12 January 2014

Top 10 Oddest Questions Posed to Alaskans

I weep for the state of what-passes-for-education in our country.

10. What time do you turn on the northern lights?

9. How do you keep the animals inside Denali National Park?

8. Are all your vegetables frozen?
 
7. You can drive to Alaska? I thought it was an island*.

6. If Alaska and Hawaii are so close*, why do they have such different climates?

5. What kind of currency do you use and what’s the exchange rate?

4. Can I see your green card?

3. How do you know what time it is when it’s always dark?

2. Do you have to use snowshoes or a dog team to go everywhere?

And the No. 1 question Alaskans get is “does everyone still live in igloos?”

Bonus points go to the few who know that yes, you can actually see Russia from Alaska.


* Two forms of the same question from the low-information folks who see Alaska on on weather maps, and thinks that Alaska and Hawaii both islands, somewhere in the Gulf of Baja.

17 comments:

denimflyz said...

Should give you an idea why we are in the mess and swimming in a cesspool that we have today with the present administration. I'm sure he thinks of these questions the same way, I mean, isn't he a low information president?

Well Seasoned Fool said...

+1 denimflyz

Rev. Paul said...

denimflyz, the Progressives dumbed down the school curriculum around a century ago, and continue to make it more & more useless. It's been quite deliberate on their part, with an unexpected side-effect: they're as stupid as those who vote for them.

Rev. Paul said...

Agreed.

denimflyz said...

I know about stupid kids I have worked with at different jobs. I am not the smartest person, but I came from Old Order Amish grandparents who were voracious readers. Even though they were not college educated, they were very well read from Ancient Histories to the more modern times in the 70's. After the 70's, they did not understand what made people tick. When I went to school, there were many things that I knew about, but was not taught or even mentioned in school. I remember asking something about WWII in history (cannot recall now what it was, but it struck a nerve), and was told to never mention it again. Now I look back after 37 yrs and it clicks.

OldAFSarge said...

It is to weep...

Rev. Paul said...

Indeed it is, Sarge. We never thought about it not being taught, growing up, because everyone in my neck of the woods seemed to know about it too. But now? Kids don't even know who we fought in WWII.

Tragic.

Murphy's Law said...

Al my nephew knows about World War Two is that we locked the Japanese Americans in camps and dropped atom bombs on Japan. But a girl in one of my college classes back in the day did one better. I was telling her and some other students that I'd just come back from a motorcycle trip through Montana, and she asked where that was. I told her what states were around it and she didn't know where those were, either. In COLLEGE. And it turned out that before I talked to her, she did not know that Montana was a state. IN COLLEGE. Schools today don't want to fail the precious little snowflakes so they pass the dumb ones on, education not included.

PioneerPreppy said...

Exactly why I did not use my teaching certificate for anything more than forcing social services to allow me to home school. It was amazing the number of hurdles and amount of obstacles I avoided with it. They kept going on and on about approved this and testing that without an accredited teacher I had to have periodic checks blah blah blah and then when they looked all smug I dropped that bomb on em.

Never once got another look from them.

Rev. Paul said...

ML, it's infuriating & disgusting. The OTHER big fallacy we have to keep fighting is those who think Alaska is overseas ... or part of Canada.

Preppy, I hear & understand. One of the many, many things we like about Alaska is that they not only encourage home-schooling, they even pay for curriculum, materials, outside courses & tutors, and computers. Both of my daughters finished high school here, at home, and are both productive members of society.

I guarantee you they know where Montana is. And did I mention I taught them American history? Heh.

Cathy said...

OK. On the lighter side:
What time do you turn on those northern lights?
;)

Rev. Paul said...

If I knew that, Cathy, I'd have more pictures to share. They mostly come in the wee, small hours of very, very cold winter nights ... darn it.

Cathy said...

Our astronomer son gives us a heads-up when there's some reeelly big CME . . . in hopes that they might dip far enough south so that we can see them in Toledo. It's been 20 years since we saw them down here. Tell you what. I'd be putting on my long underwear and setting the alarm clock to witness a really spectacular display :)

Rev. Paul said...

Understood, Cathy, but that makes it very hard to wake up for work later that morning. Once or twice is plenty; I find I don't want to do it very often.

Rev. Paul said...

Armed Laughing sends this reply to you, ML:

Frightening, disgusting and just plain SAD!

gfa

Keads said...

Indeed. That is why I went Galt on being a part of that system. Plus the slack jawed gawking in the classroom did nothing for my blood pressure.

Rev. Paul said...

Yeah ... and that's just the teacher! (ba-DUMP-bump)