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Old 12-19-2006, 04:53 AM   #29 (permalink)
Superbelt
This vexes me. I am terribly vexed.
 
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Location: Grantville, Pa
If the shoe fits, Mr. Bungle.
linky dinky
Quote:
...according to a new National Geographic-Roper Public Affairs 2006 Geographic Literacy Study....

(...)

One-third of those surveyed could not find Louisiana on a U.S. map, and almost half (48 percent) could not locate the state of Mississippi. On a more practical level, given a map of a hypothetical place and told they could escape an approaching hurricane by evacuating to the northwest, one-third would travel in the wrong direction....

(...)

"Geographic illiteracy impacts our economic well-being, our relationships with other nations and the environment, and isolates us from our world," said John Fahey, National Geographic Society president and CEO. "Geography is what helps us make sense of our world by showing the connections between people and places. Without geography, our young people are not ready to face the challenges of the increasingly interconnected and competitive world of the 21st century."

(...)

According to the survey, conducted in December 2005/January 2006, young Americans are alarmingly ignorant of the relationships between places that give context to world events. Seventy-four percent believe English is the primary language spoken by the most people in the world; it is Mandarin Chinese. Seventy-one percent don't know that the United States is the largest exporter of goods and services; nearly half (48 percent) think it is China. And while China's population is actually four times the size of the U.S. population, 45 percent of young Americans think it's only twice as large. Though outsourcing of jobs to India has been a major business news story, almost half the respondents (47 percent) were not able to find that country on a map of Asia.

Respondents also demonstrated poor understanding of global hotspots. Seventy-five percent couldn't locate Israel on a map of the Middle East, despite the fact that the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians has been ongoing throughout these young people's lives. Seven in 10 couldn't find North Korea on a map of Asia, and six in 10 did not know its border with South Korea is the most heavily fortified in the world. Thirty percent thought the most heavily fortified was the U.S.-Mexican border.

(...)
We absolutely are that stupid.
And people aren't going to get that smart over night. And it won't turn around anytime soon, when we model our educational system on a bottom half state like Texas.

This is a subject that can't wait for Americans to smarten up either.
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