Oklahoma, Not OK

Yike:  75 Percent of Oklahoma High School Students Can't Name the First President of the U.S.

That would be OOOOOOOOklahoma, where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain and directly through people's ears.

Oh, I say that - in defense of the Oklahomans, a ten question test was administered by telephone to one thousand high school students.  That has to be an unfamiliar format for the respondents, and probably not all of them gave it their best shot.  Still, this is pretty grim.

MORE:  For July 4, USA Today noted a similar result in Arizona from a similar telephone survey.  There, 26.5% named Washington as the first President.

Comments

[daddy]

Cheer up Oklahoma. They'll be perfect replacements as the next generations replacements for Charlie Gibson as ABC's News Anchors, where such ignorance is a feature not a bug.

[Pofarmer]

How bad does education have to suck to not know the answer to that?

[tbrosz]

I've often wondered how surveys adjust the results for people who think taking surveys over a telephone are a waste of time for someone who has a life.

[hit and run]

Q7: What are the two major political parties in the United States?

11% said Republican and Communist

When asked who was the first president -- 5% said Bush and 5% said Obama.

When asked who wrote the Declaration of Independence, 2% said Michael Jackson.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

11% said Republican and Communist

Prescient group, no?

[evil monger]

I don't want to defend Oklahoma (really, I don't), but isn't it possible that a sizable fraction are making a joke? If you were offering a prize or something that's one thing. But if you just call me out of the blue and ask me a question I might not cooperate.

It's like when Chris Matthews cites some poll where a majority of the South thinks that Obama was not born in the US. Is that really what the poll result shows? Doesn't it just show what percentage of Southerners will tell you that if you ask them? Maybe they are just fighting socialism by any means necessary.

I don't answer the phone when pollsters call, but if I did I wouldn't feel any obligation to be honest. And I am with the mob, trying to stop Obama's commie agenda, I never said I wasn't. If that kind of attitude would wee wee up your poll on the question of whether Obama might be bisexual, then I don't know what to tell you. Don't include me in your sample I guess.

[Semantic Putz]

11% said Republican and Communist

Technically wrong, but not really.

[RedState]

What is up with the Oklahoma bashing? It is a loyal conservative state. Listen, it was a telephone poll. Think of how you act when you receive unsolicited calls.

[Bruce]

"What ocean is on the east coast of the United States?"

If you are in Alaska and Hawaii the ansers would differ from those in say ... NY.

[willem]

Don't sell those little Okie's short. By the age of 10 most of them can hunt and shoot, skin and cook, just as good as Palin.

At least half of those sampled are playin' dumb and giving the pollsters a good old fashioned "up yours."

[BR]

Here's some fodder for Obama's New Internet Spy Program.

I must confess, after a wonderful evening of playing chess and mucho Pinotage, I myself didn't know who the first President was in my citizenship interview decades ago. Fortunately, being a buxom blonde, and the interviewer being a male, I passed the test with some on-the-spot coaching. What's in a name, anyway :)

Stone cold sober in vino veritas.

[BR]

Next, I want to know who's on the bid list to become the Faustian "technology vendor."

[daddy]

""What ocean is on the east coast of the United States?"

If you are in Alaska and Hawaii the ansers would differ from those in say ... NY.

Posted by: Bruce"

Decent point Bruce. Careful JOM readers will BE excited to know that ">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semisopochnoi_Island"> Semisopochnoi Island, one of the recently infamous Rat Island group (where Conservationists poisoned over 200 endangered Bald Eagles and Glaucous Winged Gulls with rat poison), is the Easternmost point in the US of A.

JOM'ers will be even more excited to know that Semisopochnoi Island is not the location of fabled JOM Island. Yippee!

[Fresh Air]

I have to side with Willem on this. I would just assume the question was a prank or a joke and probably fun along by saying George the Third or something. That said, what isn't a joke is that 57 percent of Zero supporters thought Republicans were running Congress in 2008.

[daddy]

Here's the material for Jane's next FWDAJ. Mass.">http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090918/ap_on_re_us/us_kennedy_successor;_ylt=AlpmI2qcIzrd8wCwwb16k3ms0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTMybXR1ODVrBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMDkwOTE4L3VzX2tlbm5lZHlfc3VjY2Vzc29yBGNwb3MDMgRwb3MDNgRwdANob21lX2Nva2UEc2VjA3luX3RvcF9zdG9yeQRzbGsDbWFzc2hvdXNlYXBw">Mass. House approves Sen. Kennedy succession bill. Seems like there's a Tea Party everywhere in America except where the first real one started.

[Jacobus]

Please Note that in Arizona, 26.5% got it right which means 23.5% wrong on the same question. This is not an Okie problem. It's an American problem.

[Jacobus]

Excuse me - 73.5% wrong. Distracted just then - sorry.

[PeterUK]

"Q7: What are the two major political parties in the United States?

11% said Republican and Communist"

The only ones who got it right eh?

[hit and run]

evil monger:
I don't want to defend Oklahoma (really, I don't), but isn't it possible that a sizable fraction are making a joke?

