Geographic (Il)Literacy.

[canikickit]

This isn't political, it's not even leftist really, but what the hell? It's related to education and I felt politics was the best place to post it.



Here are some results from a National Geographic survey of 18 to 24 year olds on Geographic literacy:

[list]
In the US only 13% (1 in 7) could find Iraq or Iran on a map of the Middle East/Asia. Overall it was 1 in 5.

In the US only 14% could find Israel on a map of the Middle East/Asia.. In no country could more than 50% locate it, with an average of 25%.

In the US 34% of young adults could locate the island in the south pacific where the last season of Survivor was filmed.

In the US 17% could find Afghanistan on a world map.

A majority of young Americans grossly overstated the U.S. population. In fact, close to one-third (30%) said that the U.S. has 1 to 2 billion people, or roughly one-third of the world’s population. Only one-fourth of American young adults (25%) correctly identified the U.S. population as falling within the range of 150 to 350 million. Respondents in all other countries were better able to identify the U.S. population than are young Americans.

Young adults around the world showed only limited knowledge of geography in the context of some nuclear weapons issues. Overall, just 23% of young adults surveyed could name four countries that officially acknowledge having nuclear weapons.

A sizable minority of young adults in France (24%) did not name their own country as
officially acknowledging that it possesses nuclear weapons.

Young adults worldwide are not well informed about global population issues, which affect, among other things, global food and energy consumption. With the exception of Sweden, only four in ten or fewer young adults in all countries surveyed correctly named China and India as the countries with more than one billion people.

On average, young adults in other countries in the study were better able to locate other
European countries than American young adults are to locate U.S. states.[list]


You can take the test and read a variety of other stuff here (http://geosurvey.nationalgeographic.com/geosurvey/). The test is very easy (It's a different survey).

[commie kg]

It's really sad that so many people aren't being educated the way they should be. The US And other countries (But the US especially) should be putting more $$ into the failing education system rather than making more guns and building new prisons. Where will this country be in 30 years...

[KickMcCann]

That's a big problem among the youth in many modern countries. Youth in the N. America, Europe, Japan, China, and Australia have it pretty good. Many are middle class and live in their own little bubbles, seperated from the rest of the world. There concerns deal with personal relationships, jobs, cars, tv, movies, music, sports, and their social life. Instead of putting their attention and focus on education and awareness, they focus entirely on themselves. That isn't neccessarily bad, freedom allows us to do that, but it can get to a point where that freedom from worldly concerns creates negative side-effects, such as lack of education and general ignorance to the rest of the world.

Those without knowledge leave themselves open to become controlled by those with knowledge.

[Dr. Rosenpenis]

I live in America and I was not surprised at these results. I took the test and scored a 20/20. The American youth is too busy watching crap TV shows to even bother to read the news or even watch the news which is so conviniently brodcasted on several different channels and also on the internet. The education system is not entirely failed, considering the money there is in the US, it should be so much better, though it isn't so bad. One cannot expect any person to remeber the locations of these places or the populations of these countries after an exam or a quiz. It is for the individual to decide whether or not he/she will be knowlwgeble or not regarding these subjects.

[vox]

"It is for the individual to decide whether or not he/she will be knowlwgeble or not regarding these subjects."

I think Victorcommie raises a very good point here. The US has a long anti-intellectual tradition. We don't really like the "egghead." Popular culture stresses status in the form of material goods, always aiming at the lowest common denominator, which is good for sales but not much else. Indeed, the "intellegentsia" are commonly villified in the US as the "liberal elite."

We can add to this a kind of cultural provinicialism. I knew a woman in Australia who was very surprised at how many US citizens don't travel abroad, or even have passports. I explained that some of this is due to the fact that travel is rather expensive and the US has a large underclass, but when we look at the House of Representatives and find that most of them do not have passports, one has to wonder why, for it's not as if they don't have the money to travel, and they certainly have jobs that effect the international community. It's a kind of arrogance, I think. Why would anyone ever want to leave the "greatest nation in the world?"

It was, however, rather shocking to me that 1 in 10 young Americans couldn't find the USA on a map. I have to wonder how many would be able to name the members of the Backstreet Boys.

vox

[hawarameen]

i think maybe it unfashionable in america to be clever.
people like this are probably bullied and called nerds etc.

also wrestling is probably the specialist subject of many a young american

[suffianr]

The Malays have a proverb for this:

"You won't love what you don't know".

Does that explain enough? ;)

[Conghaileach]

Only 58% of Yanks knew that the Taliban and Al Qaeda were based in Afghanistan. The next lowest was Mexico with 63%.

