Only 18% of American teenagers can point out own country on map

[DutchLiberal]

That's what I read today in my newspaper. I also said two-thirds of them think there are over a billion Americans in the world (as opposed to the actual 300 million).

:wtf: How can you NOT know where your OWN country is on the map? Okay, don't ask me to point out Mozambique or Tanzania, but I surely would be able to pick out my own country...

[rucky]

1. My 3-year-old daughter can.

sorry - had to brag.

[RB TexLa]

2. They have to use their brain to remember "what's on da TeeVee tonight"

[Ikonoklast]

3. I'm 53, and I can't find my country anymore, either.

I used to know what it looked like, but now I have a hard time finding it.

[tekisui]

5. Two symptoms of the same problem.

[Jack Bone]

7. Touche'

:rofl:

[Brigid]

117. This is very true.

But it will be found again come January.

[DutchLiberal]

119. Yes, because the moment Obama is sworn in, everything magically turns alright.

[Brigid]

121. Not necessarily.

But it's a start.

Obama is a politician, not the messiah. We all have a lot of work to do -- together -- to get our country back from the fascists who stole it from us.

[DutchLiberal]

124. I agree he's a lot better than Bush and Co. And I agree it will take a lot of work.

My only concern is with people who DO act like he's the messiah --they expect instant improvement and that's just not going to happen.

(But we're getting off-topic.)

[my2sense]

4. We are so screwed

as these are the folks that will be running the country when we're old and gray......just dayum.

[HockeyMom]

6. I am a TA in Florida

The teacher was showing the kids in the class a globe. One kid asked where Hawaii was. The teacher was looking in the ATLANTIC Ocean for it and couldn't find it. I told her, "Look in the PACIFIC Ocean."

[acmavm]

9. That's part of the problem. The teacher's we've got nowdays. Some are

dumber than a stump. Like my neighbor. I had lunch with her once. She's a fucking idiot. And she teaches in the Omaha Public School system.

That's when I decided that we're really screwed.

[Smarmie Doofus]

21. If you *pay* them, they will come.

Intelligent people, that is.

Into teaching, that is.

How's Omaha in the 'public school teachers' salary dept.?

[acmavm]

62. I think I read a couple years ago average salary was between

34 and 37 thousand. Not making them millionaires but keep in mind we aren't LA or NY, the cost of living (except for our taxes) isn't as bad as in the biggest cities. But the powers that be are sure as hell trying to catch up.

[Bill McBlueState]

90. True, the cost of living is probably pretty low,

but even so, that sounds like the pay range for professional assistants. To make an analogy to the corporate world, teachers across the country get paid like secretaries but are expected to do the work of managers.

If teachers were paid like the professionals they are, you'd see more capable people joining the profession, and the capable people who are already there would have a more positive attitude about their work.

[Carnea]

92. I really don't think pay is the problem.

Teacher pay isn't that high but honestly most teachers make as much or more than the parents of the kids they teach. And benefits and job security are excellent after a couple of years. I think it's the bureaucracy, the rules, and the nature of the job. The teaching profession has always attracted the lower end of the bell curve and this has only gotten worse as women started dominating other fields at the college level such as law and medicine.

[vharlow]

102. I don't think it's pay either....

I think the "socialization" one gets in public school is the problem. I suspect that it's unpopular to actually learn anything other than where the next party is going to be, and who is going out with who, and I know that's a very old fashioned way of putting that. A friendly probation officer once told a friend of mine that one teenager has half a brain...multiply that by 2 and you have 1/4 of a brain, and so on until when you have a whole group, there is no functioning brain among them. I suspect that more kids laugh when a kid knows something than when they don't. A distant relation told me that in social studies class, they watched movies on TV and afterward, the teacher would ask "are there any questions?" and no one would raise their hand, because if they did, they would get laughed at. Sooooo, as she acknowledged, there wasn't any real learning going on, because all through the film, the students whispered and chatted with each other, and wrote notes, etc, paying no attention. About the middle ages, she learned about knights in armor and the cool clothes they wore. Had no idea who was in power, how people communicated, how they travelled, or any of those important things at all.

Students are responsible for the learning. No matter what the teacher does, if they don't pick up the ball, it's pointless to blame the teacher.

