Posted on 09/04/2007 9:39:43 AM PDT by SirLinksalot
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 question about geographically challenged Americans.
Lauren Caitlin Upton of Lexington, S.C., shown in this undated modeling photo. The 18-year-old has become national sensation after her gramatically 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?
(Excerpt) Read more at worldnetdaily.com ...
The article goes on to say that ...
Geography was dropped by government schools decades ago.
It goes on to encourage parents to tell their kids to drop out of public schools and homeschool instead.
I blame the open borders crowd (the ones who say that our insistance on borders is xenephobic) and the antiamerican left who’ve poisoned her brain for 18 years trying to make her feel guilty as an American for the problems in South Africa and in Iraq.
There are those who say that there was no civil war in Iraq under Saddam; shall we employ his technique of murders, rape rooms, and torturing the families of prisoners before their eyes in prison?
Someone did this child harm.
It’s all about knowing what it feels like to put a condom on a banana these days.
No matter how beautiful a woman may be, if she doesn’t have anything inside her head, I won’t date her.
Nice genes.
I never had to do that, weegee.
i bet this wasnt about geography at all but all the warm, fuzzy, and pc things she thought needed to be included in an answer. unfortunately she probably hasn’t had much opportunity to communicate to a crowd on her feet.
I think she just got nervous being up there on stage.
Did anyone ask her if she was nervous?
If she denied being nervous THEN (and only then) would I be concerned.
Essentially, this whole thing could be a non-issue. some folks get anxious or nervous when talking publicly - it happens.
It’s part of life and she’s still very, very young too.
If she was all nerved up when she spoke, then she gets a pass from me.
The irony is, if she’s from Lexington, depending on which part of the city or county she lives in, she’s in one of the better public school districts in the entire state of South Carolina, at least in terms of test scores.
}:-)4
One of the reasons I write rather than speak is because I freeze up. Every thought I have makes an immediate exit from my brain. If that is what happened to her, then I can understand. However, it seems to me that to get as far as she did as a contestant, she would have had to have sufficient training and experience in the public speaking arena.
A Pole
A Playboy Layout
A Old Millionaire Hubby
A Diet Product Ad
That’s definitely it, the nervousness. But I don’t know why contestants never challenge the question itself.
I don’t believe that statistic they gave, and in so much as it’s true, it can’t be a big deal because the sun still rose this morning and there are plenty of bright, educated people picking up the slack for the stupid among us.
That’s the answer I would have given, were I a teenage beauty queen.
No wonder when you realize new books need to be printed every year to try to keep up.
I’m still trying to figure out what kind of answer the judges wanted. I doubt that they wanted her to say that the eductional system is terrible. The best I can guess at is that they wanted her to say that the U.S. is irrelevant, and that world peace is all that matters. Hey, WAIT...that’s the answer they wanted. She blew it!!!!!!!!!
“Geography was dropped by government schools decades ago.”
But ask those same kids about “alternate lifestyles” and you will get correct answers.
Look, the question was a bit flawed and definitely loaded.
First, it assumes a 3.50 student even knows most morons around her don’t know where the US is on the map. Did you know that? This is like a Dumb and Dumber question. “Uh, he he, I’m dumb, so why are people dumb like me?”
Uh, well, cause you are dumb and need to study?
Look the kid was looking for a home run question for a higher moral and political cause and got hit with a moron question that asks why are people just like Earl and only know where the A/C switch is on their trailer homes? Or habla espanol at the border. Or can barely navigate the route from the gas station to the drive in window?
The question was too big for its own question mark.
Seriously, do YOU know why morons can’t find the bloody US on a map? Cause they are stupid idiots. Sorry, but the truth simply isn’t politically correct for a teen to say to the moron masses slobbering over their microwave popcorn just drooling at her hooters anyway.
Pass the buffalo wings, dear!
Duh!!!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.