Can you name the current vice president of the United States? Who were the warring sides in the Civil War?
These questions may seem like no-brainers but Barbie look-a-likes on Tuesday night’s premiere of “Beauty and the Geek” failed an “intellectual” quiz, drawing a blank when asked to name current VP (Dick Cheney, of course) and the combatants in the Civil War (the Union and the Confederacy).
Imagine what would have happened if the Civil War question was phrased like some Southerners refer to it, about the War of Northern Aggression. Talk about an information overload.
To be fair, the geeks were unimaginably awkward during the social graces test. Poise is a skill they didn’t pick up in astrophysics. When asked to approach a female mannequin like they would approach a girlfriend, the embrace exhibitied as much intimacy and passion as when asked to hug grandma.
Still, I’d rather have a bumbling nerd in my presence than an ignorant pageant queen.
Granted, these errors were only sound-bytes edited down to further solidify the women’s place on the show as brainless babes, rather than the pretty, smart women they might actually be. The show would flop if the brainiacs couldn’t teach the beauties some book smarts in exchange for social grace lessons.
But one has to wonder how much of that is real. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to gleam that today’s American culture places higher value on looks than they do on brains. What about Miss Teen South Carolina’s guffaw on national television? A question that started with maps ended with the her discussing how Americans should help more people overseas.
What about helping the US students who enter college on American soil? A study released last week by the Organization of Economic and Cooperation Development (OECD) said that 64 percent of people entered into some sort of college in 2005 but only a little more than half of those will actually earn a degree.
Compare this to the fact that 91 percent of Japanese students who enter higher education gain degrees. The most lettered countries will have the competitive edge on the job market in a decade.
America once prided itself on the academic infrastructure that lured foreign students, trained them and sent them into the world to invent, discover and study. Now, America is losing its scholarly supremacy, as other nations race to educate youngsters in the mathematics and science of tomorrow.
The baby boomer generation always ranked first in the number of people aged 55 to 64 with higher education degrees. The US now ranks tenth in the category aged 25 to 34.
Six years into the No Child Left Behind Act results are highly mixed in its goal to have all students reach state guidelines on proficiency standards. Although according to a federal report released in 2006 that said the highest math scores for 13-year-olds were the highest ever, critics say states lowered the standards and excluded some minorities from the findings, which also come at the expense of other subjects.
Numbers like these from the OECD and the recent debate about the efficiancy of the No Child Left Act behind highlight the possibility that the United States will lose its advantage in the global market.
Students who lag in elementary school will lag in high school. If they go to college they may or may not graduate.
The education system – not to mention the economy and Iraq – are a mess and it’s going to take more than the giggles and charm of some attractive beauty queens to solve it.
If “Beauty and the Geek” is on, watch a few minutes to get a picture of the future of this country. Then flip the channel. Maybe CNN will be airing a presidential debate.
– Holly Fletcher can be reached at [email protected]
