sadly... people just don't know "stuff"!

W

wcwbf

Member
at least not stuff i think they should. i was a teacher aide in a class with special needs students. the teacher was working her way thru the continents. she was "teaching" kids about S America. cn't remember how it came up, but i commented to the class that if you lived there you could find places to snowboard/ski in July/August. then i had to explain that to her. she was telling the kids that S America was basically the Amazon rainforest and that was it??

when she got to Africa, i HAD to interrupt her when she told these kids that in Africa... monkeys threw pineapples and coconuts at people. she was telling the kids it was one big jungle. she had no idea that Africa contained the LARGEST desert.

a different teacher told kids that a porcupine can SHOOT its quills at you!
 
Wait. What kind of special needs class?

Cause, šŸ˜‚, my boys barely understand there are different states and only because we traveled with them. As in Disneyland is In California and grandma is in Washington. They need an ā€œanchorā€ to understand other places.

The concept of other countries is very hard and not important. I find it strange she even brought the issue up.
 
Should American schools emphasis international education? Not geography, but customs and international etiquette, passports and travel?
 
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Aneeda72 said:
Wait. What kind of special needs class?

Cause, šŸ˜‚, my boys barely understand there are different states and only because we traveled with them. As in Disneyland is In California and grandma is in Washington. They need an ā€œanchorā€ to understand other places.

The concept of other countries is very hard and not important. I find it strange she even brought the issue up.
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"special needs"... autism, Asperger's, physical disabilities, non-verbal. and kids in regular ed classes have woefully POOR directional skills. i'm smack dab about center of New Jersey and kids have no idea what direction they head in to go "down the shore". i think it's sad that nobody knows how to use/read a map any more.
 
wcwbf said:
"special needs"... autism, Asperger's, physical disabilities, non-verbal. and kids in regular ed classes have woefully POOR directional skills. i'm smack dab about center of New Jersey and kids have no idea what direction they head in to go "down the shore". i think it's sad that nobody knows how to use/read a map any more.
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Map reading is a skill parents teach when the family goes on vacation. It is taught via a lot of swearing, tearing up of inaccurate maps, šŸ˜‚, rebuying better maps, and gas station attendants who just moved into the area.
 
With navigational devices, even fold-up paper maps are becoming historical artifacts. If you can find one, you'll likely be charged for what in days of yore were handed out for free...
 
Rosemarie said:
That is quite horrifying. No wonder Americans have such a distorted view of the world.
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Hi Rosemarie, I notice you are from England? It is sad how US citizens are tightly wrapped around the notion that we are the sovereign state of being. To some this narrow-minded view of being the biggest and the greatest is processed and sold as US pride. I suppose this is true of most nations who need financial and individual support from citizens, it astounds me how little we know about the real government and the influence it has at home and abroad.

To quote "No wonder Americans have such a distorted view of the world." As statement as this would apply in referencing the Republic of China under Emperor Jin Yuzhang whose propaganda sway domestic and international opinion in favor of its policies. Domestically this includes censorship of proscribed views and an active promotion of views that favor the government. Propaganda in China/Wikipedia

The old saying. "what we don't know can't hurt us" But if we knew, we could do something about it. Maybe this is why we don't know?
 
Rosemarie said:
That is quite horrifying. No wonder Americans have such a distorted view of the world.
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If we are so horrible , why does everyone want to be here ? Why do we need to defend other countries [militarily] so often ? Why is it that other countries seem to ignore the fact that we have immigration laws ? that are expected to be obeyed when entering? Why is it that other countries refuse to acknowledge the fact here we speak American English ?

Perhaps our "distorted" view of the rest of the world, is because we were born here and choose to stay here, and really do not care much about what other countries do ? Nor tell them how to live ?
 
rgp said:
If we are so horrible , why does everyone want to be here ? Why do we need to defend other countries [militarily] so often ? Why is it that other countries seem to ignore the fact that we have immigration laws ? that are expected to be obeyed when entering? Why is it that other countries refuse to acknowledge the fact here we speak American English ?

Perhaps our "distorted" view of the rest of the world, is because we were born here and choose to stay here, and really do not care much about what other countries do ? Nor tell them how to live ?
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What do these replies have to do with an ignorant teacher and a classroom of special needs children?
 
Aunt Marg said:
One that always makes me laugh... how so many people from the USofA believe that Canada is under mountains of ice year-round.
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Growing up in Los Angeles, I remember a family that moved to our neighborhood from Minnesota. To hear them tell it, the place was covered in ice and snow all year around. When I was in the fifth grade, I had to do a report on Minnesota and was fascinated by the state having so many lakes and that winter was a few months a year.

When I was in the road band back in the late 1970s, we spent 6 months playing up in Canada. I found the people to be very friendly and the country to be beautiful. We started out way, way up north in the central provinces, and it did get really COLD up there. Just as in the US, the climate got more temperate as we worked our way south. I really enjoyed western Canada especially.

