Ok, really, these surveys aren't that scientific or relevant to real education levels. But when has that mattered for a European out to laugh at American ignorance? Anyway, the latest survey finds that 60% of Americans in ages 17 to 24 cannot find Iraq on a map of the Middle East. For Israel the number was 75%. Closer to home, 50% couldn't find Mississippi (not sure if the river or the state is meant) on a map of the US, and 30% couldn't find Louisiana.
I'd linkify you, but I read it in Norwegian, so it wouldn't be very helpful. If I weren't so lazy, I'd google for an English link. But I guess I'll do some work instead.
So, anyway : Nyah-nyah-nyah!
Posted by SteveRogers (Member # 7130) on :
It would probably take me about two seconds to find those places on a map. I'm embarrassed by the lack of education in my country.
Posted by Dr Strangelove (Member # 8331) on :
I saw that on MSN and took their little geography quiz and got all of them right. And I have never taken a geography class.
I don't know if your article included this KoM, but the one I read said that 30% of people interviewed thought that the Mexico-USA border was the most heavily fortified (right answer being South Korea-North Korea). Ha! Now that is bad.
Edit to add Linky Posted by collissimon (Member # 9346) on :
I think rather than seeing it in terms of ignorance, perhaps it is a failure in the teaching of geography. I'm sure similar surveys have been done in the UK and came to similar conclusions.
I don't know about the US, but Geography, especially in Primary Education is seen as a second-class subject, less important than literacy or numeracy. This means that when they get older, and progress to secondary education, they learn all the geographical processes that work round the world, but they can't point these places out on a map!
Posted by Soara (Member # 6729) on :
There's no excuse for not being able to find Iraq and Louisiana (because of Katrina) but Mississippi is different..nothing horrible on a national scale has happened there recently, and besides, all those Southern states look exactly the same. I have no idea how to tell Mississippi from Alabama from Arkansas from whatever else is down there. They're all box-shaped, except for a few. Its very confusing. Everyone, however, knows how to SPELL Mississippi.
Posted by Soara (Member # 6729) on :
quote: I'm sure similar surveys have been done in the UK and came to similar conclusions.
But that wouldn't be fair, the British have a much smaller country to deal with!
Posted by Architraz Warden (Member # 4285) on :
quote:Originally posted by King of Men: Ok, really, these surveys aren't that scientific or relevant to real education levels. But when has that mattered for a European out to laugh at American ignorance? Anyway, the latest survey finds that 60% of Americans in ages 17 to 24 cannot find Iraq on a map of the Middle East. For Israel the number was 75%. Closer to home, 50% couldn't find Mississippi (not sure if the river or the state is meant) on a map of the US, and 30% couldn't find Louisiana.
I'd linkify you, but I read it in Norwegian, so it wouldn't be very helpful. If I weren't so lazy, I'd google for an English link. But I guess I'll do some work instead.
So, anyway : Nyah-nyah-nyah!
Right, few things to address here. First off, you have the time to write up a truly horrendous gloating thread, but not 10 seconds to actually find what you're gloating about... I'm going to go with my previous inclinations and declare you a waste of human flesh.
Now that that is out of the way, I'm going to agree with Steve Rogers. The general education in this country is particularly embarrassing.
The article that our esteemed troll neglected to spend 10 seconds finding is here. This is very hardly new news (I hope at least he is thinking of a newer article, but probably not).
Posted by Dr Strangelove (Member # 8331) on :
quote: They will have their task cut out for them, judging by the results of the survey of 510 people interviewed in December and January.
Among the findings:
One-third of respondents couldn’t pinpoint Louisiana on a map and 48 percent were unable to locate Mississippi. Fewer than three in 10 think it important to know the locations of countries in the news and just 14 percent believe speaking another language is a necessary skill. Two-thirds didn’t know that the earthquake that killed 70,000 people in October 2005 occurred in Pakistan. Six in 10 could not find Iraq on a map of the Middle East. While the outsourcing of jobs to India has been a major U.S. business story, 47 percent could not find the Indian subcontinent on a map of Asia. While Israeli-Palestinian strife has been in the news for the entire lives of the respondents, 75 percent were unable to locate Israel on a map of the Middle East. Nearly three-quarters incorrectly named English as the most widely spoken native language. Six in 10 did not know the border between North and South Korea is the most heavily fortified in the world. Thirty percent thought the most heavily fortified border was between the United States and Mexico.
