Teen USA quiz: The real answer

Posted: September 3, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern



By Joseph Farah

© 2007


Everyone is having a good belly laugh at the expense of Lauren Caitlin Upton, the contestant in the Miss Teen USA pageant who imploded in a painful display of verbal and intellectual chaos in response to a question about geographically challenged Americans.

Lauren Caitlin Upton of Lexington, S.C., shown in this undated modeling photo. The 18-year-old has become a national sensation after her grammatically challenged response to a question at the Miss Teen USA pageant in Pasadena, Calif., Aug. 24, 2007 (photo courtesy Locke Management)

While everyone is fixated on the answer, no one has taken time to respond to the question the way it needs to be answered.

"Recent polls have shown a fifth of Americans can't locate the United States on a world map. Why do you think this is?"

How would a product of the government school system to blame for this travesty be expected to diagnose the problem?

No, it's not a map shortage, as Miss Upton surmised.

It's not a problem in South Africa or Iraq, as she hinted.

In effect, the contestant herself illustrated the problem – personified it. It's not a problem limited to geographic illiteracy. It is a crisis of ignorance afflicting generations of younger Americans.

Unfortunately, it is not a laughing matter.


I wouldn't be surprised if Miss Upton is among the top 10 percent of 18-year-old Americans in general education and communication skills. That's a scary thought.

Miss Upton completed her government schooling and received high grades – a 3.50 GPA. She was an honor student. She completed all the qualifications and did so admirably. She didn't finish at the bottom of the class or even in the middle. She finished at the top.

Was her inability to answer the question coherently just the result of a temporary mental meltdown? Or, do you suspect, as I do, that few if any of her classmates would have been able to do much better?

Geography? I doubt Miss Upton and her classmates are even familiar with the word, let alone the subject. It was dropped by government schools decades ago. Why? Because knowledge of geography can easily be measured.

Knowledge of geography is important. Knowledge of geography can equip students to think for themselves. Knowledge of geography is essential for good citizenship. Government schools don't like it for all of those reasons.
I'm convinced the purpose of government schooling is to dumb down the populace and turn them into serfs and subjects rather than citizens capable of reason and equipped with a sense of morality.

Why can't Americans pick out the U.S. on a map of the world? Why can't Lauren Caitlin Upton and her friends answer the question?

This is what they've been programmed to do – or not to do.
What's the solution?

It certainly isn't stay in school. It certainly isn't more of the same. It certainly isn't spending more taxpayer dollars on the problem.

The solution is obvious, though only a few million Americans have figured it out. The solution is to drop out. It's time for parents to wake up and do what is in the best interest of their kids – pull them out of these horrible institutions of non-learning.

Think about what does go on inside those hollow halls:

• Kids are taught techniques of aberrant sexual behavior.
• They are taught in a million ways that God is irrelevant to their education.
• They are taught pseudo-science cloaked in the "good citizenship" of environmentalism.
• And they are intentionally denied the basic tools of self-government – knowledge of history, geography, and good reading and learning habits.

In days gone by, we would convince each other the way to respond to the problems we see in American society is to "get involved." We would persuade our friends and family members and neighbors to vote, to join the PTA, to work on behalf of some politician, to give money to a political campaign.

The bad news is those ideas don't work anymore. We're in such an advanced state of cultural and political decay that our efforts will only leave us disenchanted, discouraged, and demoralized. The good news is there's perhaps an easier way to achieve our objectives. We need to do what the Russians did when they ended 70 years of Soviet oppression. We need to just say no.

Saying "no" means pulling your kids out of those brainwashing hubs. Imagine what would happen if several hundred thousand parents did that this year – joining the growing millions who have already made that choice. Not only will you bring direct benefits to your kids – protecting them and providing them with the chance for a real education – but you will also be dropping out of the system, becoming part of the solution rather than part of the problem.

Homeschooling is the best option. The next best choice is a worthy private institution. The important thing is getting your kids out of the grip of these government institutions of non-learning. Stop pretending. It will be the best choice you ever made for your children.
There are a thousand reasons for this decision. Think of the recently concluded Miss Teen USA Pageant as 1,001.

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Liberals are people that will believe anything twice.

she was on a morning talk show and they asked her the question again.. she answered it.. and answered it well..

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Do you think she was possibly coached on the subject, or if she was just nervous, or had stage fright?

she looks good in turquoise

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SeeMoreBuds
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i agree with the gist of the article, the public schools are dumbing it down. they do it to boost test scores for the less future-oriented students and to accommodate all the illegals.


in her defense, she said she didn't hear the entire question, something was wrong with her earpiece. i really believe her. she got nervous and, as young girls often do, turned to a quantity of words rather than quality.

fortunately for her, as GK pointed out, she's quite capable of being concise and intelligent so i hope she will bounce back.






.

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"But even when you cease to be slaves, you are yet far removed from being placed on an equality with the white race."

- Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of America, Hero to the servants of big government, Racist War Monger

She's so hot in that picture ... I bet Smokey The Bear sends her hate mail.

Vi

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Liberals are people that will believe anything twice.

So...she's 18???

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US Americans, you are here:



This public service announcement paid for by TheConstantGardner

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~lol~ ... That's funny.

Try this: Ask the average California teenager in what direction they would have to travel in order to reach Hawaii in the shortest distance and see what they would say.

Ask them if they would ever consider living in New Mexico and they'd say ... Nope, too much poverty in Mexico. ~lol~

Vi

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Liberals are people that will believe anything twice.

Yeah, but VI, most california teens smoke the venerable herb. Do you think this might be dumbing them down? I remember my youngest brother started smoking weed at 8, He certainly didn't get much out of school.

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