Goodnight Senses

[Aldous]

Not a sucky customer, moreso as an idiot. My cool manager brought in her Billy Joel CD's one day, for us to listen to during work. Awesome, I love Billy Joel. So at the end or our shift Goodnight Saigon comes on. We've got no customers, so while cleaning the store we both started singing along. I didn't think it was too loud but a customer came in and I lost all faith in everything because of her.
Stupid Lady: "That's a nice song, I didn't know anyone wrote a song about Iraq."
Me: "It's called Goodnight Saigon, by Billy Joel" (Hoping this would que her into that it's not about Iraq)
SL: "Saigon, that's the capital of Iraq isn't it?"
Me: "It's the former capital of Vietnam, now known as Ho Chi Minh City."
SL: "But we're not at war with Vietnam, we're at war with Iraq."
Me: "It's about the Vietnam war, it was written in the 70's, during the war."
SL: "We were at war with Vietnam?"

Did she miss an entire generation in history class. She had to be in her thirties, and she had no excuse for being this stupid. I swear I attract these people like moths to a flame.

[Zombi]

Stupidity is forgivable, ignorance is not. I used to work with a girl who just didn't know anything. It was mind-boggling. Having a conversation with her made me lose the will to live - I mean, I'd heard the British education system was going downhill, but this was beyond a joke. She wasn't stupid, either (she was taking some higher-level courses early), but she had no knowledge of the world outside her own little box.

[Knightmare]

Chalk another one up to the American educational system! I actually know someone who is that painfully dumb. I can't stand to be in the same room with her.

[Catwoman2965]

I've come across people like that. You just wonder what rock they live under, and how often they crawl out from under it!

Even scarier is very intelligent people, who have absolutely NO common sense. I dated a guy whose best friend's wife had a college degree, Masters, Law degree and PhD., but when it came to anything other than academia, she was as clueless as a box of rocks! She's a college professor...so she's never had any experience in the business world.

And where I work there are a lot of very smart, very knowledgeable people (in their field), but honestly, I don't think they could find their way out of a paper bag if they had to. I just shake my head when I see them sometimes.

[Crazeyal]

Uh.. It's getting a bit OLD to hear every stupidity linked to the hardworking teachers of America. There are systems that are CRIPPLED by bureaucracy and pandering to local pressure groups. There are bad teachers out there. There ARE some places that promote blatantly ignorant kids, just to get rid of them. But they are the EXCEPTION rather than the rule.

I went to school and *STUDIED* the Vietnam war. Had to write several pages on it, too.

The simple fact is, schools usually give back what you put into them. The person mentioned was almost certainly lazy and hadn't cracked a book in years.

[air914]

I've come across people like that. You just wonder what rock they live under, and how often they crawl out from under it!

Even scarier is very intelligent people, who have absolutely NO common sense. I dated a guy whose best friend's wife had a college degree, Masters, Law degree and PhD., but when it came to anything other than academia, she was as clueless as a box of rocks! She's a college professor...so she's never had any experience in the business world.

And where I work there are a lot of very smart, very knowledgeable people (in their field), but honestly, I don't think they could find their way out of a paper bag if they had to. I just shake my head when I see them sometimes.

I agree - it's great that you can tell me all about Quantum Physics - but if I'm going to give you a grant and want you to meet with me, and you can't follow simple directions of "turn left on ___ street" - well then all that knowledge doesn't help much in the real world, does it? It is scary. Here you have all the intelligence in the world - but if we put you on the street for 10 minutes you're going to get lost - probably get robbed b/c you LOOK like you're lost and someone will take advantage of that..... or worse. I'll personally take my common sense over knowledge of Quantum Physics anytime - not that I'm stupid, but I don't have any knowledge of Quantum Physics - and I do know we fought a war in Vietnam - but I can't tell you every detail of it. I can tell you we fought a Civil War - but I can't quite remember the dates.... but at least I know we had it!

[Becks]

I swear, we barely ever got to the Civil War in my various history classes, but I always read ahead.

I like reading AND history.

Oh, maybe you guys could've played "We Didn't Start The Fire" for her. Blow her mind.

[trunks2k]

I swear, we barely ever got to the Civil War in my various history classes, but I always read ahead.

Which is a big problem, IMO. In my experience, schools tend to focus on the American Revolution, and barely go beyond the Civil War. Even WWII gets a relatively small amount of attention. It seems that as far as our educational system is concerned, nothing important happened after WWII.

I think it's time we shifted our focus away from early american history, and focused more intently on at least post civil war history - though I'd rather see 20th century history being studied in the sort of depth early american history is currently studied, as it's much more relevant to the modern world.

[MadRocketScientist]

Vietnam was a "Police Action", not a war. That is obviously the source of her confusion.

[wagegoth]

Korea wasn't a war either.

No, don't blame the educational system in general, blame the people in charge of it. Good teachers have to suck it up to keep teaching, or they give up and leave. Bad teachers, as long as they don't blow up the school or get the district sued (too many times), stay as it's a fairly easy ride for a slacker lag, who just doesn't give a flying f**k.

There are a lot of people, unfortunately, many of them running the government, who have never really lived in the real world. I've worked with a lot of attorneys who went to private schools, prep schools, then top universities and law schools, while mommy and daddy paid everything. They're usually the ones that can't cut it, and go into something else. They definitely have no clue how the real world works.

The attorneys who put themselves through school, or who worked for a while before going to law school, seem to be much more likely to continue, and to recognize the realities of law practice.

That said, Boston Legal is my favorite law show of all time, probably because it is so completely out there. There are attorneys like those portrayed in the real world, but they're not usually clustered together in a small firm; most firms can't handle more than one or two weirdos.

[powerboy]

Which is a big problem, IMO. In my experience, schools tend to focus on the American Revolution, and barely go beyond the Civil War. Even WWII gets a relatively small amount of attention. It seems that as far as our educational system is concerned, nothing important happened after WWII.

That is how it was for me in my high school. Back when my brother was in High SChool. One of his teachers, just showed reality tv shows, and that was in math class. It is no wonder my brother dropped out. None of his teachers wanted to teach anything, and he was one of t he few, that actually wanted to learned, and loved learning.

[Bright_Star]

Some of the stupidest people I know go to college or have college degrees. Book smart BUT no common sense at all.

[1756GR2]

Which is a big problem, IMO. In my experience, schools tend to focus on the American Revolution, and barely go beyond the Civil War. .

They also tend to gloss over the French & Indian War/Seven Years War. If you go by what we were taught, nothing happened before the Revolution. But the mid- to late 18th century in America is my area of study, and the basis for my user name.

And yes, I know some highly educated folk who are just marvels of cluelessness when it comes to anything outside their area of concentration - like figuring out how to use a clothes washer, or that recycling is not a new idea.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Most of the social studies/history classes I got in junior high and high school started with the British colonization of America or even before that, and ended at WWII. Nothing about Vietnam or anything happening after 1950 or so.

IMO, they would've benefited by spacing things out more instead of speanding months in one specific period. It would seem like we were still in the early 1800s at mid-year and then hustling to make up the rest of history to date.