What's a continent again?

So I'm sitting in biology this morning when suddenly the row behind me bursts out laughing in the middle of class. I have no idea what they're laughing about so I just keep doing my work until the girl behind me leans forward and says "You're never going to believe what Kate just said."

Now, Kate is pretty infamous in the class for being a complete moron. She transferred to my (private) school from the local public school at the beginning of this year. It took us twenty minutes of convincing and an atlas to show her that driving south from Texas won't take you to Canada. Just yesterday, she tried to argue that Boston is in Maryland. Wondering what she'd done now, I just had to ask.

"She told me Asia is a country and China is a state in it."

No. No *bleep*ing way. We're seniors in high school and there was no way in hell she didn't know that Asia was a continent. I didn't get to talk to her until lunch when she confirmed the rumor with "How was I supposed to know?", then "Yes, I can find the US on a map, I'm not stupid!" She then told me to quiz her on geography. I decided I'd start simple so she wouldn't hurt herself.

"Start naming some continents, Kate."

"Asia." Yes, that was okay. There was a minute-long pause as her brain grasped for another continent. With anyone else I would've thought she was joking, but the blank, goldfish-like stare on her face told me otherwise. Her next guess was the United States, followed by Canada, Mexico and Alaska. I took pity on her and named North America, at which point she said "I knew that" and gave up.

Every have any experiences with people like this? Was your education this bad? At what age could you tell a continent from a country?

Public school education in Pennsylvania, folks.

Haha, lawd.

I remember back in the 11th grade (jesus that was so long ago) when we were playing some trivia game in History class to prepare for a huge test. This kid Vincent, one of those airbrained 'lol i don't care about school i dont need smarts' types is up at the front, asking us trivia questions based on what the teacher told us was on the test.

He starts asking us this question about a country. I completely forget what the question was so we'll just say it was... "What country is known for ______?"

We start naming off countries, and we KNOW that we got the right answer at least once. He keeps saying 'no, no, none of you got it!'

After about 20 minutes of severe frustration, some girl gets up, grabs the book, he points to the country and she says, "Europe is a continent."

It was awful.

quote Mouldy Cheese

Oh man...I would have face palmed my hand right through my head ;_;

Public schools aren't all bad though! I went to a public school that was pretty decent and a decent amount of my classmates went on to complete a tertiary education.

Public schools in Australia =/= public schools in America

That said, I would hope this girl is an outlier and not the norm D:

quote walnuts

quote Mouldy Cheese

Oh man...I would have face palmed my hand right through my head ;_;

Public schools aren't all bad though! I went to a public school that was pretty decent and a decent amount of my classmates went on to complete a tertiary education.

Public schools in Australia =/= public schools in America

That said, I would hope this girl is an outlier and not the norm D:

Not the norm, but it's not super rare for it to happen.

And it's not because the educational system here is the absolute worst thing to happen to humanity, but some people refuse to have information enter their brains.

I usually stick to advance classes, so I don't see it myself as often, but about two years or so ago, there was one girl who kept asking, "what is ____?" no later than a minute after the teacher said it. It was annoying because it really slowed the class down having to repeat the same things over and over again because one girl wouldn't get off her phone, yet insist on having the teacher repeat what she said.

quote Aevers

Miss Hoover, what's a continent?

lol

its that stuff you put on your sandwiches, hotdogs, etc.

I'm a cashier and I had a lady once come up to me and say, "These roller skates say for ages 2-6 and they are a size 6. (Making up the sizes, I forget exactly). My daughter's foot size is an 8, but she's 4 years old. Will these still work on her?"

I paused for a moment to think of what to say without getting fired, and just said "Will the shoes that are two sizes too small somehow magically fit on your kids feet simply because she's in the age range? No."

The lady, not realizing I was making fun of her said "But she's right in the middle of the age range. The box even says so."

Me, getting tired of this *bleep*ing retard, said "If the foot is bigger than the shoe, it won't get in. It's as simple as that."

Then she walked away.

I've also had people complain touch screen pens for our credit card machine were out of ink. I usually just say, "Oh sorry we just ordered a new shipment of touch screen ink today." With a straight face. I hate people.

When I was about 4 I forgot how to eat hotdogs once.

You can get the reading comprehension tests read to you if you don't think you can handle it at my school.

I wish I were joking.