http://www.cnn.com/2002/EDUCATION/11/20/geography.quiz/ WASHINGTON (AP) -- Young Americans may soon have to fight a war in Iraq, but most of them can't even find that country on a map, the National Geographic Society said Wednesday. The society survey found that only about one in seven -- 13 percent -- of Americans between the age of 18 and 24, the prime age for military warriors, could find Iraq. The score was the same for Iran, an Iraqi neighbor. Although the majority, 58 percent, of the young Americans surveyed knew that the Taliban and al Qaeda were based in Afghanistan, only 17 percent could find that country on a world map. A U.S.-led force attacked the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan in October 2001, and President Bush has said he is prepared to use force to rid Iraq of any chemical, nuclear or biological weapons programs. The survey asked 56 geographic and current events questions of young people in nine countries and scored the results with traditional grades. The surveyed Americans got a "D," with an average of 23 correct answers. Mexico ranked last with an average score of 21, just three points from a failing grade. Topping the scoring was Sweden, with an average of 40, followed by Germany and Italy, each with 38. None of the countries got an "A," which required average scores of 42 correct answers or better on the 56 questions. "If our young people can't find places on a map and lack awareness of current events, how can they understand the world's cultural, economic and natural resource issues that confront us?" John Fahey, president of the National Geographic Society, said in a statement. National Geographic is convening an international panel of policy makers and business and media leaders to find ways to improve geographic education and to encourage interest in world affairs, the society said. Other findings from the survey: • Thirty-four percent of the young Americans knew that the island used on last season's "Survivor" show was located in the South Pacific, but only 30 percent could locate the state of New Jersey on a map. The "Survivor" show's location was the Marquesas Islands in the eastern South Pacific. • When asked to find 10 specific states on a map of the United States, only California and Texas could be located by a large majority of those surveyed. Both states were correctly located by 89 percent of the participants. Only 51 percent could find New York, the nation's third most populous state. • On a world map, Americans could find on average only seven of 16 countries in the quiz. Only 89 percent of the Americans surveyed could find their own country on the map. • In the world map test, Swedes could find an average of 13 of the 16 countries. Germans and Italians were next, with an average of 12 each. • Only 71 percent of the surveyed Americans could locate on the map the Pacific Ocean, the world's largest body of water. Worldwide, three in 10 of those surveyed could not correctly locate the Pacific Ocean. • Although 81 percent of the surveyed Americans knew that the Middle East is the Earth's largest oil exporter, only 24 percent could find Saudi Arabia on the map. The international survey was conducted for the National Geographic by RoperASW. The results are based on face-to-face interviews with at least 300 men and women aged 18 to 24 in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Sweden, Britain and the United States. The questionnaires were in the local language, but the content was universally the same.
You think thats bad, my wife has a hard time finding her way home from work. Our 2 year old daughter makes fun of her, "You can find it Daddy? Mommy can't find it, she's lost". It's the funniest thing. Personally I love maps and can't imagine how people can go through life not knowing where places are. I hear something on the news and get out the map to see where they are talking about. It often helps put things in perspective.
Wow, so we suck at geography...big f***ing whoop... Hell, I probably couldnt' find Iraq on a map, either...that's why you get a map with the names of the countries on them... I mean, c'mon...Does anybody REALLY want to go to New Jersey?
What do you expect when they don't teach geography in school? Especially at the lower levels, these days, there's not enough time spent on classical curriculum (i.e. actually learning stuff). When I was in elementary school, it drove me nuts that our subjects were things like "language arts" and "social studies". I mean, WTF is that?? Even in junior high, when I looked forward to studying real stuff (at least we got "English" then, and actually real "History" for the first time ever in 8th grade), the sciences were still things like "life science". We had a lot more "health education" than anyone needs - same stuff every year - and still the only reason I know anything about anatomy/ parts of the body is that my gym teacher would go over it with us. Back to the topic at hand, there's no "geography" class. It should be part of "social studies", but they usually don't set aside time to work on it. Knowing where to look things up is fine, but you'd think for all the time we spend in school, we could make sure our kids actually come out knowing something. Of course, many people think that's too much to ask these days... they hate to even memorize stuff to take my exams.
I couldn't agree more. My students would rather talk about how a map makes them "feel." They are well trained in that "skill."
