Look out, Hank… you may have competition for Village Idiot

Just when you think the educational system in America has hit a new low, the pop music scene shows that we haven’t yet hit bottom.

by Michael Naragon

Granted, this is not something I would normally post on the Alamo, but, as a teacher, this disturbs me.  Justin Bieber, 16-year old teen idol, is asked if his name means “basketball” in German.  The dream date of millions of pre-teen girls across America explained that not only did he not know the answer to the question, but he didn’t know what the word “German” meant.

I’ll show this to my classes tomorrow as an object lesson that having a high profile and money doesn’t necessarily take brains.  It’s likely that Bieber doesn’t even know about the dangers of island tipping, which we all know by now is a very real threat to the environment.  Right, Congressman Johnson?

UPDATE (5/5/10): This just in… Justin Bieber is, in fact, Canadian, and it is the Canadian school system, therefore, that has produced this incident.  My apologies to the teachers’ unions and any other educators who may have been offended that I would assume a child could go through the American system without an understanding of the adjective “German,” meaning “things from Germany.”  This sort of blissful ignorance, obviously, would not be tolerated here.