Miss Teen USA Issue is Crazy

[erpowers]

I am posting about this issue here because I was not able to post about the issue in the video section. Although I had seen that there was a video concerning one of the contestents from the Miss Teen USA Pagent, I was not interested in it until this morning. Earlier this morning the Today Show interviewed the girl from South Carolina. It was at that time that I actually learned what had happened at the pagent. I do not think the girl from the Miss Teen USA Pagent herself is crazy, but what this situation shows is crazy.

How in the world do one-fifth of Americans not know how to locate the United States of America on a map? Do people not ever look at maps these days? I really think that some of these people had to just be joking. Some of these people must have just decided to be silly a pretend they could not find America on a map. I do not see how that many Americans could not find America on a map; it is their country. I understand not being able to find foreign countries on a map, but not being able to find your own country on a map is just crazy.

In terms of the girl, I am not trying to be mean to her or prop myself up, but there should not be any excuses on how/why she could not answer that question. She is 18 years old; I could have answered that question when I was about 15 years old. I know I could have come up with a good answer for that question before I graduated from high school.

So, since I have talked about how I could have answered that question, here is my answer. "It is extremely sad and horrible that it is possible that one-fifth of Americans cannot find America, their own country, on a map. First, it should be made mandatory that all students, at least by the time they have entered high school, will have taken or will take a Geography class. Second, since it seems that learning to speak in public helps young people it should be mandatory...there should be an effort to put speech and debate teams in all high schools across America. Finally, just for good measure it might be a good idea to get kids or find a way to get kids politically engaged in that it seems that people, even kids/young people who are politically engaged tend to be more curious about the world and want to learn more about the world. Therefore, more people may be interested in looking at a map and finding out where places are located."

[goddess40]

1. I agree - she's not Bush she's a kid

Bush talks like an idiot all the time and should be taken to task for it but this girl is little more than a kid and was obviously nervous.

[TechBear_Seattle]

4. "She's not Bush"

Nor is she Gonzales, nor is she Senator Widestance (love that name!) That is EXACTLY why this non-story is being put up 24/7.

[THUNDER HANDS]

2. a lot of people don't know basic information

which, to me, is good. The more stupid people there are in the world, the smarter I look.

And I'm not that smart.

:)

[WolverineDG]

3. I think that's the real issue too

However, as pertains Miss Teen South Carolina, there are many adults much older than she who regularly give less coherent statements than the one she did & don't get made fun of in a public forum. At least she can speak English, unlike our president.

dg

[MADem]

5. No, the question wasn't bigoted. She answered the question

about why American kids can't find their own country on a map with her very stupid and convoluted answer--see, education in the US sucks. She's a product of it. She gave us one heckuva demo.

Beautiful girl, dumb as a fucking post.

[RaleighNCDUer]

6. Not necessarily dumb.

It's just that she has focused her life since she was probably 10 on only one thing - being lovely. It was a question that she has probably never addressed, and was very likely unaware of how bad the state of education for US Americans really is, because she has been given a pass since she was 10 for being lovely.

This may be the first time in her life that she's discovered that being lovely is not enough. Let it be a learning experience for her.

[MADem]

7. What I saw on that tape was pure dumbness in all its glory. YMMV, but she looked like a doorknob to

me.

I gotta say, if you spend all your time from age ten on worrying about your looks while the rest of your classmates pursue academic, social, and cultural interests, and you don't notice that there's something amiss in your life experience, well, you're pretty damned dumb in my book!

[Rydz777]

8. A smart move! Now she is a celebrity and getting exposure all

over TV and the internet - getting a lot more attention that the winner of the contest. Reporters will be lining up for interviews. There'll probably be a book contract coming up, "How I Learned to Find my Country on a Map and Changed my Life." Then there will be a movie, "Map Me, Baby!" - it will go immediately to video, but by then she will have married a millionaire.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

9. It's just a dumb story about a dumb person to laugh at.

It's a humor interest story.

[sandnsea]

10. Wasn't the question 'why'

You didn't answer the question.

I actually don't believe it. People learn that in 3rd grade. It would have been just as appropriate if she'd said it was a ridiculous question designed to place sensationalism over substance and is indicative of why we can't get to real issues in this country.