So apparently during the last Teen America Pagent, all of the finalist were asked a geography based question. The response of Ms. South Carolina was less than inspired. I'm sure the pressure of the moment got to this upstanding young lady. Could you have done better?
10 comments:
ok her question, that is: Why can't more Americans locate America on the map was so weird? Who would have known how to answer that? I'm pretty sure our education system is sufficient enough to teach people how to locate America on the map. I bet the 1/5 of Americans who can't locate America are one of three things: infants, don't speak English, or they're senile.
I would like to believe that a pagent girl would be trained well enough to be able to handle this type of interview question. Especially a girl who has been successful in numerous pagents in order to get to the Teen America Pagent. I would like to believe that I could present a slightly better answer than a girl who rambles about the education in Iraq and South Africa instead of actually answering the question, which has a main focus on the United States and the Unites States alone.
I think she was just extremely nervous. Imagine, cameras from every major news station in america pointed directly at you while you're in high-heels on a stage with spotlights in your face while a million+ people are watching and listening to nobody but YOU. Yeah, that's enough to make anyone ramble on about South Africa.
I'm assuming that 1/5 of americans don't care where things are on the map. Maybe their jobs don't require knowing where every country is in the world, or maybe the technology doesn't require to know anything when you can just go to a website and buy a plane ticket to, say, Latvia and not have to worry about mapping a route.
Infants shouldn't be brought into this, I think, heck, they don't know anything yet so they shouldn't be insulted for being ignorant. WE WERE ALL INFANTS AT ONE TIME OR ANOTHER!
People that don't speak english have just as much capability as we do, so their lack of linguistic skills shouldn't be mocked either.
As for senile, there are those people who are just plain stupid or haven't been taught any better. That's a possibility, but our education standards have decline slightly in the past years, so that could contribute to it.
But that's just me.
I would like to think that someone who has participated in a pagent before would not be so nervous if they were surrounded by cameras just to answer one question. There are alot of possibilities why she couldn't give a straight answer. Maybe she was absent the day they taught that in class, or she was not paying attention. Maybe she didn't think she needed to know where America was on the map. Maybe she thought she was too pretty to know or to have to know. As for me, I could tell you exactly where America is on a map just by looking at it. (Between Canada and Mexico).
this question was not written very well at all. "why cant more americans locate america on the map?" Honestly i wouldn't have known how to answer that question.
Awkward question + a big crowd + on national tv + a nervous beauty = one scary answer.
3rd period
I hope that if you do pageants like this that you should be used to cameras and big audiences but you know you can always get a little nervous. I think it is really sad that 1/5 of Americans don't know where the U.S. is located on the map. We're supposed to be the smartest country in the world or a t least one of them. But i agree with meredith you would have to be one of those three or extremely illiterate to not know where the U.S. was located on the map.
First of all, I'd like to say that she was probably very nervous, blind from lights, she had TONS of people watching her, and she's probably not the sharpest tool in the shed. She also was probably not ready for a question like that.
Her question was: "Why can't more americans place America on a map?"
Her response: "Because, most americans don't OWN a map."
I agree with Meredith that it is an odd question, and I don't really know how most people would've answered it, but I think that it is because our education standards are declining rapidly.[[If it doesn't have anything to do with the TAKS, it doesn't matter.]]
I also believe that anyone in America should be able to locate America on a map, whether you own one or not.
Believe it or not, beauty isn't as important as brains.
Kali Elliott
4th Period
Human Geography AP
The question seems pointless but is very simple. Instead of talking about issues in South Africa and Iraq, she should have answered it as best as she could and would have saved herself from enbarassment.
What kind of question was that? That's crazy!!! I wouldn't be able to answer that either! Why would americans not be able to locate america? It's not like it's a small country or anything. GOSH!!!!!!!! If models are truly supposed to be stupid, then why are they giving them freaking hard questions?
I agree that she must have been nervous. But that's no excuse. First of all, she should be use to getting nervous, and being able to work through it and still deliver an appropriate answer. I think the question was very clear, and anyone with half a brain could come up with an answer.
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