More piling on.

Texas Hold 'em helpfully offers an actual transcript of the educational stylings of Miss Teen South Carolina.... who, despite this answer, was third-runner up. I suppose that confirms that this was not (ahem) a scholarship contest. Here goes:

"I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, uh, some people out there in our nation don’t have maps, and, uh, I believe that our education like such as in South Africa and, uh, the Iraq everywhere like, such as and I believe that they should, our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S., er, should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future for our children."

And no, that is not a quote from a John Edwards speech.

As one emailer notes:

"Unless you haven’t noticed, social studies classes are no longer taught in public schools. … Any child that shows up for roll call can expect to pass the grade level he or she is in. Ability has been replaced with ‘feeling good’ about one’s self image. Why can’t many Americans find any country on a map?"

Uh, yes, we have noticed.