The
reddit community is aghast at what co-host Sherri Shepherd of
The View said when asked if the world was flat.
"…I Don’t know."
She "never thought about it," but she has in fact thought about "how I’m going to feed my child."
As a twenty-four year old without children, I have the time to ponder the shape of our world. She doesn't. I consider being able to feed just myself an accomplishment.
What's more frustrating is that Whoopi keeps wasting her time probing about the shape of the Earth. The ladies of
The View could have been using that time to discuss the nuances of string theory (Elizabeth Hasselbeck is a huge Brian Green fan).
Besides, so-called "intellectuals" like Thomas Friedman have only muddied the waters. His
very popular (and evidently very misleading) book,
The World is Flat, probably caught Mrs. Shepherd's eye.
Just whose side are you on, Mr. Friedman? It's time you were held accountable, but that's for another day.
Now, before we go burning Mrs. Shepherd at the stake (that's what
scientists are for) we should consider the broader implications of her comments. It reveals the failings of our education system. Juxtapose Mrs. Shepherd's comments with those of Ms. South Carolina:
"[...]some people out there in our nation don't have maps and, uh, I believe that our, uh, education like such as, uh, South Africa and, uh, the Iraq and everywhere like such as, and I believe that they should, uh, our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S., uh, should help South Africa and should help Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future."
Not only do Americans not have maps. Those that do can't use them. Worse, they think the Earth
really looks like that (flat and all squished out -- c'mon, Greenland looks frigging huge!).
My solution?
Globes in every classroom!
