Young Clueless About Geography

[Wolfshead]

I heard this on the radio first thing this morning, so I went to look it up this evening. The results of this survey are really quite shocking.
Young clueless about geography
By Deborah Zabarenko

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - More young Americans are familiar with the island on TV's "Survivor" than with Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq or Israel, a National Geographic survey has reported.

Americans' dismal performance was not that different from responses by young people in eight other nations, especially Canada and Britain, and was slightly better than last-ranked Mexico, the survey found.

Only 17 percent of U.S. young people could find Afghanistan on a world map, though it has been in the news almost constantly since the September 11, 2001 attacks. Just one in every seven young Americans could locate Iraq or Iran on a map of the Middle East and Asia.

Israel was tough for Americans to find -- only 14 percent could locate it on a regional map -- though the worldwide response was not much better: in no country among the nine could more than half of young adults locate it. The average was less than 25 percent.

Worldwide, only three in 10 young people could find the Pacific Ocean, which covers 33 percent of the Earth. Seven in 10 Americans could correctly locate it.

By contrast, 34 percent of young Americans knew that the island used for the last season of the television show "Survivor" was in the South Pacific.

Many young Americans had an exaggerated image of America's population, with 30 percent estimating the U.S. population to be 1 billion to 2 billion, or roughly one-third of the world's population. The correct response in the survey was 150 million to 350 million.

Respondents in all other countries did better on that question, and did much better on estimating the population of their own country.

WHERE ARE NUCLEAR WEAPONS?

But no country's young people did very well in naming four countries that possess nuclear weapons. Overall, 23 percent answered correctly. In France, a sizeable minority -- 24 percent -- did not name their own country among the four.

National Geographic was concerned enough about the results to form a coalition -- including such media and entertainment heavyweights as AOL, the American Society of Newspaper Editors, News Corp, Sea World/Busch Gardens Adventure Parks, Nickelodeon and Sesame Workshop -- to try to reverse the trend.

"Those results are stunning and in many ways discouraging," said John Fahey, president of the National Geographic Society.

"We don't think we can lay these results off as side effects of youth and their presumed unconcern about much in life in general," Fahey said at a news conference, adding that the survey showed "the apparent retreat by young people from a global society in an era that doesn't allow such a luxury."

The survey was conducted by RoperASW earlier this year in interviews with 3,250 young adults aged 18 to 24 in the United States, Canada, Mexico, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Great Britain and Japan.

Young adults in Sweden, Germany and Italy ranked highest, answering about 70 percent of questions correctly, followed in descending order by France, Japan and Britain. Young Canadians, Americans and Mexicans gave the right answer on fewer than half the questions, the survey found.

But none of the countries got an excellent mark, according to Nick Boyon of RoperASW.

Boyon said young people worldwide could identify an average of about 10 countries on a world map, out of 16 they were asked to name.

He said nine out of 10 young Americans could recognise the United States on a world map, "which is reassuring, but it does make you wonder about the other 10 percent."

The only country in Europe that most young Americans could identify was Italy, possibly because of its shape, Boyon said.
As I said, quite shocking. So, who's to blame? Is it the schools? The media? Society? Sesame Street? And more importantly, do you want to go to war with a country whom a large part of the population (of not just the USA) don't know the location of?

[Ciryaher]

The ones who don't know where the countries are most likely aren't going to be the ones fighting, and seeing as they are clueless enough not to know where some of the world's key nations are, I wouldn't consider their considerations.

[Legolam]

That is definitely worrying. And these people's views are taken into consideration when considering going to war or not, as they are the majority of the public, and the governments do listen to them.

I don't know who's to blame. A bit of everything you said probably. In the end, it's probably just the fact that young people don't really care.

[Arvedui]

Originally posted by Legolam
That is definitely worrying. And these people's views are taken into consideration when considering going to war or not, as they are the majority of the public, and the governments do listen to them.

I don't know who's to blame. A bit of everything you said probably. In the end, it's probably just the fact that young people don't really care.

One more thing which you didn't mentioned: They are the voters-to-be.
Can we imagine that the generation before them, those who have already voted, know more about geography? I think not.

Maybe geography just isn't interesting. Maybe the schools fail?

[TheFool]

People might want to try this, it's quite an eye-opener:

Try drawing a map of the world, right now off the top of your head (no I don't mean when drunk :) ), and then compare it to a real map from an atlas.

I did OK, though my British Isles were somewhat larger than they should be :). But the thing is, I can't actually be sure about pointing to an outline of a country and say 'that is Bosnia', 'that is FYROM' etc. Can the general public of any western country be reasonably expected to know categorically the difference between Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan etc. In geography I can't remember ever having to do any serious work/exams on 'identifying different countries' so maybe it is the schools fault as has already been pointed out.

