Geography In America

[Mike AI]

I am sure everyone remembers the poor scores American students and people have gotten on geography....

Well I found the map they use when giving the test, here are the most typical answers.

http://www.chilipepper.com/solar/america2.GIF

[originalheather]

LOL! Look how small Mexico is!

Big hats! Hehehehe.

La Señora Deanna Figueroa :P
San Antonio Del Mar
Baja California Norte
Mexico

[Mutt]

http://www.opranoplus.com/smilies/laugh.gif

[Plugger]

What happend to all of the "Evil doers" ?

[kath]

Please no more Evil Doers, Axis of Evil or Weapons of Mass Destruction. :ph34r:

*sigh*

[Plugger]

It cool Kath, that is why they were taken off the map :)

[kath]

What's frightening is how many American kids really see the world this way. I've been homeschooling my two (now 11 and 13) since my oldest was in 1st Grade. It's funny comparing what mine know versus the public-schooled neighbor kids.

For instance I overheard a discussion the other day in the backyard. One neighbor kid says "oh your Mom is from Ohio - mine is from Michigan" - the other kid says "where's that?" and the first kid replies, "I think it's somewhere in the mid-west by Oregon." My kids just giggled and they went back to playing basketball.

It's scary - this is the future generation that will be "taking care of us" in our old age! :unsure:

[sarah_webinc]

It would be funny if it wasn't true. You really get to see how true it is when you live abroad. So many people I talk to honestly don't know where England is on the map and that England isn't the same thing as the UK (ie, scotland, wales, and N. Ireland are part of it too and it isn't all called England). Scary stuff.

[Almighty Colin]

Society has always functioned quite well with 90% of the population dumb and dumber. Those 90% won't "take care of us" any more than they need to take our order, cook our food, or clean our house. The 10% will do just as well as they always have.

The overall trend world-wide is towards increasing literacy and knowledge. Universal education may have brought the mean skills of those that participate in the education system down but it expanded the number of those educated and will in the long run, I believe, result in the best educated population possible.

[-= JR =-]

Originally posted by sarah_webinc@Jan 14 2003, 02:02 AM
It would be funny if it wasn't true. You really get to see how true it is when you live abroad. So many people I talk to honestly don't know where England is on the map and that England isn't the same thing as the UK (ie, scotland, wales, and N. Ireland are part of it too and it isn't all called England). Scary stuff.
why is it scary? how much do you know about Provincial Canada?

probably less than most americans know about Europe. why would people on the other side of the world be expected to know alot about the other side of the world when they are busy milking goats and fucking sheep and dating their cousins in Kansas?

how much can you tell us about Pacific Rim Island Countries? i am sure that they are also frustrated that Scottish people are "ignorant" about where Jakharta is and why they have been killing each other for decades but the reality is that it has very little to do with someones everyday life in an opposite corner of the globe... nor is it useful knowledge.




Last edited by -= JR =- at Jan 14 2003, 07:29 AM

[sarah_webinc]

well as an ex-travel agent and someone with an honours degree in political science, a large portion of which was in political geography I might be the wrong person to ask ;)

I think it is sad when anyone, regardless of where they live doesn't know atleast the basics of geography. Also, it is useful knowledge..if only people knew where afghanistan was on a map before Sept 11, eh? Might not have stopped anything but alteast they would have known a bit more about their enemy.

[-= JR =-]

Originally posted by sarah_webinc@Jan 14 2003, 09:18 AM
well as an ex-travel agent and someone with an honours degree in political science, a large portion of which was in political geography I might be the wrong person to ask ;)

I think it is sad when anyone, regardless of where they live doesn't know atleast the basics of geography. Also, it is useful knowledge..if only people knew where afghanistan was on a map before Sept 11, eh? Might not have stopped anything but alteast they would have known a bit more about their enemy.
who does not know the basics of geography? people know and retain information that is relevant to their daily life experience. I dont remember algebra. it does not mean i am stupid... it means that i have had no use for that information in the last 20 years and it had no useful application in my life and correctly, as part of 20,000,000 million year evolutionary process, i deleted that information from my mind to make space for more relevant information.

why dont we all speak Spanish? German? Korean?... because we dont need to. why dont i know where Northern Ireland is seperated from the South? because it never one time has had a direct effect on my life. Just in the exact same way the Eskimo whalers in Greenland never have.

you can only consider something to be "useful knowledge" if it is exactly that... "useful". if it was useful, people would know it, just as they know where to buy food, water and clothes.

why would knowing geography about Afghanistan be useful to me?

[Peaches]

Originally posted by -= JR =-@Jan 14 2003, 10:36 AM
why would knowing geography about Afghanistan be useful to me?
I'm just happy if I can find my way back home...... :zoinks:

[Almighty Colin]

Everyone has their pet peeves about knowledge but I think they are just that. Some of my physics professors thought everyone should be required to learn calculus and physics in high school. They considered anyone that didn't know physics to be dumb. I think one could make a fair argument that knowledge of physics is just as important as geography. How can undertanding the Universe not be considered to be fundamental knowledge? How many fewer mistakes people would make with a good understanding of statistics and probability.

In reality though, most people just want to go about their everyday lives. Go to work, raise their kids, barbeque on weekends, watch television. I think that attitude is just fine. There are plenty enough people concerned about astronomy, world politics, technology, or whatever else it is that helps society keep ticking.

