Path: ...!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: BTR1701 <atropos@mac.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv
Subject: Re: [OT] Brits try to identify the 50 US states on a map
Date: Thu, 6 Feb 2025 23:52:20 -0000 (UTC)
Organization: A noiseless patient Spider
Lines: 61
Message-ID: <vo3hvk$363n6$1@dont-email.me>
References: <vnvqoh$1cui6$2@dont-email.me> <vo0vuk$1cui6$9@dont-email.me> <1100292355.760515273.672774.anim8rfsk-cox.net@news.easynews.com> <vo3gll$35pb9$1@dont-email.me>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=fixed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Injection-Date: Fri, 07 Feb 2025 00:52:20 +0100 (CET)
Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="363eefe1e1c94df3c27dc6ea8ab77494";
	logging-data="3346150"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org";	posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1+OsZYyXCIDOJXhcVM6tUoA"
User-Agent: Usenapp/0.92.2/l for MacOS
Cancel-Lock: sha1:IlY7+Y0tCYOOWkV5ZnCqxKVtSpw=
Bytes: 3577

On Feb 6, 2025 at 3:29:56 PM PST, "Rhino" <no_offline_contact@example.com>
wrote:

> On 2025-02-06 1:19 AM, anim8rfsk wrote:
>>  Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
>>>  On 2025-02-05 6:07 PM, anim8rfsk wrote:
>>>>  Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>>  What about the 50 states? Could you label all of them correctly given a
>>>>>  blank map?
>>>> 
>>>>  That was actually something we had to do as a test in either late grade
>>>>  school or early high school.
>>>> 
>>>>  So I could've done it 55 years ago, but I doubt I'd get more than half of
>>>>  them now. I'd be able to fill in the borders like doing a jigsaw puzzle,
>>>>  but the middle would remain empty.
>>>> 
>>>>  This is the perfect example of the stuff we complained about learning in
>>>>  school that we would never ever need to know and we were right.
>>>> 
>>>  I wonder if we were wise beyond our years or just too lazy to want to
>>>  work that hard for something that didn't seem useful to know....
>>> 
>>>  In any case it really isn't particularly useful to be able to identify
>>>  all 50 states EXCEPT for random quizzes like this one. Education systems
>>>  should not be geared towards teaching useless stuff.
>>>> 
>>  
>>  But boy howdy are they ever.
>>  
>>  Like "to be or not to be" from Hamlet. We had to memorize it and got points
>>  for each line of it we could write down in a pop quiz. But none of it meant
>>  a thing to us.
>>  
> We had to do a Shakespeare every year of high school and I don't 
> remember ANYONE enjoying it: we just did our best to endure it.
> 
> I know that almost EVERYONE says he's the greatest writer ever - even 
> people I respect enormously like Solzhenitsyn - but I've never really 
> understood why Shakespeare is thought to be so brilliant.
> 
> I suspect Shakespeare is taught mostly because of his reputation and the 
> idea/hope that if they inflict Shakespeare on every single student, some 
> of his insight will be magically transferred to the student and make him 
> a better person.
> 
> I might appreciate him more as an adult if I were to give him another 
> try but I'd still need one of the high school editions where the 
> "translations" (explanations of the words he's using) are on every line, 
> otherwise I suspect it would be akin to reading Sanskrit.

Heathen!

Ignorance is the curse of God;
Knowledge the wing wherewith we fly to heaven.

--Henry VI, Part 1