That's from the article I linked to at the bottom of my first post.
Posted by collissimon (Member # 9346) on :
Soara,
I didn't just mean about domestic geography (though there is plenty of things to keep you occupied even if it is smaller! ), but the location of other countries as well.
quote:Originally posted by Soara: There's no excuse for not being able to find Iraq and Louisiana (because of Katrina) but Mississippi is different..nothing horrible on a national scale has happened there recently, and besides, all those Southern states look exactly the same. I have no idea how to tell Mississippi from Alabama from Arkansas from whatever else is down there. They're all box-shaped, except for a few. Its very confusing. Everyone, however, knows how to SPELL Mississippi.
I'm from one of those southern states and I think those northern states are confusing . Also, Mississippi was devastated by Katrina. They just didn't get on the national news as much as New Orleans.
Posted by larisse (Member # 2221) on :
I remember taking geography my freshman year in high school. I did well on all the tests, but Africa. For the life of me, I couldn't keep the western countries straight. But, geography has only interested me in so far as it relates to the history of a place. I was so fascinated with Egypt and the rest of N. Africa and the Middle East that I had no problems remembering their locations on the globe. Asia's history was another pull for me, because it was just an amazing concept that while certain things were arising or falling in the Western world, China, India, and others were creating their own. (Parallel timelines make me happy.)
Basically, I had to find the angle of interest that made me want to learn about these places and where they were.
Posted by Risuena (Member # 2924) on :
From Architraz's link (emphasis mine):
quote:Young adults worldwide are not markedly more literate about geography than the Americans.
On average, fewer than 25 percent of young people worldwide could locate Israel on the map. Only about 20 percent could identify hotspots like Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq.
Of all the young adults in the survey, only about one-third in Germany, Sweden and Japan, could name four countries that officially acknowledge having nuclear weapons. In the rest of the countries that number dropped to less than a quarter. In France 24 percent did not know that that their own country was a nuclear nation.
Seems to me that the survey is more of an indictment the state of geography education worldwide, not just in the US.
As to the state of geographic knowledge in the US, I'm amazed that we always come in so low because I had a lot of basic things (such as US states and capitals; Canadian provinces and capitals; and countries and capitals) repeatedly banged into my head by multiple teachers in different school systems and at different levels of education. I can't imagine that my experience is that unique, so I guess I just have to assume that I retain that type of information a lot easier than most. Of course there's certainly a lot more to geography than just being able to identify something on a map.
Posted by collissimon (Member # 9346) on :
There is a lot more to geography than locating things on a map, but I do feel there needs to be the basic foundations of where things are before you can examine how things work.
Posted by Dan_raven (Member # 3383) on :
Soara, Katrina took out a large chunk of Mississippi too, from Biloxi on down. That's why their Senators have been bemoaning the fact that New Orleans seems to be getting all the attention and $$
Posted by James Tiberius Kirk (Member # 2832) on :
Wow.
Where do they find these people?
--j_k
Posted by Belle (Member # 2314) on :
Just reiterating but the actual Katrina damage that was the most devastating did indeed occur in MS, New Orleans biggest problem was flooding and levee failure but there were towns in MS that were almost literally wiped off the map. I got tons of pictures from my hubbys time down there with the rescue team and I can assure you, the storm damage is much more severe than what happened to New Orleans. Of course New Orleans' flood damage was catastrophic I'm not trying to belittle that, but in terms of actual wind/storm surge hurricane/type damage they got nothing compared to what the south Mississippians did.