[The Backlash Cometh]

104. That's funny, because most of the kids who high tailed it to private school,

did it because they were lousy students. They partied too much and would rather go shopping than open a book. But, since their parents could afford private school, off they went. I guess it was a good thing for them to do to, because the private school gave them a diploma that they would never have received with their grades if they had stuck it out in public school.

[Smarmie Doofus]

136. True in urban areas where the middle class uses private schools.

>>>>>Teacher pay isn't that high but honestly most teachers make as much or more than the parents of the kids they teach. >>>>>

I doubt if it's AS true in rural/suburban areas. In other words: it varies. In upper-crust towns north of NYC, teachers are regarded as on a par with 'the help', socioeconomically speaking.




>>>>And benefits and job security are excellent after a couple of years.>>>

If one makes it past a couple years. Lots don't. And the whole concept of "seniority" is in decline and on the way out in the profession. Why make teaching an attractive career option? If people come in, work full tilt for a few years, burn-out and leave, the hiring district ahs gotten high quality teaching on the cheap and saved all that pension money besides. This pattern is becoming more and more the rule rather than the exception.

>>>> I think it's the bureaucracy, the rules, and the nature of the job. The teaching profession has always attracted the lower end of the bell curve and this has only gotten worse as women started dominating other fields at the college level such as law and medicine.>>>>>

Tons of paperwork, crazy bureaucracies, difficult to motivate kids and lousy pay drive people to look for something better... before or after college graduation and bell curve or no bell curve.

[Fireweed247]

100. It is no child left behind driving the good teachers out

It is the government who is interfering with real teaching and driving the good teachers out.

All part of the plan.

[TheFarseer]

131. Nebraska is one of the bottom states in teacher salary

Our politicians sure know how to squeeze state employees.

[Smarmie Doofus]

137. In which case, Nebraskans probably shouldn't be shocked...

... that some of their teachers are not overly bright. Overly bright people generally want to be paid commensurately... esp if they've got mouths to feed.

This is not complicated... seems to me.

[twiceshy]

103. It doesn't help that men have been driven...

......or run from the profession. I'd guess half my teachers in Jr. High and HS were male.

From the NEA Website "According to NEA research, just 24.9 percent of the nation's 3 million teachers are men. And over the last two decades, the ratio of males to females in teaching has steadily declined. The number of male teachers now stands at a 40-year low.

The percentage of male teachers in elementary schools has fallen regularly since 1981 - that year, it reached an all-time high of 18 percent. Today, a scant 9 percent of elementary school teachers are men. Likewise, the percentage of males in secondary schools has fluctuated over the years, but now stands at its lowest level (35 percent)."

I can't hazard a guess at the reason, but pay, risk of lawsuits, curriculum, may all have something to do with it.

[islandmkl]

8. i know where my country is on the map...

it's the where-is-it-really aspect of it that i seem to have trouble locating...

[Binka]

39. Oh My Is That Your Dog?

What a FABULOUS creature. Gorgeous and looks so damn smart!

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

10. 82% of American teenagers are smartasses who won't stay off my lawn.

[Indenturedebtor]

11. I don't buy that

The billion thing.. maybe. But not being able to find Murika? Come on.

[ORDagnabbit]

25. I graduated HS in 87 and will remember to my dying day the girl when asked to point out the United

States on a globe could not do it. Junior in High School and coulndt point out the US on a globe and that was in 1986....Its gonna so much worse since then.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

75. You may recall that....

....but by my education that doesn't add up to 82% of your other classmates.

[DutchLiberal]

29. I heard Americans say the Berlin Wall was in Jerusalem. I buy it.

[LeftishBrit]

116. An English woman asked my Japanese friend if Japan belonged to Hong Kong...

you get geographical ignorance everywhere!

[Monk06]

12. 82% of teenagers pretend to be dumb 'cause it drives teachers crazy. n/t

[angstlessk]

13. I guess they wonder since we are spending so much of our tax dollars in Iraq

Is that piece of land squeezed in between the atlantic and pacific ocean really my country, or is is where the oil flows and my tax dollars follow?

[Swamp Rat]

14. Shuddup or weel put a boot in yer ass!! ....... Murika roolz1!

[Deja Q]

15. But can they point out the globe, or even agree with Friedman that the world is flat?

Probably not, on all counts...

