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Originally Posted by Aladdin Sane
I happen to be interested in the social sciences and current affairs so I can probably find Kathmandu and Novaya Zemlya on a map. But don't ask me to butcher a calf or raise a crop of peanuts.
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Well, I don't disagree with you there... local knowledge is a whole different animal that specific, geographic knowledge, especially when you depend on local knowledge for your survival. Plus, many of the people you mention don't have the privilege of a free, public education anyway... so I wouldn't expect them to have that kind of knowledge, or interest in that knowledge. It's just that most Americans *have* access to that kind of thing... and we still don't know.
It's good to hear your perspective as a former geography teacher. I think you're right, that any type of knowledge will fade without use... but why is it that most educated Americans don't "use" geographic knowledge very often, when we are exposed to so much international news on a daily basis? Is it because, like Gatorade said, we have access to the Internet... and that can supply us with any map knowledge we might need? Or is it really just totally irrelevant to our lives? And if so, why isn't it as irrelevant to educated people living in other countries?
By the way, if you feel your students tended to forget geography easily... what was something you hope they never forgot, from your classes? I'm curious, since as an English and History teacher, I knew my students would forgot most of what they learned... but I always had certain lifelong-learning goals in mind. I hope they never forgot some of those essential things.