Survey Reveals Geographic Illiteracy
According to National Geographic:
About 11 percent of young citizens of the U.S. couldn’t even locate the U.S. on a map. The Pacific Ocean’s location was a mystery to 29 percent; Japan, to 58 percent; France, to 65 percent; and the United Kingdom, to 69 percent.
As far as I can remember, geography was only taught once in my 12 years of primary and secondary schooling. My 7th grade social studies teacher (at least they’re honest about not calling it History or Geography when it isn’t), Roger Wilson, gave what was called the Hundred Nations Test. At the end of the year, we got a blank map and had to fill in most of the country labels. Alas, Mr. Wilson has retired, so today’s Hanover High graduates probably have not even had that experience.
In my mind, the root problem is that most of today’s schools look down upon the teaching of mere facts. Instead, the emphasis is on developing feelings, opinions, and critical thinking skills. One example is that in 10th grade social studies we were assigned to do a report on an imaginary island and make up a history for it. Actually learning about a real island’s history would not have been inspired teaching. Learning how to think is important, of course, but if you don’t know your facts, what is your opinion worth? Most teachers seem to think they’re training those Dilbert marketing guys who are proud of the fact that they don’t know what their products actually do.
We are so far from the Brazil situation that Feynman described (and so many people rightly fear) that there is no danger of somehow ending up there if we place more emphasis on knowledge (which necessarily involves some memorization).
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