[Selatius]

16. I would have to see an online article to confirm this. You sure it's not 18 percent CAN'T find US?

[DutchLiberal]

32. It it were 18% who CAN'T find it, it wouldn't be news.

At least not interesting enough to put into a Dutch newspaper. I don't know of any English article. I read it this morning in a newspaper. (And why would I make up something like that?)

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

34. What's the source?

What outfit did the testing?

[DutchLiberal]

35. I read it in 'Metro', a daily free Dutch newspaper.

Who or which institution did the polling wasn't mentioned. It simply said: "a survey".

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

36. In that case, I'll assume it's untrue.

[DutchLiberal]

51. See if I care...

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

97. You should care about your own country's education system.

In a recently conducted poll, 100% of dutch youths were unable to properly cite statistics that they claim to be true.

[hfojvt]

105. Al Franken wouldn't put it on the internet if it wasn't true

the tubes would automatically reject it.

[DutchLiberal]

109. A Dutchman who's told by an American to take care of his education system...

I'm a big fan or irony, but you're killing me! :rofl:

By the way, kudos for your right-wing straw man! Apparently, even liberals resort to them when any factual criticism is given about their country.

[KansDem]

17. 82% of American teenagers didn't do it because they were told to do it.

Now, if you asked the question "Don't point out America on this map," they'll do it.

[rucky]

42. We have a winnah!

[Lone_Star_Dem]

18. Who did they poll?

Only the kids who are being home schooled by parents that dropped out in the 6th grade?

[Seedersandleechers]

19. Sorry, I'm not buying it that easily.

[Smarmie Doofus]

22. We learned about map-reading by playing Risk.

Of course, Risk is all about world domination. But at least we knew where everything was.

I don't that one learns much about the real world from Pokemon and Digimon.

[Alcibiades]

79. Then you can find Kamchatka

The map on the risk board is a swell piece of art, but leaves a few things out.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

23. Yeah, I'd need to see the test question itself.

A lot of these "kids these days are so dumb" things are rigged.

[pnwmom]

20. Here's a map of the world. Find the U.S.

http://www.wall-maps.com/World/UpsideDownWorldMap.htm

[JanMichael]

43. No problem.

Was that supposed to be difficult?

[pnwmom]

46. Okay. Do you think it would be easy on this map, if the labels weren't there?

[JanMichael]

48. Yes.

I've never had a problem with maps.

If you asked me to label all of the broken off republics of the former USSR I might have some trouble...

ON EDIT: I still would have gotten it as a teen.

[TahitiNut]

94. Yes.

I was looking at maps (and a world globe) and locating countries before I could read.

:shrug:

[Terran]

95. Yes, dammit

If you can't figure out which friggin' continent your own country is on, even on that map, then you need to be eliminated from the genepool.

[Carnea]

135. Um yes NT

[TCJ70]

24. They should have asked them to point to any country BESIDES America...

Then they might have gotten an accurate number.

[The_Casual_Observer]

26. Unless it's a topic on the NCLB standard test, forget it.

[Swamp Rat]

27. 2006 National Geographic survey:

Young Americans Geographically Illiterate, Survey Suggests
John Roach
National Geographic News
May 2, 2006

Young adults in the United States fail to understand the world and their place in it, according to a survey-based report on geographic literacy released today.

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.

(snip)

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/05/0502_060502_geography.html

About the survey:
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/roper2006/findings.html

Full report (pdf):
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/roper2006/pdf/FINALReport2006GeogLitsurvey.pdf

[Firespirit]

28. IF this is true, blame the schools and NCLB, not the kids.

I hate seeing this sort of thing because it usually devolves into an orgy of youth-bashing.

Kids these days are put through the dumbed-down curricula and Social Darwinist corruption of public education that is NCLB. They go home with 4 hours of useless busy work. Their parents have to work 3 jobs to keep the bank from turning them all onto the street, and the police-state schools keep records on which kids "have too much time on their hands" or "prefer being alone to being in a group," so they enroll the kids in every "extracurricular activity" they can find.

If this bit of data is true, it ISN'T the kids' fault. They are the victims of a system that has failed them utterly.

[cloudbase]

30. God forbid that any of the kids

should ever pick up a book on their own and learn anything outside of skool.

[Firespirit]

31. Way to miss the point of my post, which was,

that like their parents, their every waking minute is filled with something.