It doesn't bother me one bit that the majority (?) of high school students can't correctly explain the reason for the seasons, have no idea what the Big Bang is, have a warped view of evolution, and have no idea whether the North Pole is warmer than the South Pole on average or not. Many intelligent adults don't know these things either. Time keeps on ticking ...

[Almighty Colin]

Originally posted by Peaches+Jan 14 2003, 09:45 AM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Peaches @ Jan 14 2003, 09:45 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteBegin---= JR =-@Jan 14 2003, 10:36 AM
why would knowing geography about Afghanistan be useful to me?
I'm just happy if I can find my way back home...... :zoinks:[/b][/quote]
Amanda is in charge of this in my house. I get lost going to 7-11.

Afghanistan is OVER THERE. Here is my Afghanistan schema: rocky, lots of caves, desert, cold in the winter but not cold enough to stop the US army, Osama might be there, The Taliban used to be there, some old dude runs the place now, there are a bunch of whackos in the hills with weapons fighting each other, women have it bad, where did those buddhist statues go?, Russia invaded it, Kabul, No McDonald's, no water, don't visit.

Knowledge is so fragmentary and disconnected. As soon as begin to really know something we get distracted and forget half of it.

[Peaches]

Originally posted by Colin@Jan 14 2003, 11:11 AM
Afghanistan is OVER THERE.
Hehehe - in Hawaii, when we did the mountain star gazing trip, the guy kept telling us how many light years away objects were. I finally explained to him that "They're really, really far away" was all I needed to know, and all I really understood :unsure:

Telling me that I'm looking at a star that not only doesn't exist, but hasn't existed for millions of years, makes no logical sense to me :headwall:

[Almighty Colin]

Originally posted by Peaches@Jan 14 2003, 10:17 AM
Telling me that I'm looking at a star that not only doesn't exist, but hasn't existed for millions of years, makes no logical sense to me :headwall:
That wouldn't be true if the speed of light were infinite - but it's not, so you're stuck with it.

:nyanya:

[Almighty Colin]

Originally posted by -= JR =-@Jan 14 2003, 09:36 AM
why would knowing geography about Afghanistan be useful to me?
Just wait until we open our new line of live feeds from Afghanistan:

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[Vick]

"Then close your eyes and tap your heels together three times. And think to yourself.
'There's no place like home. There's no place like home.'"

That's how I find my way home but of course .....

You are talking to a man who has laughed in the face of death, sneered at doom, chuckled at catastrophe!
I was instantaneously acclaimed Oz, the first Wizard deluxe.
Times being what they were, I accepted the job, retaining my balloon against the advent of a quick get-away. Aha!
And in that balloon, you and I will return to the Land of E Pluribus Unum!

[originalheather]

I never cease to shake my head in wonder when people ask me where I live. I tell them, "The Upper Baja" and they just stare at me. These are people that live in San Diego...15 miles from it and they've never heard of it. Unreal. I can understand someone from another country not knowing, but c'mon, if you live less than 50 miles from a place, you should know where it is.

I am no expert on world geography, but curiosity keeps me going to a world map to see where some new country I never heard of is located.

I'm sure that geography is less important than many other things, but knowledge in general is a good thing. Besides, I already feel dumb enough around the likes of Colin. :P

[Evil Chris]

I have always been good at geography, and learning where other cultures come from etc..
I could look at a good atlas for hours and not get bored.

[Almighty Colin]

Originally posted by Evil Chris@Jan 14 2003, 02:31 PM
I have always been good at geography, and learning where other cultures come from etc..
I could look at a good atlas for hours and not get bored.
You'd like my Atlas of World History. It's published by Rand McNally. Go figure.

[originalheather]

And *I* could look at EC forever :P

Sorry, Chris, I just couldn't help myself..I'm really giving Chris a tough time here :P

[sarah_webinc]

you rock EC ...my views entirely...I love geography and world cultures :rokk:

Bad geographical skills aren't just the property of Americans. When I was a travel agent I specialised (for obvious reasons) in North America and trust me their are pleanty of British people that know very little about the basic layout of North America and that included some of the other travel agents. I will always remember the day my manager placed pheonix in the North East, he wasn't the manager for long.



Last edited by sarah_webinc at Jan 14 2003, 01:57 PM

[Peaches]

Originally posted by Evil Chris@Jan 14 2003, 03:31 PM
I have always been good at geography, and learning where other cultures come from etc..
I could look at a good atlas for hours and not get bored.
My Dad has a cool globe where every country is made out of a rock, gem or metal that is found there :okthumb:

[Almighty Colin]

Originally posted by Peaches@Jan 14 2003, 06:10 PM
My Dad has a cool globe where every country is made out of a rock, gem or metal that is found there :okthumb:
Damn, I'd like to see that. What's South Africa?

[Peaches]

Originally posted by Colin+Jan 14 2003, 08:10 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Colin @ Jan 14 2003, 08:10 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteBegin--Peaches@Jan 14 2003, 06:10 PM
My Dad has a cool globe where every country is made out of a rock, gem or metal that is found there :okthumb:
Damn, I'd like to see that. What's South Africa?[/b][/quote]
LOL, knowing why my Mom paid for it, it's NOT diamonds :awinky:

It's really neat looking - all the the water is blue lapis :)