Future of America

So while I was on vacation I heard the following conversations:

While whale watching, the family behind us had a teenage daughter who wanted to be a marine biologist. She was in high school and she asked the tour guide a few questions. One of them being, "Where are all the sea lions?"
The tour guide said, "Sea lions live on the West Coast, this is the East Coast."
The tour guide went on her way and the girl turned to her parents and said, "I don't understand this oil spill. I just hope it does effect the California coast line."

She followed it up with saying, "Texas doesn't have any beaches."

I never feared for the future of America. I often thought that rumors of our education system being broken was grossly overstated. Nope. I was wrong.

This girl has never seen a MAP of the United States.

Later on we were talking to a Grad student. She was approached by a tourist who wanted to know where they should watch the fireworks. The Tourist started the conversation like this.
Tourist: Are you local?
Grad student: I was a grad student here, but I left and now I'm back on a vacation.
Tourist: We're from West Virginia, you know it's a state, right.
Grad Student: I know.

UGH! He thought he needed to explain that West Virginia was a state to a GRAD STUDENT.

Please tell me what sort of fun conversations have you over heard in the last few weeks that made you groan.