A lot of people imagine that if the world were a classroom, the United States would be the student sitting in the corner with their finger in their nose, wearing the tall, conical hat with “dunce” scrawled on it. It’s not that Americans burst out of the womb with fewer brains than their peers. The problem often lies in quirks of the culture and failures of its often self-centered education system that skimps on diving deep into topics the rest of the world views as fundamental knowledge. Some also have an unwavering sense of self-confidence in themselves and their country, believing neither can ever be wrong. I’m not throwing shade at the stars and stripes. I’m an American myself, and like me, you’ll either get a good laugh or suffer from serious secondhand embarrassment when you read through these moments where Americans unwittingly embraced the “ignorant American” stereotype in cyberspace.
When You Forget Certain States Exist
For the past forty-plus years, American schoolchildren have been forced to sing “Fifty Nifty United States.” The song is used as a way to help kids remember the names of all fifty states in alphabetical order while injecting a little patriotism into the tune, but the song never covered the abbreviations.
If it did, perhaps this Californian wouldn’t have made a fool of themselves – twice. Not only did they drop the ball on identifying the abbreviation for Rhode Island, but they also seem unaware that it exists as part of the contiguous 48 states. To be fair, it is a really small state, completely opposite of California, but is that a valid excuse?