[cloudbase]

41. None of that reduces their capacity

to show a little intellectual curiosity. "Dumbing down" and lowered expectations have somehow become acceptable in certain circles.

[Firespirit]

49. I take it you've never been as busy as that

When I was in school, I was the sort of kid who got involved in all the individualistic competitions. Spelling bee, geography bee, science fair, math bee, pretty much anything academic that a single person could do. I was ranked 1st in my class, but the school didn't give me breaks from homework. There is literally no time to do anything else when one is involved in competitive activities. They are all-consuming. It may be hard to comprehend this without personal experience. My chosen activities happened to be intellectually enriching, but the athletic and community things that kids more often do are no less time-consuming.

I ended up physically collapsing in one of them and being taken to the hospital.

[cloudbase]

58. You'd be wrong, then.

I managed to stay reasonably busy in high school, doing some of the academic competitions and lettering in a couple of sports, but I never let them be all-consuming. While I wasn't first in my class, I managed to do well enough to gain admission to one of the federal academies, where they managed to keep me as "busy as that," when the academic load and all the fun regimental stuff were combined.

I don't find it acceptable in the least that such a percentage of kids, for whatever reason, are unable to find a country on a map. To bend just a little bit, I'd accept that given a country name, any person should at least know what continent that country is and be able to find the country from that point.

It's so much easier to make excuses than actually hold somebody accountable for their performance.

[Mike Daniels]

71. Then it was your choice to take up all your availble free time with those activities

It comes down to choice.

The school can't teach everything but I'm pretty sure that most classrooms have a map or globe of the US/world somewhere in the room. I'm also pretty sure that most history/geography books have the US somewhere within their text

If a child can't pick the US on a map given those "givens" then the child's at fault, not the system.

[Mike Daniels]

69. That's BS.

There isn't any instance where a child's day is so jammed full of activity that he/she doesn't have the opportunity to sit down and read the paper or a book.

If he/she chooses not to do those particular activities that's up to the child but to imply a child doesn't have any opportunity for a little mental self-improvement is hogwash.

[DutchLiberal]

33. I agree.

My main point wasn't bashing the youth, but to express my amazement and giving people an opportunity to reflect on the causes (and possible solutions?)...

[pampango]

106. Exactly. You could add families and society at large to your list of those

responsible.

I contend that the day children are born they are identical today to those born 100 years ago, maybe 1000 years ago. If today's teenagers aren't as accomplished in some respect as teenagers 30 years ago, or 100, or 1000, it is the fault of the adults around them whose responsibility it is to usher them from infancy to adulthood.

Young people seem to be the only group (other than Republicans - but they are a voluntary group) whom DU'ers seem comfortable blasting as stupid and uncaring. No other group sharing a birth characteristic (similar years of birth, in this case) is exposed to the same attacks here. We don't do it to groups of people who share a birth characteristic such as race, gender, nationality, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc; only age, and then only young age, not middle or older.

Perhaps I shouldn't take it too seriously. I know that adults blasted my generation when we were teenagers back in the day. I have read similar accounts of adults disparaging young people in the colonial American period. I suppose that adults have looked down on the abilities of young adults and teenagers since the beginning of time.

[Dorian Gray]

37. Really?

What newspaper is that in? That has to be a mistake.

[DutchLiberal]

52. In Dutch free newspaper 'Metro'. Why should it be a mistake?

[Dorian Gray]

101. I assume

it has to be a mistake that our population is THAT dumb. If true, it's horribly depressing.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

38. This may only prove

that 18% of the population, no matter what the age, are just plain stupid. :shrug: The thing is, they didn't choose to be stupid, but they are.............

[DutchLiberal]

53. Er... that 18% DID manage to find the US on a map... It's the 82% who are stupid.

[JanMichael]

40. That's unbelievable. Seriously...If true we are screwed.

How pitiful.

[Bucky]

44. I suspect that's bullshit.

I teach social studies to particularly stupid students in Texas. By the time I'm done with them they're all pretty good with maps, but I can't think of more than 2 or 3 out of my last batch of 150 or so who couldn't've found the United States on a map.

[DutchLiberal]

55. So because you are a teacher the story is bullshit? How fucking scientific.

[Bucky]

66. I teach social studies, not science. ;o)

In sociology, we learn about something called a "moral panic." It's when people collectively throw their hands up the air and conclude, "Oh my God, the world's all going to hell in a handbasket." People panic about race, about immigration, about drugs, deviant hair styles, the music these kids listen to these days, and the fact that they won't get off my lawn.