I doubt that many Brits could point out the Falkland Islands, certainly not many of the younger generations.

But not knowing what the Pacific Ocean is, that's just a disgrace!

[Proudfoots]

Scary...not surprising, but scary...

Wasn't there another survey like that done a few years ago that said that a large minority of American children could not find their home town on a map? not that Canada's education system is much better...

There has to be a way to take children's interest away from useless entertainment (like ttf:D ) and on to more educational things.

I think that parents are teh firt to blame (and easiest for me, since i am not a parent), it seems like a lot of people just plunk their children in front of the tv or now the computer and let the box do the raising for them. I know, i was one of those kids, when i think back now to all the hours i watched Giligans Island on tv (which is near the one on Survivor, right?) i am saddened, i could have been reading greek philosophy...

The system is also to blame, for what helped to produce the parents who don't teach their children. And, I am sure, if you trace it all back it can be blamed on the collapse of the Roman Empire.

Why? I feel like blaming the ancient Romans, that's why!

'foots

[Thorin]

As a teacher, I find it extremely frustrating the amount of competition we are facing with Xbox video games, reality TV and the internet. Our students don't really care about history or geography when there is so much in the now to do. This attitude reflects in how well they pay attention in class, and how well they study. A teacher can only present a topic like geography a certain amount of ways. The majority of the responsibility resides with the student to study and learn it on his own. When they'd rather get their e-mail and head to chat rooms or play the latest video games and their parents are not holding them responsible, what do you expect?

[Wolfshead]

Regarding the whole Geography thing at school. My general knowledge (if I may say so myself) is very good for one my age, and I was always very good at Geography at school (best in my year, infact) before I dropped it for French. Anyway, I always found I knew where countries were. It was quite frightening that a lot of people didn't know where place were. But, ironically, I think my knowledge of places came from vast amounts of time spent on a game called World Empire that I played continuously a few years ago. And I don't remember ever being tested on where places were. I could have got to the age of 15 not knowing where Spain was! So, it could well be the education system to blame here, not teaching and testing us on locations of countries. Ok, so not completely to blame, but partly.

[Gloer]

again...cool!

Think about it: John Smith from Boston or somewhere takes a voyage east and discovers a whole new continent that he names after his president, George Bush, as Bushland.

later we realise he is in France that everybody thought was a place invented by J.R.R. Tolkien...

[HLGStrider]

Doesn't surprise me... but doesn't scare me... I'm homeschooled. We win the geography and spelling bees in this country all the time. WE WILL CONQUER! WE WILL CONQUER!

Uh-hem... Elgee gains control... What was that?

Now someone like Lantarion is going to look through this to discover any spelling errors I might've missed...

I learned Geography three ways and did fairly well...

One, Geosafari.
You'd know it if you saw it. It's sort of an electronic game... It worked fairly well. The bad thing was that we bought ours in the late 80's early 90's and didn't replace our cards for it until late to mid 90's so I think I was identifying Russia as the U.S.S.R. for much too long and didn't find out about the Urkraine, Kazakastan, Kyrgastan (and all those ones that are so delightful to pronounce) until I was in my early teens (I'll be 18 in January).

The Runkle Method text book. They had you study a map and then number the countries as my mom named them... and then they would number the countries and you had to put a name on the number. It worked well for me because I learn that way. I can't say the same for my siblings. Mom used other methods on them.

A Great Wave software computer game... World Deluxe I think? Anyway, it has various Geo. games which were all very helpful.

My brother learns by actual maps. He takes them out of National Geographic or wherever else he can find them and hangs them on his walls, plotting world dominations. He's told me a few times about how he'll organize his empire when he grows up...

Come to think of it the world would be better off if people like my brother didn't know their geography... :rolleyes:

[Eliot]

"My brother learns by actual maps. He takes them out of National Geographic or wherever else he can find them and hangs them on his walls, plotting world dominations. He's told me a few times about how he'll organize his empire when he grows up...

Come to think of it the world would be better off if people like my brother didn't know their geography..."


I do the same thing as your brother :D I'm also home schooled, and I'm very much interested in history and geography. Those are my favorite subjects in school, as well as spelling.

As for the students of the U.S. and their education, I think it's our society that has messed our country up so bad. Every kid is urged to buy the newest video game or get the newest game system. All they do is watch TV and play electronics.

If anybody hasn't noticed yet, you don't see commercials on TV for the newest book in the bookstore. All you see is commercials for movies and video games. Our society is so stupid, that every child thinks to read a book is punishment.
:rolleyes:

[HLGStrider]

I can see that... however, I would be a little more specific than society... or less specific... or something...

Anyway, I think that kids do read... however, they are likely to look down on older books and go for the newest thing... or older movies.