Yes, and when ~40% are saying Don't Know to a number of questions, I imagine we're dealing with a sizable FYNQ (AoSHQ reference) contingent.

Daddy:
Here's the material for Jane's next FWDAJ. Mass. House approves Sen. Kennedy succession bill.

You know what was funny? Last night Alan Colmes tweeted that. Only, he said:

@AlanColmes Mass. House passes secession bill re: Kennedy http://bit.ly/L6zad

Even better, when Greg Pollowitz caught him and made a joke, instead of saying oops and correcting it, he deleted the tweet and redid it corrected, trying to hide the error.

Greg decided to go the "What if Bush had said it?" route. I probably would have gone with Todd Palin material somehow. But it was late and I'm a morning person.

[VIMH: Hey, it's morning, what's stopping you now?]
Dude, it's like six hours old by now. This is the internet. That's like 14 dog years.

[Jack is Back!]

Just to be fair - most of these kids were born in the 1990's and their education via life experience is very much limited to what the see on TV, hear on radio and internet. Also, I say that this is as much an indictment of the public (government) education system, teachers, curriculum, politically correct and skewed texts (less of old slave trading white guys and more of the oppressed minorities), etc.

[daddy]

Hee hee hee Pu'UK.

It's gonna' be hard to top that comment today. But for those who wish to try, Politico's Michael Calderone (whom I refuse to link to) offers himself as a large target. In todays column he has dropped his byline, "Reporting and analysis of Political Media". Instead of discussing the MSM's silence on ACORN and its defunding, or Charlie Gibson's ignorance, or other pregnant topics like Obama's surrender of the European Missile Defense Shield, Calderone instead asks the all important question "Is Rush Limbaugh afraid of Glenn Beck?"

I think we may now have a clue about who was out smoking pot with Sully.

[Jack is Back!]

Hey! Where did that thing come from? Wow, a big time upgrade at JOM. I am impressed.

[peter]

Daddy, did you see the cover picture of Beck that Time magazine (I know, nobody reads Time magazine, but maybe you passed a bird cage)?

[Thomas Collins]

See LUN for a USA Today article on college students' performance on a civics test.

When self-esteem trumps knowledge as the purpose of education, students develop both false self-esteem and false knowledge.

[Thomas Collins]

Whoops? I flunked the "right click the Paste function" test. Let's try again.

[Janet]

yeah JIB - instead of learning facts, the kids learn how to grind corn like the Mayans.

It is kind of sad really. We teach them nothing, then make fun of them for knowing nothing.

[Thomas Collins]

Is anyone else getting a psychedelic symbol next to their posts, which symbol then disappears when one returns to the main thread?

I swear, I only had a couple of glasses of wine last night. No LSD at all!!! :-))

[Porchlight]

It is kind of sad really. We teach them nothing, then make fun of them for knowing nothing.

Precisely. It's not the kids' fault.

[Janet]

When my kids took Spanish they were forever having "events" in class. Not learning nouns, verbs, and sentence structure ...too busy eating salsa.

2 years of Spanish and you don't know what playa means? You idiot. Here, have another taco and happy cinco de mayo to you!

[bgates]

2 years of Spanish and you don't know what playa means?

Don't hate the playa, Janet.

Here, have another taco and happy cinco de mayo to you!

But today is cinco de decimoctavo (I think that's right - my foreign language in high school was Austrian).

[Janet]

Or as Obama said "Happy Cinco de Quatro"....the only guy that had a worse Spanish class than my kids.

[Extraneus]

No LSD at all!!!

Booooo-ring.

Hey, you're right. What's that green thingie?

[Sometimes the posting time includes the seconds, too.]

Yep, TC, me too. Mine's pretty, I wish I could show you.
==================================

[Pagar]

When discussing the problems with education in the USA, one needs to remember that William Ayers in a leadership position in one of the major educator associations. There is no way he got to that position by himself, he had the support of a whole lot of so-called educators.

Someone needs to do that survey in Chicago.

[clarice]

janet, I am positive that online you can get spanish language tutorials for kids.
Jacobus--thanks for correcting that. I'm half awake and figured dementia was taking hold.

[hit and run]

My green thing says, "Click here for a free taco at the playa"

Why, what does yours say?

[Janet]

When the Obama "de cinco de quatro" event occurred peter here at JOM responded that he needed a "quarto de tequila"

too funny...

[Thomas Collins]

So yours is green, too, hit and run? Sometimes the posting time includes the seconds, too (I surrender; I've given up trying to convince you to use "kim" on occasion:-)))), is yours green? I'll bet TM (or Typhuspad) is trying to fool us into thinking we all have our own unique posting symbol, when it is a generic symbol (probably developed by one of those anti-Christs TM was posting on).

Mine is a green sun emitting white rays encapsulated by more white rays. Perhaps it's a symbol of greedy hegemonic capitalists oppressing the poor (white for Caucasians and green for money). Or perhaps it is a subliminal message that if we all go green, our lives will be pristine.

