I’m not sure if people are stupid, ignorant, lacking in a proper education or some combination of those, but the following example should illustrate my point. At work today I was talking with a co-worker about education (her son is in second grade and learning history) and the name Susan B. Anthony came up. I asked, “You know who she was, right?”
“Uh, someone famous—I know she was on a coin,” was the reply.
Pretty bad. I’m always highly disappointed when I run into this type of thing at work… I should know better by now.
What’s worse, though, is when I asked another (female) co-worker the same question:
“I know she’s on a coin.”
Ug.
Comments
9 responses to “Susan B. Anthony; or, People Are Dumb”
I cannot believe you deleted my other comments so that you couldn’t be busted on your sexist remarks.
Okay, then. Nothing sexist about my remarks, I just happen to work in a company where the women outnumber the men in the office by at least 2-to-1, so I just talk to a proportionally higher number of women each day. There’s men in the office who are equally dumb.
It’s depressing that more people obsess over Johnny Depp’s hairstyle or Colin Farrell’s choice of movies or South Park than actually have an understanding of the history of our country (or even care about having a good education in general).
Well, you never, ever talk to me about that…you always talk about me, liz, etc. and that’s where my original comment came from.
Now, don’t you even touch Johnny or Colin…they are HOT!
Now, most of what I have learned in school does not apply to real life. Yes, we need to learn history, but I think you should email your bro (the one who has a hx degree) and see how often he uses the knowledge of hx in everyday conversations, etc.
I’m sorry you retain useless knowledge (you, yourself admit this), but not everyone can retain history that got us to the place and freedoms we have now. Not an excuse, but since I have been pregnant, the knowledge I have is not retained and not recovered in the past 6 years.
Now, on the flipside, there is a reason why I’m bringing you to game night next month.
Oh, brother. Airing the dirty laundry in public, my.
The knowledge that I retain that I agree is "useless" is the stuff like minute details of each episode of "The X-Files" and junk like that. I don’t consider retaining knowledge of history, geography, science, math, literature, etc. useless by any stretch of the imagination.
My brother uses his knowledge of history quite a lot. It’s his *degree* in history that doesn’t open many doors (compared to an MBA or other types of degrees/certificates that career-types look for). There’s a distinction.
And most of what I learned in school *does* apply to real life. Math for figuring out bills, tips, gas mileage, mortgages, discounts, programming the VCR, etc. Geography for figuring out where things are and how to get places and how to read maps. Science for understanding how to cook, or why it’s dangerous to drive fast on ice, or how to make beer, or why it rains. History for understanding the context of current events and the world around us, like why we don’t all speak German, for instance, or why it’s a big deal for that dumb professor to compare 9/11 victims to Nazis (http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~53~2702606,00.html). English and literature for being able to read, write, and speak properly (and not sound like I was raised by wolves or something). Computer science for, well, obvious reasons. About the only thing I *don’t* use day-to-day is French.
And if no one can retain the history it takes to understand why we have freedoms like freedom of speech and religion or the freedom to VOTE (back to the original topic of this post in a tangential way), then I guess that’s why a *third* of high schools students today think the First Amendment "goes too far" and *half* think newspapers shouldn’t publish freely without government approval. (http://www.arbiteronline.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/02/10/420aed62bae6b)
It’s this kind of thing that I was writing about in my post. People are dumb.
Oh whatever….back to my original post…you are always harping on women and how we don’t know as much as you. you and i turned it into a freedom of speech and other "dirty laundry" when you deleted my comment because I disagreed with you.
I think we have to leave it as we do in real life….You and I come from different backgrounds and agree to disagree.
If you think I’m stupid or have a lack of knowledge in all those areas, please divorce me.
Hmmmmmmmmmm.
I sense passion!
LOL! 🙂
i saw the original comment this morning and then i saw it deleted.
i will say that susan b. anthony IS NOT useless knowledge and it does upset me woman know her as the coin lady. she was a vital part of women’s rights and the fact some women don’t know that is sad.