I know lots of kids who read... esp. girls. Guys sometimes get into things like that later.

The problem is that boys learn differently than girls. The average boy has no interest in reading (there are exceptions) at age six or seven and is forced to learn to read. Even if he does he learns to hate it. That's because a nationalized school system can't tailor to each individual student. Whereas a smaller system can take the time to focus and teach the kids at their speed...

[Gloer]

He is 10 years older than me. so what he did when he had his exams on the 8th or 10th grade was to come in to my room and teach all he had learned to me - just to make sure he him self had learned. It all began because the huge map of Europe we had was on my wall.

so my brother would come to me and teach all the countries, rivers, lakes, peninsulas, bays capitals of from the map. I had to memorize them, because I could not read yet ! So when he came back to question again I knew about where Budapest was on the map.
But then it was Bukarest I pointed in the map. after that I learned to read letters pretty fast...

By the 3rd grade i could draw the map of Africa with all the national borders rivers and capitals from memeory pretty close to what it is.
I think Africa still is the most difficoult continent to grasp geographically. Europe should be next - but there is so much from Europe in history and the news that it seems clearer to distinguish Bukarest and budapest I guess.

[HLGStrider]

I think it is fair to add that, while I know that my country has nuclear weapons (And if I had to guess others I'd go Pakistan (sp?), Isreal, China, Russia, N. Korea, France, and India... Did I miss any or put any down wrongly?), I don't have the slightest grasp on world or my own countries population. It has been mentioned to me before, but I am lousy at numbers. Words are easy for me to remember, but I don't even know my own social security number (something which has hampered me a lot and I have now started carrying it with me). Phone numbers and addresses and postal codes... all a big pain.

You can imagine how I was at math. The worst was remembering metric to standard conversion factors and the amount of feet in a mile... stuff like that.

[TheFool]

Here you go:

7.2 Declared States:
7.2.1 United States
7.2.2 Russia
7.2.3 Britain
7.2.4 France
7.2.5 China
7.2.6 India
7.2.7 Pakistan

7.3 Suspected States:
7.3.1 Israel
7.3.2 Iran
7.3.3 North Korea
7.3.4 Libya

7.4 States Formerly Possessing or Pursuing Nuclear Weapons:
7.4.1 Argentina
7.4.2 Brazil
7.4.3 Iraq
7.4.4 South Africa
7.4.5 South Korea
7.4.6 Sweden
7.4.7 Switzerland
7.4.8 Taiwan
7.4.9 Algeria
7.4.10 Former Soviet States:
7.4.10.1 Ukraine
7.4.10.2 Kazakhstan
7.4.10.3 Belarus

7.5 Other Nuclear Capable States:
7.5.1 Australia
7.5.2 Canada
7.5.3 Germany
7.5.4 Japan
7.5.6 Netherlands

source (http://nuketesting.enviroweb.org/hew/Nwfaq/Nfaq7.html)

On a map with outlines I reckon I could spot everything except Belarus, Kazakhstan, Algeria, Sweden (I'd take an educated guess at Taiwan :) )

[HLGStrider]

You remember the order of Norway Sweden Finland with NEVER SMELL FISH....

I'm sure there is a better one but that's the one I learned. Sweden is in the Middle... I used to know my European capitals but I think that information went the same way as the periodic table of the elements, which I once had down pat.

Belarus is that roundish one above Urkraine that got marked red on my Ideas On Liberty map of Economic Freedom... Only one of two European countries to get that bad grading... Most were green, a step below blue bt a step above yellow... Very interesting map.

Do I get extra points for correctly spelling Pakistan?

[TheFool]

You get +1 for Pakistan, but -1 for Urkraine ;) :D

This reminds me of a map I once had, long ago..... *cough* OK so it wasn't a treasure map, and I've just fished it out from a bundle of old stuff. It's a 'Peter's Projection' map of the world (from a free issue of New Internationalist magazine :confused: ) :

This projection shows countries in proportion to their relative sizes. It is based upon Arno Peters' Decimal Grid which divides the surface of the earth into 100 longitudinal fields of equal width and 100 latitudinal fields of equal height. It treats the rectangles around the equator as squares and builds the other rectangles onto these in proportion to the areas they represent. The zero meridian on this system is combined with a proposed new International Date Line.
and from the NI spiel:

Traditional maps, of which the Mercator illustrated opposite is one example, have tended to show countries incorrectly in proportion to one another, to the advantage of the European colonial powers, while the southern continents (Africa, South America, Australasia) are shown far too small. (On the Mercator)... Greenland with 2.1 million sq km appears larger than China when in fact China with 9.5 million sq km is about four times larger.

..so yeah, this map 'looks weird' (like things are stretched vertically) but it's very interesting!