Harvard students don't know Canada's capital


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Hardly fair. People come from all over the world to attend American schools because they are some of the best in the world.

 

It's a little disturbing that people are one of the most prestigious schools in the world don't know the capital of their neighbouring country. If the question was "What is the capital Tanzania" you could see why a lot of people wouldn't know that.

 

 

It's Dodoma, by the way :p

Students specialize.  Not everyone is going to be in a major that is relevant to geography.

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so what? you know how I see it now days, there is just TOO much information to know, you have to specialize in your area and not care about the rest... you can always find something to say LOOK SOMEONE DOESN'T KNOW THIS! to... heck I bet you half the Harvard students don't even know where places on their own campus are... does that make them dumb? no not really

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I wonder how many people in Ottawa know the capital of Massachusetts ... :shifty:

 

Boston

 

Bit of a different question there though.  One is asking the capital of a country, the other the capital of a state.  I'm sure there are many US citizens that don't know the capitals of all the states.

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A "prestigious" school doesn't teach students information, it teaches them how to critically think and problem solve better than a non-pristegous school that simply asks students to memorize. Who cares if you don't know what the capital of Canada is. What matters is if you are supposed to know it, and don't, or can't figure it out.

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A "prestigious" school doesn't teach students information, it teaches them how to critically think and problem solve better than a non-pristegous school that simply asks students to memorize. Who cares if you don't know what the capital of Canada is. What matters is if you are supposed to know it, and don't, or can't figure it out.

exactly, you are taught to find and use knowledge, not bulk memorize knowledge and not know what to do with it

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A "prestigious" school doesn't teach students information, it teaches them how to critically think and problem solve better than a non-pristegous school that simply asks students to memorize. Who cares if you don't know what the capital of Canada is. What matters is if you are supposed to know it, and don't, or can't figure it out.

 

I can't disagree with that.  Still, there's some basic trivia people should just know, especially when Canada is the US's biggest trading partner.  It's like knowing your neighbor's name...there won't be any test on it...it's just polite to know.

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I can't disagree with that.  Still, there's some basic trivia people should just know, especially when Canada is the US's biggest trading partner.  It's like knowing your neighbor's name...there won't be any test on it...it's just polite to know.

 

why should people know it? Heck I don't know half my neighbor's names... and honestly, I don't care... if they want to know me they will talk to me.. I think information should be relevant to you, if you need to know it, you will, if you don't need to, it's just useless knowledge

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I can't believe how many people find this acceptable. This is a disgrace for the American school system.

They were not asking for the capital of a country far far away. They were asking for the capital of the country right next door.

 

I remember learning at least all the capitals for the countries in Europe and we probably went over the rest of the world too.

I'm not pretending that I still remember all of them, but I at least remember the ones from the countries surrounding my own, and then some.

 

I know you can look anything up, but it would be nice for people to be able to have a nice all round conversation without looking stupid all the time

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I can't believe how many people find this acceptable. This is a disgrace for the American school system.

They were not asking for the capital of a country far far away. They were asking for the capital of the country right next door.

 

I remember learning at least all the capitals for the countries in Europe and we probably went over the rest of the world too.

I'm not pretending that I still remember all of them, but I at least remember the ones from the countries surrounding my own, and then some.

 

I know you can look anything up, but it would be nice for people to be able to have a nice all round conversation without looking stupid all the time

 

You're being way too high minded about this.  First off they asked a few students the question, not a huge sampling of people around the US.  Secondly it's trivial and has nothing to do with being able to have an conversation with someone.  People get by just fine without knowing the capital of such and such country/state.  Too much hyperbole over this non-issue.

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I don't like these videos, they are misleading. They ask a ton of people a question and then they cherry pick the ones who gave wrong answers and only show those to make it look like an entire group of people are dumb. Knowing the capital of some other country isn't exactly important anyway.

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I can't believe how many people find this acceptable. This is a disgrace for the American school system.

They were not asking for the capital of a country far far away. They were asking for the capital of the country right next door.

 

My point exactly.  As I wrote above...biggest trading partner.  And the guys next door.

 

As for my example of knowing your own neighbors' name...I do have one neighbor who moved in right next door 2-3 years ago.  Still don't know his name.  If he sees me outside, he looks away and won't even make eye contact.  Result?  He might be the nicest guy in the world, but he comes across as an *******.

