http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090312115133.htm I can kind of understand percentage for the question about dinosaurs and humans given that fundamentalist Christians teach that they existed at the same time to try and explain the idea that the earth is only 6,000 years old. However, how the hell can 53% and 47% of Americans get two of the most questions right? These are two things everyone should know. A person shouldn't even have to think about, they should just know the answer.
This is why so many people buy the global warming alarmism. They don't know about the scientific method, nor do they seem to care about it.
The amount of water on the surface of the earth is an odd bit of trivia. The other two, though... What percentage of Americans believe in ghosts? Ed O.
LOL, politicized in the first reply. Well done. I wonder what percentage don't believe in dinosaurs at all. One out of five have felt the presence of a ghost; half of Americans believe in them.
I'm not the one who politicized/compromised the scientific method. Bringing it up wasn't political; it was scientific.
Americans are stupid. What's to be surprised about? Soon we will have creationism in school. That is when the real fun begins.
Yes. Americans aren't the brightest. It amazes me what some of the class averages on exam and in courses are. In our History class, the professor gave us all of the questions and essays that could be on the midterm. The class average was a mid-C. How the hell do you not get an A on that? And that makes you wonder how dumbpeople are at at lesser universities....and then those at community college and those who didn't even go to college. There is something just not clicking in a lot of people's brains.
the only thing america has going for itself in the world is that people are assholes and agressive.....at least the people at the top. the intelligence is pretty shitty but if you go to other parts of the world, people are too nice and it holds them back.
that doesn't say anything about intelligence. it just tells you that people don't care. some people would rather put forth no effort at all and get the easy C than putting forth any effort to get an A.
I have a bit of a problem with this. I went to a community college for my general education classes ($200 dollars an hour vs $70 dollars an hour...) and the education you receive at some community college is actually better then those you get at a lot of universities. For starters the teachers are there to teach rather then pretend to while they are doing research, the class sizes are smaller so you get one on one attention from your professor and help if you need it (hell, at a lot of the larger schools you might be lucky to get 5 minutes outside of class with a professor), and community colleges don't discriminate from hiring a professor on the basis of a Ph.D. Some of the best professors or teachers I have ever had taught at a community college, these are thought provoking, intelligent, entertaining teachers who make you want to come to school every day, make you want to learn, and make you want to better yourself and they would have never been hired at a university because their highest level of education is a Masters degree. Further more, just because a school isn't well known it doesn't mean that it isn't a great school which offers a fine education. That can also go the other way, just because a school is a large, well known university it doesn't mean that it's a good school education wise. I'm going to WSU because it's close to home, however, I would rather be going to Emporia State. Even though I'm sure no one on this board as ever heard of it, it's a great school and widely considered as such by the academics in and around KS, WSU, on the other hand, is considered average at best. Stop putting so much damn emphasis on a schools name and start putting the emphasis on which school gives you the best education for your money.
On average, a non-flagship state school will have a higher average intelligence than a community college. On average, the state-flagship will have a higher average intelligence than a state system school. On average, the intelligence in an Ivy League school will be higher than that of a state flagship. It's not the case for everyone there, but it should be true for the average. And yes, obviously there are good professors and bad professors. But I don't really think that a community college will have a greater percentage of good professors than a university. It's no different than high school really in terms of the amount of good / solid / bad teachers.
people say this a lot in regards to advantages of a small school over a large one but i really don't find it to be true at all. i went to a huge school. if you want one on one time with a professor, you can get it. they all had office hours multiple times a week as well as being available for appointments.
They are supposed to do that at my school (I think they are supposed to do it at just about every school) but they are never in their offices, they also seem to have a institutional policy of never checking their fucking email.
The biggest difference between community college professor and professors at four year universities is what their primary objectives are. The primary objective of a professor at a university is to white a large paper, book, thesis, etc, after doing a large body of research and not to teach you. At a community college the professors are there to teach and that's it, they don't have to worry about writing books or getting their papers published. Now, why would a professor who's is there to do research be better then a professor who's there to teach?
not that I have much experience, but I agree with this 100%. You'll get lazy professors at both types of school; at community college, the best professors' only other big concern is likely to be his/her family. At a four year university, the best professors focus on their research, and then you still get the lazy ones...
I went to a prestigious university and then went to community college. Now I work at the university I once attended. The difference, IMHO, is just theory vs. practice. University is about developing your critical thinking skills, college is about career skills. So in general the professors have a different approach. Also, I agree with the suggestion that the issue isn't the stupidity of Americans or the public at large. The issue is a lack of intellectual curiosity.
At the undergraduate level, there's virtually no difference between accredited universities. Whether you go to Stanford or San Jose State, there's very little difference in the quality of education you receive. The name recognition, though, makes some difference when looking for a job. Largely because you have to be a high-level achiever type to get into the very best schools, so that tells employers something about you. When you get to graduate levels (Masters, Ph.D), certain schools have the advantage, in certain fields, because they have the most acclaimed research professors in those fields, and your focus at that level is largely research.
Just so the Canadians on the board don't feel left out... http://www.calgaryherald.com/Techno... naive about their weather/1392288/story.html