And my daughter is being taught geography in 7th grade now by what seems to be a pretty competent teacher. However, like most things that are rote memorized, I wonder how long knowledge of just what state that is on the map is retained. If you surveyed these 7th graders right after a test on the US where they had to write in the names of every state (something my daughter did this year) I bet you would get high results. Survey the same kids three laters if the teaching hasn't been reinforced and I'm sure it would be a different story.
My daughter's class is now on Africa, they've already studied Europe. Like larisse said, it's hard to retain all this knowledge if all you're doing is drilling them on where to write the correct name on the printed map. We should be teaching geography as part of our world history curriculum, it should be all incorporated together.
I personally know the vast majority of the states because I worked in marketing and had to divy up sales territories all across the US, so I looked at a US map all the time. I also had most of the area codes memorized and could for a while, tell you what state any zip code was in. It's been six years since I did that job though, and I couldn't do most of it today.
Posted by Tstorm (Member # 1871) on :
I'm confident in my ability to pass a US geography quiz on states and capitals with 100% accuracy. I always found geography fun, because simply put, I just enjoy looking at maps.
I also retain memorized information with good accuracy.
Posted by Juxtapose (Member # 8837) on :
In terms of not knowing physical geography, this doesn't worry me. That's exactly the kind of information that most people in the US can look up easily in seconds. Also, some people just aren't as talented at rote memorization; I'm one of them.
What bothers me is the isolationist attitude this indicates. It often seems most Americans can't be bothered to care about any other country until they fly planes into our buildings.
Posted by Lyrhawn (Member # 7039) on :
I admit to not being able to label the plains states on a blank map. And sometimes I reverse New Hampshire and Vermont. But I know where they all are.
I know where everything is basically. Can't necessarily label the entire world if everything is blank, but I know enough.
Posted by Magson (Member # 2300) on :
I took MSN's quiz. Scored 100%.
I am now in process of taking the National Geographic quiz. The 1st question was about the population of the US.
The 2nd question asks where a TV show is set.
Excuse me? That's not a geography question, that's pop culture question.
The credibility of this survey as a legitimate means of testing geographical knowledge just went waaaaaaaaay down for me.
I'll edit to put in my final score once I'm done.
18 out of 20. I vacillated between Arabic and Chinese for the "most spoken" primary language, figuring China had tons of people, but that Arabic is spoken more widely in many countries. Got that wrong when I picked Arabic. The other I missed was the "largest exporter" question. I thought China had passed the US on that. And was wrong again.
I admit that I asked a colleague where CSI was set. I've never seen it, so I didn't know, but I consider that question irrelevant anyway. . .
[ May 03, 2006, 04:02 AM: Message edited by: Magson ]
Posted by MightyCow (Member # 9253) on :
I'll admit, I'm not good at geography. I can blame my public school education, because while they made me take 4 years of math, 4 years of science, 4 years of English and 2 years of a foreign language, they only made me take 2 years of "world study" classes, which included both US and world history/geography/civics and economics. Also, I have a lot of other things to think about.
There's only so much information a person might reasonably know. Is it more important to learn Calculus, or world geography? More important to learn art history, or world economics? More important to know human biology, or music theory?
My point is, that a specific quiz only shows how well a person can answer that quiz. It tells very little about a person's intelligence, general knowledge, education level, or ability to function and thrive within society.
In other words, sucks to your quiz.
Posted by Juxtapose (Member # 8837) on :
19/20 on the National Geographic quiz; I missed picking out Sweden on a world map. I got mixed up with Switzerland. :blush:
9/10 on the MSN quiz; I couldn't remember the capital of Kentucky.
One of the qestions on the NG quiz was (paraphrasing), "look at this map of the world. Pick the number that indicates the USA." 11% of Americans polled missed it!? I know I previously posted that geography wasn't important, but c'mon!
There had better be some jokers running around out there.
EDIT - I agree the TV show question shouldn't count.
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
), but the location of other countries as well. ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
. Also, Mississippi was devastated by Katrina. They just didn't get on the national news as much as New Orleans.