<p><a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww[/url]”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww</a></p>
<p>hopefully advancing far in this competition will be a hook for college, she’ll obviously need one.</p>
<p>how does this happen? parents with misplaced priorities? I don’t even know…</p>
<p>Is it true that 1/5 of Americans can’t locate the US on a world map? Is it a map that’s different from conventional maps or from before the continental drift or something?</p>
<p>her answer was non-sensical at best</p>
<p>and she was what, 3rd runner up? how did that happen? how did she get to that level</p>
<p>egad</p>
<p>roflmao, she was trying so hard to sound smart.</p>
<p>Let’s remember the age of these girls – they’re teenagers after all. I admit she sounded incoherent, but you have to agree that she got the most inane question of them all. It took me at least 5 minutes to process the ridiculousness of the question and then to compose my response. Although my response was not incoherent, it certainly wasn’t very compelling as 1/5 of Americans not being able to read a map is the least of America’s problems. Plus, answering that question doesn’t particularly reveal anything about the contestant. I felt very sorry for her.</p>
<p>I thought the clip revealed a lot about her (and nothing very positive).</p>
<p>I suggest those that are critical of the girl post your answer to the question.</p>
<p>As far as a hook goes…they do win a scholarship to acting school as part of the package, so I assume they’re auto-admits. :)</p>
<p>Only one winner has accepted the scholarship so far, and you can catch her these days as a regular on one of the soaps. (I think it’s Days of our Lives).</p>
<p>What did she say? Something about South Africa & Iraq. Was her response that the reason Americans are unable to locate the US on a map because they are a similar shape to South Africa & Iraq, and therefore confusing? :)</p>
<p>I suppose the real reason is because our educational system doesn’t place enough emphasis on geography. Nor history, math, English, foreign language, physical education, music…in my opinion, our educational system doesn’t place enough emphasis on education.</p>
<p>Kinda hate to say anything further, since the poor girl was clearly in over her head, but did you notice that she keeps pronouncing Iraq as “Diraq?”</p>
<p>Coureur, I believe she was saying “the Iraq.”</p>
<p>oh, poor girl… I understand that she sounded completely incoherent, but she also sounded just like the majority of the girls at my high school.</p>
<p>I’m wondering if this is a true depiction of her answer to the question asked…Perhaps her answers to different questions were cut and pasted together to come up with this “spoof.”
If not, why would she bring up S.Africa and Iraq?</p>
<p>She didn’t understand the question.</p>
<p>my guess is that she was given some pat answers and was trying to twist one of them to match the question</p>
<p>ie- what do you think is our biggest international issue</p>
<p>Well, as a general rule, gals who enter beauty contests aren’t the brightest bulbs. I watched a pageant when I was a kid, and the contestant was answering a question about how to solve world peace, or some such thing. She chose to end her statement thusly, “And in the words of Abraham Lincoln, a house divided against itself…{Sudden deer-in-headlights look of panic}…is not good!”</p>
<p>A friend of D’s did pageants. She’s at MIT now and doing well.</p>
<p>But around 10th grade, she had to hang up the tiara and sash because she didn’t have time to continue pageants at a high level and to pursue academics at the level she wanted to. </p>
<p>It’s like sports. If you want to be the national champion in something, it’s going to take away time you could spend on academics, and everyone (or everyone and his or her parents) has to set their own priorities.</p>
<p>
That was my impression as well, CGM.</p>
<p>I saw that and wanted so badly to give the poor girl the benefit of the doubt. Maybe she was simply paralyzed with fear–she DID have that rabbit-in-headlights look about her. And who among us has not babbled senselessly at one time or another while under pressure? On the other hand, her response went way beyond stupid. It was mortifying.</p>
<p>I was sure someone had told her to mention Iraq (but “the Iraq”? Don’t think so) and perhaps Darfur, or something in Africa, which came out as “South Africa”. </p>
<p>In the comments section on the YouTube video, someone has transcribed what she said. It really is mortifying, even if she was scared to death (which I assume she was). That response could be the poster child for bad education in this country as it is.</p>