Geographically Illiterate
Image Credit: NASA (GSFC)
Behold the most recent, truly sad cultural commentary…
Results have been published from the latest Roper/National Geographic survey, which tests geographic knowledge amongst young adults aged 18-24. You may (or may not) recall the findings of the 2002 survey which, among other similarly egregious tidbits, revealed that 30% of young Americans couldn’t locate the Pacific Ocean on a map of the globe, even in a multiple-choice format.
What’s the verdict for 2006? In a word: abysmal.
Take Iraq, for example. Despite nearly constant news coverage since the war there began in 2003, 63 percent of Americans aged 18 to 24 failed to correctly locate the country on a map of the Middle East. Seventy percent could not find Iran or Israel.
Nine in ten couldn’t find Afghanistan on a map of Asia.
And 54 percent were unaware that Sudan is a country in Africa.
Remember the December 2004 tsunami and the widespread images of devastation in Indonesia?
Three-quarters of respondents failed to find that country on a map. And three-quarters were unaware that a majority of Indonesia’s population is Muslim, making it the largest Muslim country in the world.
_____
Even for U.S. geography, the survey results are just as dismal.
Half could not find New York State on a map of the United States.
A third of the respondents could not find Louisiana, and 48 percent couldn’t locate Mississippi on a map of the United States, even though Hurricane Katrina put these southeastern states in the spotlight in 2005.
Many young Americans also lack basic map-reading skills.
Told they could escape an approaching hurricane by evacuating to the northwest, only two-thirds could indicate which way northwest is on a map.
Perhaps even more worrisome is the finding that few U.S. young adults seem to care.
Fewer than three in ten think it’s absolutely necessary to know where countries in the news are located. Only 14 percent believe speaking another language fluently is a necessary skill.
This survey is not a difficult one, by any means — I’ve seen far trickier questions playing NTN trivia with friends down at the bar. Try the survey yourself and see how you fare. On the very first question, you’ll note that nearly 70% of respondents were unable to correctly identify the population of the USA - their home turf - even given wide ranges from which to choose.
What I find most depressing of all… the utter lack of interest displayed by younger generations, not only about the rest of the world, but our own country. If we lived in the 19th century, I could almost understand the poor attitude — being able to identify foreign countries on a map likely wouldn’t have been a necessary skill if you were farming and raising livestock in order to survive, largely isolated from the rest of the world. In the 21st century though, this attitude once again reflects the utterly self-centered nature of American society, and it’s wholly unacceptable. I’m sure some sorts of educational measures could be undertaken to improve students’ understanding; the wilful ignorance, though, sets off multiple alarms.
If we fail to act upon the urgent need to improve the quality of education in the United States (not limited to geography, either — one American adult in five believes the Sun revolves around the Earth…), the ramifications - economically and otherwise - will be of the utmost severity.
4 Responses to “Geographically Illiterate”
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And knowing what city the original CSI was set in tests my knowledge of geography how, exactly?
The question about population growth in the US was a more serious question, but again, not exactly geographical.
I had to guess about the CSI one.
Wolverine, here I am trying the dignosis:
what to do. even you will see that in the homework of the student for a particular student their parents forgets to take their knowledge power at the home in that particular topic, they forgets to teach thier son or daughter the ” map reading”, hence it is necessary, and it will be the real test of the student to look him how much he is master in that particular subject or area.
1. today’s youth is least concentrate their mind on the general knowledge( not all, but most of them, they are clever in other subjects though)
2. most of them are least acquainted with the maps, may be of roads, cities, of state, of country, of continents, of the world, few percentage only may be know all such )
3. in the periods eighter in school or collages, the childrens or the youths I have observed in many classes, eighter they are sleeping or making the paper-rocket to throw on their friends, or they just looks outside of the classroom from the windows, many school managements have given their staff special commands that ” avoid the mistakes of their students and also their crazyness in the classroom as far as their non study mock activities going on in the classroom)
4. in the syllabus of geography subject, they do not prepare to their students for the map readings, many time teacher of this subject stress the theory and writing tips of the geography to appear in the exams, but they mostly do the mistake by “oversight” they forget to teach the map reading
5. if we are saying that teachers are well teaching the map reading to their students, but students can’t understand that what their teachers are teaching them. ( there is gap of communication) you will be surprise to heard when we ask them ” how many continents on the earth”, they just smiles, many of them give the probable answers, many of them like to keep mum when they are asked by their teachers,
6. many students in this age group forget to recall their memories to read the accurate map reading in the given zone, or on the earth’s picture shown to them. When I asked one fellow ” what are Katrina and Rita” He replied these are the names of girls, but when I asked again that ” these name have history to know” then He replied me that “may be the katrina and Rita are twin sisters”, I laugh very loudly at that time
there are many things to analize this quiestion, why they are not able to show the true destination in the map of a particular place, the student just laugh and prefer to chew the chewingum.
I have no idea why they bothered to include the CSI question. Perhaps they wanted to provide an easy one for average TV hounds. Personally, I’ve never seen the show, so that was the only question on the survey I missed.
sunil: I think you summed it up pretty well. I just wish our young people would take more of an interest in the rest of the world; at present rate the problems seem to be getting worse at a steady rate… I’m afraid to see what these results will be like a decade from now.