Isabel, couldn't agree more. More emphasis needs to be given on general knowledge, and some education about foreign cultures, etc. People say 'well we don't need to learn about other countries' and that just doesn't hold true, especially now. Before, ok you feel more isolated, but now when things are on so much of a global stage, you can't just ignore it. When I was in school abroad, most of these things would be covered where you would feel like you knew enough about places that if you were to visit, you wouldn't be totally clueless. Used to have like general knowledge competitions in school where you'd win prizes etc ... like Jeopardy. I started school here right when the Gulf War started, and man, some of the questions people would ask me would completely knock me over ... and these weren't just my peers, it would be teachers as well. 'Do you live in houses' 'Have you seen a car' 'Do you ride on camels' 'Do you eat leaves' 'Do you wear clothes' 'Do you have paper money' Folks are a lot more aware than they were back in 90-91, but apparently not that much more.
I guess Its just because I was so good at geography that these statistics really made me sad. But when you think about it, Iraq is going to wiped off the World Map in a few years so It doesn't really matter if 17 year old Billy doesn't know where it is.
The State of Texas requires all high school students to take a geography class to graduate. I believe it is usually done in the 9th grade. That is, of course, no indication that anyone is learning anything.
When did that start? There was no geography requirement when I was in High School. We could take geography to fulfill a science requirement (yes, science), but it wasn't a requirement.... certainly not in the 9th grade, which at the time was still physically part of the Junior High school even though the classes counted towards the High School curiculum (I believe there was a vague "Earth Science" course that the 9th graders generally took. I waited until 10th grade and took Biology, Chemistry and Physics to fulfill my science requirement). As it is, though, there could very well be a geography requirement, but that doesn't mean kids are learning geography. We had plenty of History and Government, and I know there were several people in my classes who couldn't tell you who the Vice President was or name a single Supreme Court Justice (as a matter of fact, our Government teacher always referred to the Vice President as "Daniel Quayle" even though the "Dan" in "Dan Quayle" is not short for "Daniel". She also insisted that Delaware was "The Constitution State". Says so on their license plates, she would say, completely ignoring the fact that Connecticut is the Constitution State.... says so on their license plates). I did see a survey similar to this one that noted Americans' general lack of knowledge about their own government and the people who hold various offices (even relatively easy ones like Chief Justice of the Supreme Court). I also know that there are quite a few people who managed to get through years of grammar studies in their years of schooling who cannot spell or write worth a darn (I was talking to a friend of mine who is studying to be a teacher. She recently talked about hearing all these new terms like "gerund" and "schwa" that had never come up in her years of study. After a while, she vaguely remembered being taught those things back in elementary school. But until she was prompted, she didn't remember ever learning those things). I don't know that it's a matter of not being taught in a lot of cases. It may be that folks just don't really care about a lot of things, so they don't bother to really learn it. They don't think it's important to their lives (beyond maybe getting through a test in a few weeks), so they don't bother to store the knowledge or ever really learn it.
JV, Doesn't have to be Geography. It can be World Studies instead or more commonly known as "Western Europe and US Studies".
When I was in high school, my socials studies consisted of one year of world history, for which geography could have been substituted, one year of US History, one semester of government, and one semester of economics. I probably got zero satisfaction out of the history classes and miminal satisfaction out of gov/econ. My teacher for US history, government, and economics DID go to graduate school at Texas A&M, so that probably had something to do with it. The problem with social studies classes in high school is that they are usually taught by football coaches, and they almost always consist of textbook regurgitation.
Given that he went to Yale, I'd be willing to bet that he could find New Jersey (not far away) on a map.
That's true. I had a coach for a semester of World History, and a different coach for the second semester of the class. I had a coach for Biology and for a math class I took... and I had a coach's wife for Accounting I and II. Of course, for Chemistry and Physics, I had a guy who looked like Herman Munster.... and for US History, I had a crazy old lady (speaking of, I remember going over to her house one time for some reason and there being porno magazines all over the place. It was very creepy)... and I've mentioned my Government teacher. Interestingly, I did not have a coach for Physical Education, at least not in High School..... wait. I take that back. I guess the guy was the wrestling coach. But he was like the outcast coach since he didn't participate in the coaching of Football. I liked having coaches, though, because it was easier, especially because all the coaches knew my step-mother's father (a former high school coach himself) quite well.
If New Jersey isnt on those standardized tests that we base all public school knowledge upon, then hell....why bother teaching it? If all kids could watch the Sopranos they would at least know of New Jersey.
That's how we've gotten into this mess...we've given the kids too damned many breaks. I'm not asking them to be world scholars...just to be able to identify where countries are that have played a role in our recent history. We went to war there 12 years ago. I'd be willing to bet that when you were in high school you could find Vietnam on a map. Why have we started holding kids to a lower standard all of a sudden? And people wonder why the rest of the Western world is kicking our ass in education.