Annoying as dumb teens might be, they're not dramatically dumber today than they were a generation ago and in some areas have skads more knowledge and skills than we had at their age. In the education field we periodically see news stories about studies that just prove how dumb kids are today in the fields of geography, social literacy, and other topic areas that "everyone is supposed to know." On closer examination these studies usually turn out to be misquoted, misrepresented, or false. Often reporters cite slanted demographics or misunderstand how the testing conditions that "prove" the ignorance of these kids might not be using valid methodologies. The shock of these moral panic statistics invariably turns out to be less shocking on closer examination.

Hence my comment "I suspect that's bullshit." I guess I can now go around saying that there's posters on DU who don't even know what the verb "suspect" means (but I won't ;) ). I can only reiterate, as I did in my previous post, that based on my personal experience teaching mainstream typical teenagers, far far more than 18% of students can find the United States on a map.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

78. LOL

Great response.

[MedleyMisty]

91. You know, that's really interesting

Because I had been trying to figure out what was so horribly immoral about using an iPod to listen to music as opposed to a Walkman or portable CD player or one of the other brands of MP3 players. I couldn't see how an object could be moral or immoral. Sure, the company that makes the product could be moral or immoral but in the rants about iPods I never saw anything about Apple's business practices.

Thank you for the information.

[DutchLiberal]

111. Thanks for your elaborate post.

I wish the paper had said something about which institution carried out the survey, how it was done, who participated etc.

[Evoman]

45. Don't believe it. There is no way that only 2 out of 10 students can point out U.S.

Oh, and if you'd like to study up on your middle eastern countries....

http://www.rethinkingschools.org/just_fun/games/mapgame.html

[pnwmom]

47. Maybe it would be hard if they were looking at a map like this,

except without any labels.

[Evoman]

50. Well, they had to have pulled some stunt to get the result.

Maybe they blindfolded the kids. Or maybe the kids were being smart-asses. Or maybe it was un-labeled map and they pointed just a little north or a little south of the U.S. at Canada or Mexico.

Or maybe they were asked to point out "America" and they pointed to the americas. Who knows. But kids cannot be that dumb.

[DutchLiberal]

57. Why would that be hard? That's fucking easy!!!

[pnwmom]

60. Looking at this map would require more spatial skills (to interpret

shapes that are different than what we commonly see in maps). If it weren't labeled, I would expect that this map would be harder to interpret than the typical "world" map you might see in a classroom.

[TransitJohn]

64. it actually requires less

That projection is much closer to actual. (Actual meaning the ol' oblate spheroid.)

[Mike Daniels]

77. Please.

I'm sorry but Florida is pretty obvious even in that map.

If somone is that culturally ignorant that they can't recognize Florida in that map then perhaps there's something wrong with the child.

[MedleyMisty]

63. How?

North America, and our position within it, has a very recognizable shape that is clear on that map. And all the other continents also have recognizable shapes and you should know how they are all located in relation to each other.

[DutchLiberal]

56. Then check out post #27 (SwampRat); he/she has (more) sources...

[Recursion]

54. You know, when I was in high school...

...we used to completely gaff off "high school knowledge surveys" too.

[HawkerHurricane]

59. That's what I was thinking.

Way back when (1980 or so), we'd answer surveys given in school with questions like "Who's the President of the United States" with "Henry Fonda", "When was the Civil War Fought" "1812", and "Where is the Mason/Dixon Line" with "Canada".

It didn't count for grade, it was anonomous, and we were teenage boys. What did we care?

[malaise]

61. Bet they know

'intelligent design'!!

[JCMach1]

65. NCLB does not include Geography- ANY QUESTIONS?

IF it isn't on the test, it doesn't exist in the current school system.

[Bucky]

67. I'm a social studies teacher who suffers under NCLB. It does cover geography.

As a school teacher I teach a LOT that isn't on "the test." I think most other teachers do as well.

[Treadwell]

68. The other...

The other 82% ditched school that day.

[JCMach1]

108. Depends on the test in your state...

Florida did not cover it when I was teaching there.

[seabeyond]

70. i call bullshit. i am raising kids and all of them could not only find u.s. but many more

places that i didn't have a clue about at their age. i had five kids in room playing x box talking about Zimbabwe and being in africa ect... amazed at their conversation.