 

So yeah, I'm not expecting anyone to know everything, but personally, I don't wanna be the guy who only knows how to do a Google search.  This is also how you end up with a generation of kids working a cash register but couldn't figure out a discount of 10% without a machine.

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I can't believe how many people find this acceptable. This is a disgrace for the American school system.

They were not asking for the capital of a country far far away. They were asking for the capital of the country right next door.

 

I remember learning at least all the capitals for the countries in Europe and we probably went over the rest of the world too.

I'm not pretending that I still remember all of them, but I at least remember the ones from the countries surrounding my own, and then some.

 

I know you can look anything up, but it would be nice for people to be able to have a nice all round conversation without looking stupid all the time

like I said before, information is relative to what you need to know... I bet you, if you went to a large college you wouldn't know where everything was in that campus... and if someone from outside asked you where is this, and you said I have no idea I never go there.. they'd be like OMG you go here and you don't know? yet they'd do the same thing themselves... it's the same on a macro and micro scale... it's not a "failure" of the education system, it's people knowing they need to know some stuff more then others..

 

besides if you ask a group to mass memorize anything, you are just wasting your time, as they will eventually forget it through lack of use... and it takes forever to know everything, and schools, no mater where they are can not do that

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I can't believe how many people find this acceptable. This is a disgrace for the American school system.

They were not asking for the capital of a country far far away. They were asking for the capital of the country right next door.

 

I remember learning at least all the capitals for the countries in Europe and we probably went over the rest of the world too.

I'm not pretending that I still remember all of them, but I at least remember the ones from the countries surrounding my own, and then some.

 

I know you can look anything up, but it would be nice for people to be able to have a nice all round conversation without looking stupid all the time

The American school system has failed, because people don't know the capitol of Canada.  Because that is the only knowledge anyone needs or uses.

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The American school system has failed, because people don't know the capitol of Canada.  Because that is the only knowledge anyone needs or uses.

 

capital

Capital of Canada.

 

Sorry. Just had to.

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I wonder how many people in Ottawa know the capital of Massachusetts ... :shifty:

 

Boston

 

This. This really hurts my head because I cannot detect if you are ignorant to the original question, or just bad at making counter-questions because they aren't even on the same playing field.

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This. This really hurts my head because I cannot detect if you are ignorant to the original question, or just bad at making counter-questions because they aren't even on the same playing field.

 

There is a good chance that he was joking.  Maybe with the pain in your head you were unable to detect that, sad being so easily hurt by such a trivial matter.  /s       <-- please note the sarcasm tag  ;)

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like I said before, information is relative to what you need to know... I bet you, if you went to a large college you wouldn't know where everything was in that campus... and if someone from outside asked you where is this, and you said I have no idea I never go there.. they'd be like OMG you go here and you don't know? yet they'd do the same thing themselves... it's the same on a macro and micro scale... it's not a "failure" of the education system, it's people knowing they need to know some stuff more then others..

 

besides if you ask a group to mass memorize anything, you are just wasting your time, as they will eventually forget it through lack of use... and it takes forever to know everything, and schools, no mater where they are can not do that

 

This is about more then that. This is about general knowledge and some interest in who and what your neighboring countries are.

I find it disturbing that people really want to live in their own little bubble. If you only know what is important for your job how will you even have anything useful to contribute when you can't talk about work.

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You're being way too high minded about this.  First off they asked a few students the question, not a huge sampling of people around the US.  Secondly it's trivial and has nothing to do with being able to have an conversation with someone.  People get by just fine without knowing the capital of such and such country/state.  Too much hyperbole over this non-issue.

 

It's still sad that some of you not expect more from Harvard students. Aren't they supposed to be the brightest of the brightest. You would expect those people to be able to remember some general knowledge from high school. If your school system doesn't provide that information I find that rather close minded to not at least teach about your direct neighbors. It could also be a complete lack of interest of your students in these kind of matters, which is also disturbing.

 

There is nothing wrong in specializing in something, but everybody should have some general knowledge, no?

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This is about more then that. This is about general knowledge and some interest in who and what your neighboring countries are.

I find it disturbing that people really want to live in their own little bubble. If you only know what is important for your job how will you even have anything useful to contribute when you can't talk about work.

Not everyone concerns themselves with the affairs of others, or other countries.

 

Immediate family is more a concern than the capital of Canada.

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