I was trying to pick my fantasy Supreme Court league best 14 supreme court generals. It’s been trickier than I thought. so far, I’ve got:
Chairman Meow (chief justice)
Colonel Sanders
Battle Pope
Zombie Abraham Lincoln
Brienne of Tarth
Voltron
Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson edition)
that “For Great Justice” guy (take off every zig)
I’ve only got 8 of 14 justice generals so far, and I’m a little worried that my fantasy supreme court is currently more male dominated than the real supreme court. I was going to add Star Butterfly, but that seems like a violation of the separation of powers. None of the discworld witches seems like a good fit. thoughts?
(new members, based on replies, now canon)
Catherine the Great
General Bonkers
Snoop Dogg
On a related subject, what’s really depressing is how few college graduates can name the starting five of the Washington Generals. Over sixty percent of them thought that Ethan “Bubblegum” Tate played for them!
Honestly - what’s the incentive that college graduates have for knowing that Madison was the drafter of the Constitution vs. Jefferson? Unless they’re going to get a PhD in History with an emphasis on early American history or they’re planning on winning big at Jeopardy there’s no incentive to remember that factoid. And so it will be jettisoned - the nursing student who doesn’t remember that fact probably remembers some human biology factoid that I’ve forgotten, the business student probably remembers some factoid about management that I’ve never learned, and the math student some interesting calculus wrinkle that I’ve forgotten.
People specialize these days. Having a well-rounded education is a good thing, but measuring that amounts to more than just measuring how many trivia questions you can answer.
And see this is far more important than naming nine people or all fifty state capitals. This is more representative of what high school students learn in an AP class because it’s part of an entry level political science class that many (all?) US universities require for undergraduate general ed.
It would be awesome if there was time for rote memorization during the school year, but this would mean longer school days and more homework.
Personally, I love geographical info and all things Supreme Court so I would encourage my kid to learn about this stuff on his/her off time…if I had children.
Exactly. You learn it for the grade and then your brain eliminates it after some time if It no longer serves a purpose. I have a poli sci degree and I know that I couldn’t name any significant factoids from my college zoology class. But if given the right situation (crossword puzzle clue), I might be able to figure out the correct info.
Don’t have to tell me that. My own field is quantum computation, about as narrow as it comes.
In cases like this reductive survey, yes. In general, I believe it’s a really good idea for every member of a society to have a solid grounding in history, both that of the world and that of the land they call home. The problem is that such history is useless without a narrative, because history is simply too vast and complex for any individual to grok every thread. But narratives are partially subjective, so they really don’t lend themselves to rudimentary factual surveys like the idiocy that gave rise to this BB post. As you allude, history isn’t trivia, it’s an vast interleaving of cascading events. Even so, to (loosely) paraphrase Michael Crichton, if you don’t have some grasp on the arc of history, you’re just a leaf ignorant of the tree.
Well, I said “many (most?)” with respect to the general education requirements for a bachelor’s degree in the U.S. at public unversity. You know, x# of units in physical science, natural science, history, poli sci math, etc., in their lower division.
Maybe it’s just California that requires poli sci? The UC, CSU, and community colleges have this requirement, but then the California statewide jobs also have an affidavit requirement that all employees must sign upholding and defending the California Constitution from invaders.
Edit to add that even engineering students must take this course in California.
Very very true. And exactly the kind of arc I’m talking about. History never occurs in a vacuum. Isolated “factiods” that suggest otherwise misinform more than they inform.
The majority of college grads, 61.6 percent, correctly chose Elena Kagan. The second-most selected option was Lawrence Warren Pierce, a former federal judge with a name that’s relatively unknown to the general public.
Almost as unknown is “Judith Sheindlin,” the real name of “Judge Judy.” While the hugely popular, nationally syndicated TV judge’s moniker has become somewhat of a household name, “Judith Sheindlin” is just another vaguely familiar name on a list.
Studies like this show how pollsters can focus on relatively peripheral results to inflate their findings and call attention to their studies. Last month, another organization’s survey showed Americans were divided over whether they wanted to bomb Agrabah, the fictional home of Aladdin. Most people said they weren’t sure, but the fact that anyone fell for the trick was the widely reported “troubling” outcome.