BUT

every time there is a post to make our kids out to be the very worst i am thrilled to know the kids i hang with MUST be of the elitist of the bunch not falling into whatever dissing going on about our kids.

[Bucky]

76. Did you notice the OP didn't cite the actual study? Here, let me give ya some facts.

The study that the OP is misquoting is found here (long boring PDF file).

It was not a study of teenagers in high school, it was a study of young adults "18- to 24-year old adults in the continental United States, using an in-home, in-person methodology."

The executive summary found "In this survey, young Americans answer about half (54%) of all the questions correctly. But by and large, majorities of young adults fail at a range of questions testing their basic geographic literacy."

and

There is some good news. For instance, respondents have a fairly good understanding of how to use a map for simple navigation tasks, and many can say on which continents different countries and significant natural landmarks are found. They accurately recall a number of timely facts, such as the Asian origins of the current strain of avian influenza.

There is sobering news too:

However, survey results show cause for concern. Six in ten (63%) cannot find Iraq on a map of
the Middle East, despite near-constant news coverage since the U.S. invasion of March 2003.
Three-quarters cannot find Indonesia on a map – even after images of the tsunami and the
damage it caused to this region of the world played prominently across televisions screens and in
the pages of print media over many months in 2005. Three-quarters (75%) of young men and
women do not know that a majority of Indonesia’s population is Muslim (making it the largest
Muslim country in the world), despite the prominence of this religion in global news today.
Neither wars nor natural disasters appear to have compelled majorities of young adults to absorb
knowledge about international places in the news.

Also striking is young Americans’ ignorance of how the United States fits into the wider world.
Majorities overestimate the total size of the U.S. population and fail to understand how much
larger the population of China is. Three-quarters (74%) believe English is the most commonly
spoken native language in the world, rather than Mandarin Chinese. Although 73% know the
U.S. is the world’s largest consumer of oil, nearly as many (71%) do not know the U.S. is the
world’s largest exporter of goods and services – half think it’s China.

Such lack of geographic literacy shows up closer to home, as well. Half or fewer of young men
and women 18-24 can identify the states of New York or Ohio on a map (50% and 43%,
respectively).

On locating stuff:

Despite near-constant news coverage of conflict in the Middle East, young Americans
have a weak knowledge of the geography of this region. Six in ten (63%) cannot
find Iraq or Saudi Arabia on a map of the Middle East, while three-quarters (75%) cannot
find Iran or Israel. In fact, 44% cannot find even one of these four countries.

o Results are linked to educational attainment: Young Americans with college
experience are nearly four times as likely as those with only up to a high school
education to be able to find all four of these strategic countries (23% vs. 6%).

o Nine in ten (88%) cannot find Afghanistan on a map of Asia.
o Sizeable percentages do not know that Sudan and Rwanda are in Africa (54%
and 40% answer incorrectly, respectively). In fact, 20% place Sudan in Asia and
10% put it in Europe.
o Seven in ten (70%) cannot find North Korea on a map, and two-thirds (63%) do
not know its border with South Korea is the most heavily fortified in the world.

o Two-thirds (67%) can find Louisiana on a U.S. map and half (52%) can find
Mississippi – leaving a third or more who cannot find these states, in spite of
months of intensive media coverage of the 2005 hurricanes and their aftermath.
o Moreover, half (50%) cannot find New York State, even though it is the third
most populous state in the union, after California and Texas.

Seven in ten (69%) young Americans can find China on a map – it is one of the few
recognized countries outside North America. Yet even with a country as economically
and politically dominant as China, young Americans have a number of misconceptions
about China.

So basically, although it is a big problem, this thread isn't a story about people who can't read maps. It's a story about people who can't read educational surveys.

[snooper2]

80. Well...I would have got this one wrong...

nearly as many (71%) do not know the U.S. is the
world’s largest exporter of goods and services – half think it’s China.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

93. A lot of people get confuse on that one

We still export a large amount to Canada (Canada and the US have the largest trade relationship of any two countries in the world), the EU and Mexico. Then there's our exports to the Pacific Rim which are larger than our exports to all of Western Europe as a whole. Most of our exports to the Pacific Rim are in raw materials which they use in manufacturing or products which they then export. Often back to us.

