughter who asked the question?

Sorry, couldn't resist. I don't know, my friend. My daughter is intelligent but not a history buff by any means, and she knew the question was foolish. But now you have me curious. I'm going to google largepox, because I am the curious type.

[qnr]

15. heheh nah, no kids, but I can see myself asking that, just out of

curiousity -- in case I had just never heard of it.

[crim son]

17. Oh my. There IS a largepox!

Apparently it's the large lesions on the face from syphillis! I'm going to have to amend my OP if it's not too late. I bow to your superior wisdom, qnr!

[qnr]

21. Heck, I didn't know, I was just extrapolating :) - and I commend your

daughter on being aware enough to notice, I don't think a lot of people would have even cared.

[crim son]

26. Yeah, but

I'm still impressed :)

[Guy Fawkes]

16. I had classmates blame Iran-contra on Carter!

They tried to argue it with me. I pulled out the book and read to them...

[crim son]

22. Was this recently?

Because it really doesn't surprise me!

[Guy Fawkes]

27. two years ago...

of course, they were see-no-evil republicans.

[crim son]

28. Of course. n/t

[KG]

18. well, is there also a 'large pox'?

enquiring minds want to know... :eyes:

[crim son]

20. Yes! Check out the OP! n/t

[Rosie1223]

19. And you're from one of the 'smart' states

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=105&topic_id=5745188&mesg_id=5745188

[crim son]

24. #5 and proud of it!

But, there is in fact a largepox. So who's the stupid one now? Wait! Don't answer that.

[qnr]

29. hmmm, I sure do seem to be getting involved in a lot of syphilis threads

today....

[alcibiades_mystery]

31. In tenth grade, my friend answered on a test that Tito (Yugoslavian leader

was a member of the Jackson Five.

The teacher then read the answer out loud, noting, "Leon, the Tito we are referring to was not a member of the Jackson Five." Bellylaughs all around. But here's the catch. Leon was joking. He just wanted a laugh, and he got one. He just didn't mind taking the grade reduction to get it.

[crim son]

39. As long as Leon knows when to stop joking

then there's nothing wrong with that!

[alcibiades_mystery]

41. Not really...he got kicked out the next year

:shrug:

[crim son]

42. That's the problem with people who don't care.

They fail. Sad.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

33. Sounds like a good question to me.

I remember way back when I was a kid with chickenpox wondering if there were other kinds of animalpox.

(psst... there are)

[crim son]

37. Yeah, like cowpox!

Which was the basis of the cure for, what was it? Smallpox.

[Rabrrrrrr]

34. It's a perfectly legitimate question, and shows that the asker

has some understanding - indeed, if there is a "small" something, there very well might be a "Large" something.

It would far more ignorant to make the assumption that there ISN'T a largepox.

And, as you found out, the question was even more legitimate since the answer is YES.

:eyes:

[crim son]

38. Indeed!

And I'm not ashamed to acknowledge either my surprise or my ignorance. My greying hair, now, that's another story.

[huskerlaw]

40. Some of my students are unbelievably stupid too

It's SO frustrating.

For example, did you know that decisions from the United States Supreme Court aren't binding on the California Supreme Court because one court is federal and the other is state?

Yeah...that comes to you courtesy of more than one (significantly more than one) law student.

We're all doomed.

[gmoney]

43. Sounds like a fair question to me...

Discussing something called "small pox" begs the question of what the difference is between it and regular pox or large pox. The OP had to look it up, and I'm sure very few people know about "large pox."

While I'm sure plenty of the kids in her history class ARE unbelievably stupid, I feel this is NOT sufficient evidence upon which to base that claim.

[nemo137]

44. That's nothing.

Beginning of last year, freshman year of college, I was sitting in a guest lecture with Ted Rall, on Central Asian politics, in the Foellinger Auditorium (non-illini, that's the giant auditorium where they hold the god-awful 750 person lecture classes), and he's givin' his lecture, slides and laser pointer and everything, and this girl leans over and says to me..."which one's Russia?"

Now, mind, there's a giant map of Asia on the screen, and Russia is not a small country, and in this case colored bright yellow. And yet, this girl, dead serious, was flummoxed. By the largest country in the world. The country Ted Rall had been talking about for the past 15 minutes. "Which one's Russia?"

Not, friends, how I wanted to start off my college career.

[BreweryYardRat]

47. Damn.

I've seen high-schoolers who think Germany's an island...but not knowing where Russia is?

[qnr]

48. You know, I used to be pretty proud of my geographic knowledge. Now I

don't know, perhaps I was just hanging around geographically-challenged idiots or something.

[bridgit]

45. that's HILARIOUS, that kid needs a gig in vegas...

:rofl: :thumbsup:

[LostInAnomie]

49. I had a student ask if Georgia was the capital of Alabama.

I didn't even know how to respond.