[canikickit]

It's a kind of arrogance, I think. Why would anyone ever want to leave the "greatest nation in the world?"

Absolutely true.

People fear intelligence. People are scared of someone who knows more than them, and when someone is raised in an envirnment where someone is dismissed as an "egghead", or a "brainiac", they'll grow up to detest intellectual people.
It's a disease, like racism.

[deimos]

thats more than easy...... i knew already that the americans are dumb but this is really sad.......

(Edited by deimos at 9:44 pm on Nov. 25, 2002)

[canikickit]

It wasn't just people from the US.

[Wash Me]

Quote: from Victorcommie on 6:39 am on Nov. 25, 2002
The American youth is too busy watching crap TV shows to even bother to read the news or even watch the news which is so conviniently brodcasted on several different channels and also on the internet.




isnt that what the media exactly wants!



if people were more educated and aware of whats around them....

a lot of things would be treated differently.

[commie kg]

Quote: from Wash Me on 3:34 pm on Nov. 25, 2002

Quote: from Victorcommie on 6:39 am on Nov. 25, 2002
The American youth is too busy watching crap TV shows to even bother to read the news or even watch the news which is so conviniently brodcasted on several different channels and also on the internet.




isnt that what the media exactly wants!



if people were more educated and aware of whats around them....

a lot of things would be treated differently.

That's exactly right. Sometimes it makes me want to vomit.

[vox]

The mainstream media is only a reflection of the class system. As Marx and Engels noted, "The ruling ideas of each age have ever been the ideas of its ruling class."

The bigger problem is the complacency of the majority of the US public. After all, there is a ton of info available online, in libraries, etc. I think it was the '98 elections, but I'm not sure now, when the percentage of people eligible to vote for the first time, meaning that they turned 18 since the previous election, who actually voted was only 11%.

This makes me think that the Left is lousy at getting the message out.

vox

[truthaddict11]

i find it sad when i have to explain basic politics to teenagers usauly 18,
the difference between the left and the right. one girl didnt even know what a republican was

[timbaly]

The test resluts are nothing short of a typically disgusting display. I went on a poll of my own asking students age 14 if they could find France, Germany and the UK on the map. The results were well not much different than the results of the international survey. I also asked 10 kids to find New York on the US states map, which by the way is where I live and all the students polled live 5 of them couldn't find New York. One person confused Califonia for New York, can you believe that!
Last year I took it upon myself to memorize the world map to a point that I can now draw it with all it's political boundaries just about as accurate as anyone can. There is something about maps that mezmorize me. I can draw the european colonial african continent before and after WWI, Europe during the cold war, before WWI and after WWII freehand. I memorized the majority of it last year by just continously drawing it on my school papers during class.
I'm sure that most American students could memorize the map since the entire American school system is based on memorization for tests and not thinking for yourself. The only problem is that there is no geography class in the US. I have never had a deccent geography listen at any time since I started school.

[Jaha]

IGNORANCE IS THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE.

IGNORANCE IS THE ENEMY OF COMMUNISM.

IGNORANCE IS THE ENEMY OF SOCIETY.

ELIMINATING IGNORANCE IS THE FIRST STEP TO CREATING A BETTER WORLD. EVERYTHING ELSE COMES SECOND.

[DeathToAmerica]

Why even worry about geography?

The Middle East was annexed by Imperialists. France, England and other countries made the borders!

Now the States, look how much that has split up the people in the US. it's a fucken oxy moron the country name united states. the only reason it's "united" is the corporate political system, the only ones that are voted in. Perhaps we have to get people to actually vote and change the system?

It's fine and dandy to go on and on about the bullshit about ill-education.

Perhaps we should focus our emphasis on creating a better system, CHANGING the system?

Just a thought...

[canikickit]

Perhaps we should focus our emphasis on creating a better system, CHANGING the system?

"Focus our emphasis"? How about we just discuss all the issues which are interesting?

Regardless of who drew the political boundaries, those are the ones which effect us. I don't think it's even the fact that it is geography, but it is very sad that the "most powerful country in the world" has the second lowest level of geographic knowledge.

It is also disturbing, as has already been pointed out it is representitive of the typical US attitude of,


"It's a kind of arrogance, I think. Why would anyone ever want to leave the "greatest nation in the world?"

It was, however, rather shocking to me that 1 in 10 young Americans couldn't find the USA on a map. I have to wonder how many would be able to name the members of the Backstreet Boys. "

Like Vox put it.

So do you include Venezuela, and Mexico and Jamaica and Chile in "Death to America"? Don't you think "Death to the government of the United States" would have been more appropriate?