[momster]

86. Reading this....

they seem to expect teenagers to sit down and watch the tv news, which they don't, and that the news puts up regional maps of countries...which they don't. The news may put up a map of Iraq but not in context of its geographical area. Or perhaps they'll show images of Indonesia, but not where it is in relation to the US. So they are expecting teens to know things without being taught them. Maybe Dutch kids learn by osmosis, but American children perfer being taught, if someone is willing to teach them. The only time my daughter -- who is bright enough to test into and thrive in a tough private environment -- was ever taught geography in public school -- which she attended for half a dozen years -- was around the state Geography Bee which is usually won by a kid who became interested when a parent taught them.

[seabeyond]

89. further i bet the kids could find the middle east, know that is where iraq is

and the countries in the area. they may not be able to look at a land mass and say iraq, but they could say here is the middle east, it is in here and tell the whole story and political history of the last decade leading to it. or again.... the kids i know. but then we are all into info and learning and being socially and politically active. of course kids will hang with like kids. but i am talking neighbor kids in three different homes too, not just school friends.

i also know people and kids that embrace and are proud of being stupid

i know both dems and repugs that will ignore truth and fact cause it doesnt meet their agenda. there is no texas in u.s. cause it is its own country....

but thanks for info

[DutchLiberal]

112. I am not 'misquoting' any study. I'm just telling you what I found in my newspaper.

And that's all.

[DutchLiberal]

113. The fact that you know a bunch of smart kids doesn't mean anything...

[seabeyond]

130. then there are studies that say people will believe whatever they read

but.... if it sounds too far out there, might want to look around in your own little world to see if it even comes close to reality. if not even close, .... maybe one ought to question what they read. i think all 18% of those kids must be the ones all us adults know right here on this thread. isnt that amazing. seems amazing. maybe i will just say they are not the ONLY ones that can find the u.s.

seeing how every single kids i know, and i know a lot with children and their friends, nieces and nephews. seeing that every single one can find the u.s..... i think that does mean something. for the thinking person anyway

and finding the u.s., i dont think that kids automatically gets pegged as a "smart" kid.

[lonestarnot]

72. Well my kid is not one of them.

:applause:

[bdamomma]

85. mine neither.

We have an atlas book in our house, and of course they do a search on Internet to find countries, my 15 year old sleeps with an atlas book in his bed sometimes!!

[lonestarnot]

88. Sweeeeet! Got to love those teenagers!

:hug:

[slackmaster]

73. 87% of "statistics" cited without a verifiable reference were pulled out of someone's ass

:rofl:

[weezy2736]

74. I had a current events class, one of our tests was to label a world map with several countries.

You wouldn't believe some of the crazy stuff I saw, some had the U.S. in Africa, one put us on Cyprus. Really really crazy. I had to take it twice (we had to get a 100% to move on, including spelling, and I rely on my good friend, spellcheck.)

[dysfunctional press]

81. sounds like total utter bullshit to me...

do you have a link to the study that came up with this number? what methodology did they use to come up with the 18% number? what was the sample size? where was it taken?

without some kind of verification, i'd have to rate those numbers as meaningless nonsense.

[Bucky]

84. It's a 2006 National Geographic study of young adults (not high schoolers) 94% found the USA.

The study that the OP is misquoting is found here (long boring PDF file).

On page 26 it shows that 94% of 18-24 year olds could find the US on a map.

On page 28 it shows this same group of young adults did better than in a similar study 8 years earlier.

[DutchLiberal]

118. Complain to the newspaper if you don't believe it, not to me.

I do not have a link. I'm telling you I read this in my Dutch paper yesterday. The paper gave no informartion on what methodology they used to come up with the 18% number, what the sample size was or where it was taken.

[dysfunctional press]

132. what newspaper? without a link- YOU'RE the one giving out the false information.

nt

[Telly Savalas]

134. That newspaper is not responsible for the dubious info being posted at DU

You are, and that's why people are complaining to you.

[dems_rightnow]

127. It's crap

No way that's accurate. Unbelievable that they'd just print shit like this.

[dysfunctional press]

133. equally unbelievable that the op would pass it on as factual info...

but then...they are dutch. :shrug:

[bdamomma]

82. that is pretty sad, we need to reinstate Civics & Geography in all classrooms

no wonder people are so ignorant to what is going on.

