Btw, I forgot to include my own example: one of my best friends, god bless her, is an elementary school teacher (1st/2nd grade). A few years we were driving through CA on a road trip, watching TV in a Motel 6 and saw the Tonight Show. Jay Leno was interviewing people on the street about where Appalachia was. Most of them had no clue. My friend and I were laughing along... and then my friend,
the elementary school teacher, stopped and asked me,
"Wait, Appalachia isn't a real country, right?"
I love her dearly, but...
In any case, my question is WHY the situation is so bad here in the US. As Apmle said, didn't we all learn this in the 5th grade (and 7th, and 11th, and in the newspapers every day, etc)?
Is it a problem of our educational system, or simply the degree to which we, as Americans, are truly so isolated in our own little worlds that we don't care where the rest of the world (or even the rest of the country) is, in relation to us?
And how could we possibly start to change these ethnocentric attitudes?