I can't really comment on people knowing stuff other than that I do notice a difference in views on global news, based on whether a person is well traveled or not. To me, that stands to reason because we don't know what we don't know and I am always coming back to that.

Tony
 
Mr. Ed said:
Should American schools emphasis international education? Not geography, but customs and international etiquette, passports and travel?
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was aide to a student in a 9th grade "world cultures" class. class was geared toward special needs students where learning another language was going to just be too difficult. the class met the foreign language graduation requirement and was petty much Spanish speaking countries. my student was assigned to do a power point presentation on Peru. when we got to what Peruvians like to eat... he got to totally gross out his classmates. a typical BBQ grill in Peru would have GUINEA PIGS grilling away. i don't know if i would search that delicacy out. would be more appetizing to newbies if they didn't still have their little arms/legs and heads attached!?
 
tbeltrans said:
Growing up in Los Angeles, I remember a family that moved to our neighborhood from Minnesota. To hear them tell it, the place was covered in ice and snow all year around. When I was in the fifth grade, I had to do a report on Minnesota and was fascinated by the state having so many lakes and that winter was a few months a year.

When I was in the road band back in the late 1970s, we spent 6 months playing up in Canada. I found the people to be very friendly and the country to be beautiful. We started out way, way up north in the central provinces, and it did get really COLD up there. Just as in the US, the climate got more temperate as we worked our way south. I really enjoyed western Canada especially.

I can't really comment on people knowing stuff other than that I do notice a difference in views on global news, based on whether a person is well traveled or not. To me, that stands to reason because we don't know what we don't know and I am always coming back to that.

Tony
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Yes indeed, western Canada is truly heaven on earth.

One year in October, we visited family in the Okanagan region, leaving our place at 6-o'clock in the morning under frosty temps, and when we arrived in the Okanagan, we were greeted with temps in the high 20's (Celsius).

Also remember one year where dear husband and I were seeking a weekend getaway, so we left our house (month of April)... wet, cold, miserable, and arrived in Spokane WA, to balmy summer-like weather with warm temps and tons of sunshine.
 
Well when I was in grade school I don't remember anything being taught about the U.S. at all.

It was all Canada. We never heard about the indigenous people either.

It's the same all over. We didn't know a heck of a lot about South America or Africa and of course nothing about Russia even though we were allies in the Second World War.

It was access to the news via television that got us educated to the rest of the world.

And sports. All of us were interested in major league baseball and NFL football.
 
I love the diverse aspects and differences of the West and East coasts. Each Province is unique. I've lived in 4 of them, and have traveled to 3 others.

Have only been to a few States, mainly the east coast .. Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire. On the west .. Seattle, Tacoma, Bellingham. Been to NYC a few times, and Ohio.

Living in Australia was a real experience. I'm so grateful to have had the opportunity to travel in my life.
 
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Camper6 said:
Well when I was in grade school I don't remember anything being taught about the U.S. at all.

It was all Canada. We never heard about the indigenous people either.

It's the same all over. We didn't know a heck of a lot about South America or Africa and of course nothing about Russia even though we were allies in the Second World War.

It was access to the news via television that got us educated to the rest of the world.

And sports. All of us were interested in major league baseball and NFL football.
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In a way, I am glad to hear you say that: Well when I was in grade school I don't remember anything being taught about the U.S. at all.

One of the complaints I often heard as we worked our way down to the US border, was that Canadians who lived nearer the border learned more about the US than they did about Canada. I thought that was a real shame. Not that I think there is something wrong with learning about other countries, but that these folks were apparently not learning about their own.

Tony
 
When I was a sophomore in high school back in the early 70's my family moved University Park, TX (one of the two affluent neighborhoods in the donut hole of Dallas.) More than one of my classmates thought that everyone in California surfed and that we danced nude in the streets.

So this sort of distorted, unrealistic view of other places has been around a long time even for places within the same country. (Even though being in Texas felt like being in another country to me at the time.)
 
gennie said:
In meeting adults, it's very easy to distinguish the readers from the non-readers and travelers (even the arm-chair kind) from those who have no interest in the rest of the world.
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yes I agree. I find that here in the UK too.....thankfully I read, and I've been lucky enough to travel quite extensively, although sadly not yet to the Americas
 
asp3 said:
When I was a sophomore in high school back in the early 70's my family moved University Park, TX (one of the two affluent neighborhoods in the donut hole of Dallas.) More than one of my classmates thought that everyone in California surfed and that we danced nude in the streets.

So this sort of distorted, unrealistic view of other places has been around a long time even for places within the same country. (Even though being in Texas felt like being in another country to me at the time.)
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And a few years ago, when I visited Austin, TX for the first time, I was amazed at how "un-Texan" the capital of Texas was! If felt more like California.
 
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