Thom Hartmann had this author on yesterday who explained this very same thing.

Rick Shenkman

Hour Three "Everything You Know is Wrong" Rick Shenkman www.howstupidblog.com Topic: "Just How Stupid Are We?"

[momster]

87. I agree about Civics but

I think the OP is quoting a paper whose reporter got it backwards. Easy to do with statistics.

[Marr]

83. I don't doubt this at all, and I expect adults would have similarly horrible results.

Over the years, I've read countless articles reporting on the results of various studies revealing the public's (not just teenagers') deep ignorance concerning where and they are in the world-- and the solar system. I've seen those results echoed in a hundred little personal encounters as well, but I won't waste time serving up anecdotal evidence.

As tempting as it might be to shrug this sort of thing off and say every population must be this way, or that it's simply the product of our school system... I really think that's a cop-out. I'd say these sorts of studies demonstrate just how disinterested Americans are in the world outside their own petty, individual desires. Too many of us just plain don't care.

A person who doesn't even have even a vague idea of where they are on the planet is bound to be deeply ignorant across the board. They can have no perspective; no point from which to make sound judgements or to reason. They're susceptible to the crudest types of propaganda, because there really is no objective reality.

[erpowers]

96. Don't Believe It

I do not believe that only 18% of American teenagers can find there own country on a map. I just do not see how teenagers could not know were there country is located on a map. I can somewhat believe more teenagers believe there are more than a billion Americans.

[Bucky]

98. The actual study was of 18-24 year olds. And only 94% could find the US on a map.

[Buns_of_Fire]

99. Which leaves the remaining 16% out of luck, geographically speaking.

Not to mention mathematically speaking.

(I'm sorry. There's one in every crowd, isn't there?)

[gollygee]

126. ROFL

good one :D

[DutchLiberal]

122. Well, I can tell you a lot of Dutch don't know where their country is on the map either...

:P

[EOTE]

107. There are a lot more than 300 million Americans in the world.

American can mean a citizen of either North or South America. In that case, I'd imagine there are much closer to a billion than 300 million.

[DutchLiberal]

123. You don't call a citizen of Bolivia or Brazil an 'American', do you?

And then how should we call you? An 'United Stater'? A 'United Statesman'? ;)

[ElsewheresDaughter]

110. I don't believe it

[LeftishBrit]

114. That's at variance with what I've read...

The National Geographic Society does regular international surveys of geographical knowledge. In 2006, 6% of young American adults couldn't identify the USA on a map; in the previous 2002 survey the percentage was 11%. They performed much more poorly with other countries, and with individual states within their the USA. In both years, the Americans scored just above their Mexican counterparts, but lower than the Europaean countries studied.

I attach a link to a report on the 2002 survey, as this is a bit more detailed than the 2006 one and the results seem similar:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/11/1120_021120_GeoRoperSurvey.html

The report suggests that the reason why Americans are less good at geography than the Europaeans, is because they travel less and also are less likely to know foreign languages.

But no one seems to have done terribly well. I can't find exactly how well Britain did, but the best performers were Germany, Italy and Sweden.

Looking back to my own geography education in England, I don't think we did a lot of identifying countries on maps: we did a lot more physical geography, and at the early stages, how people live in 'foreign lands' (very outdated and stereotyped; all about drawing igloos and Malay huts). I do remember my Canadian-born father being rather shocked at seeing a map in our textbook that showed Newfoundland as a peninsula!

[Brigid]

115. Maybe I'm getting on in years . . .

but what is up with not even knowing how to find your own country on a map? We had world maps in just about every classroom back in my day. As I have asked on many occasions in recent years, what is going on in our schools these days. :wtf:

[BootinUp]

120. I don't believe that.

but I wouldn't be surprised if it was not much better than half.

[On the Road]

125. I Don't Believe Your Newspaper

If someone can't find their own country, they probably simply process geographic data. It's like looking at hexidecimal. There are people like this, but they are not 82% of the teenage population.

Now there might be 82% who couldn't identify their own *county* on a map without labels.

[dems_rightnow]

128. This 2002 study........

Granted, it's not teenagers, but 89% of Americans could indeed find their country on a map.


http://archives.cnn.com/2002/EDUCATION/11/20/geography.quiz/index.html

[ileus]

129. I call BS....

no ones that damn dumb.