If you can see the North Star, the sky's not too bad.
Most non-astronomers think Polaris is very bright, actually, it's a pretty faint and unremarkable 2nd magnitude star which would not attract much attention if it weren't coincidentally so close to the pole, and did not have any any bright stars nearby.
Unless, the solar variance has suddenly caused the North star to be become brighter, and somehow, this brainwashed child just missed it.