[Jane]

Got it Daddy. Dick says it will be Paul Kirk not Dukakis - Kirk is a long time Kennedy staffer. I say impeach the entire lot of them. But this is MA so they will probably attach a pay raise to the bill.

Yeah I'm getting the icon on the left too. Mine is blue. But then it disappears.

[hit and run]

I find myself hitting preview, even when I don't have anything to post, just to see the pretty new icon.

It's a tool of luciferians.

[I've seen other blogs where the logo stays with the comment, and they are individualized to commenter..]

Heh, h&r, it's the Mark of the Best.
======================

[Pofarmer]

janet, I am positive that online you can get spanish language tutorials for kids.

Hell, just call customer service and punch 2.

[clarice]

Mine is red--and has arcs across it--maybe we do each have our own symbol or--maybe *shudder* it's all part of the WH Internet gathering in the sheaves program.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

I bet they can tell you that Washington owned slaves, though.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Mine is red--and has arcs across it--maybe we do each have our own symbol or--maybe *shudder* it's all part of the WH Internet gathering in the sheaves program.

Those things are a kind of identification icon, the name of which I can't remember. in any case, they're generated by a cellular-automaton sort of program, from your identifying information. Everyone's should be different -- mine is a sort of teal blue and has a nifty sort of sunray design from the left edge.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

I was thinking they were gravatars, but my gravatar is my head shot.

[hit and run]

Charlie:
Everyone's should be different

Ah, they're like snowflakes.

Snowflakes from lucifer.

Hmmm, from the url of the .gif, I'm guessing this won't work, but let's give it a go:

http://static.typepad.com/.shared/images/default-avatars/avatar-06-50x50.gif>

[Jane]

Hell, just call customer service and punch 2.

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL a lot

[Thomas Collins]

Let me see if I can do that.

[Thomas Collins]

Looks as if there are different symbols.

[Fresh Air]

Someone needs to do that survey in Chicago.

The kids Ayers affected are sure to know the first president was a racist on one of those dollar bills.

[Ignatz]

I have nothing useful to say (per usual), but am so bored loading umpteen emails to bombard unsuspecting real estate agents with property sales pitches, that I have to post something to at least have a jab at what the fudge you guys are talking about, snowflakewise.

[clarice]

That was a great one,Jane. meant to tap him on the back myself for it.

[Original MikeS]

mine is kind of a backwards H with one of those Hubble pictures superimposed.

[centralcal]

My symbol is goldish, rather than green and has a flower in the center.

[centralcal]

Okay - the above post is untrue. At home that would be true.

Here at work, I don't get a symbol at all. Interesting.

[Ignatz]

Not seeing anything on IE. Guess I'll go back to work.

Po,

That was a needed laugh after spending 20 minutes or so yesterday trying to connect to a live human being on Blue Shield's hilariously misnomered "customer service" line.

[Original MikeS]

Sure, our educational system may have its' faults, but it has a surplus of highly trained administrators that could move directly into the new medical bureaucracy. That is if the SEIU will accept people without ACORN experience in those positions.

[Thomas Collins]

Hit and run, can you provide me with instructions on how to get that symbol onto the main thread? I can't seem to accomplish it. What do I click and clak when I am on the Preview page?

[Jane]

Apropos of nothing I had the oddest call this afternoon. I called a business (on business) and got an answering machine - but left no message.

A half hour later I got a call (which had to go thru my pretend switchboard which announces my firm and says "if you want to talk to Jane push 1" or whatever.

The caller says: "WHy the hell are you calling me?" I said "WHo are you?"

"You called me, and I want to know why?"

"Who are you?"

"I'm X business"

"I didn't leave a message for X business so how do you know I called?"

"I could tell and I want you to stop calling X business"

"I've never called it before, and aren't you curious as to why I called?"

And on and on.

WE ended up BFF by the time it was over, but I've never had that happen before. (And come to think of it, it turns out to be a very boring story. Sorry)

[daddy]

Makes sense.

Clarice's is a Red sun, which all Superman fans know makes her more powerful than anybody under a Yellow Sun.

Mine is a Yellow Sun, which simply means I'm from Earth and a mere mortal.

But as for you Green Sun guys, well the 3 Stars in Orion's Belt are sorta' green and in Arabic they mean "The Girdle Wearers."

Not that there's anything wrong with that...

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Mine is pink.

[Thomas Collins]

That's it, daddy. Girdle Wearers, eh. Let me know when your flights take you to the Providence area and we'll have a scotch drinking and non-filter cigarette smoking contest at Tammanny Hall on Federal Hill (it still allows smoking indoors). We'll see who the girdle wearer is! :-))

[daddy]

Let's make it a couple pints of Yogi-Berry wine TC and I suspect we'll both be wearing girdles by the end of the night:)

[Thomas Collins]

It'll make a great headline in the Providence Journal: JOMers, Tammanny Hall and Girdles.

[Neo]

That question is obviously so racist

[Cee]

An educated Okie would refuse to participate in a telephone poll.