[FRIAM] Despite the Web, Americans Remain Woefully Ill-Informed

[Roger Critchlow]

On 7/22/07, steve smith <sasmyth at swcp.com> wrote:
>
> I am disturbed by the non-sequitur inherent in the Subject and Body of
> this article:   It suggests that the Web inherently *should* make
> Americans more well informed.


Myself, I'm getting a little tired of the pop quizzes demonstrating one kind
of ignorance or another.

Given any population, there exists some set of questions which they will get
mostly wrong, and another set they will get mostly right.  So what?

Ability to regurgitate facts on demand measures what?  Ability to think?
No.  Ability to research?  No.  Ability to make good decisions?  No.
Ability to ask good questions?  No.  Ability to understand answers?  No.

If you want people to look smart, ask questions they know the answer to.  If
you want them to look stupid, ask other questions.  In either case,
establish that the questions asked are the ones the people should know by
hand waving, because there is no authority for the questions people should
be able to answer.

-- rec --
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