Geography.

[Peter]

I've seen videos of US young people not being able to name a single county on a world map and I'm just wondering how that's possible?
I'm not claiming this is all young people as those videos will only feature the worst of the worst for shock value but still.

I'm not expecting much but surely a basic level of geographic understanding should be taught in lower and middle school?
How much geography teaching did you get?
Is geography just something that isn't seen as important in the US?

I don't claim to be any good at geography and I'm unsure how many countries I can pinpoint but it's a fair few of the super obvious ones.

 

[Bok Tuklo]

I always assume most videos like that, those looking to ridicule, go through a lot of people before they find what they want.

 

[Callen]

My observation has been that American education has a very American centric focus in history, geography and geopolitical matters. Of course that should be a focus but by high-school kids should be learning about the world they live in in a serious way.

 

[Peter]

I always assume most videos like that, those looking to ridicule, go through a lot of people before they find what they want.

I have no doubt they do.
I'm just stunned there is any American who can't at least point to the USA on a world map.

Maybe because I live in the UK which is an odd shape and an island it's maybe easier but given how patriotic you guys are I find it odd you all don't just know where the US is on a map.

It's kind of like the sort of information you just know but can't pinpoint why you know if that makes any sense.

 

[Peter]

My observation has been that American education has a very American centric focus in history, geography and geopolitical matters. Of course that should be a focus but by high-school kids should be learning about the world they live in in a serious way.

It's almost like some people have never looked at a world map before though.
Again I don't claim to be any good at geography but I've looked at a world map and have some basic understanding of it.

Australia is pretty obvious for example.

 

[tshade]

I've seen videos of US young people not being able to name a single county on a world map and I'm just wondering how that's possible?
I'm not claiming this is all young people as those videos will only feature the worst of the worst for shock value but still.

I'm not expecting much but surely a basic level of geographic understanding should be taught in lower and middle school?
How much geography teaching did you get?
Is geography just something that isn't seen as important in the US?

I don't claim to be any good at geography and I'm unsure how many countries I can pinpoint but it's a fair few of the super obvious ones.

No one taught me, ormy generation, geography in school. but we know it well. We read books, and just had a general interest...........

 

[cpwill]

I've seen videos of US young people not being able to name a single county on a world map and I'm just wondering how that's possible?
I'm not claiming this is all young people as those videos will only feature the worst of the worst for shock value but still.

I'm not expecting much but surely a basic level of geographic understanding should be taught in lower and middle school?
How much geography teaching did you get?
Is geography just something that isn't seen as important in the US?

I don't claim to be any good at geography and I'm unsure how many countries I can pinpoint but it's a fair few of the super obvious ones.

....having spent the best part of two decades in the Defense Department, allow me to assure you, you don't want Americans to be able to find you on the map.

 

[Ishm]

....having spent the best part of two decades in the Defense Department, allow me to assure you, you don't want Americans to be able to find you on the map.

The country I live in at the moment is regularly left off global maps all together. I hope that's the ones that the US (and other countries) militaries use.

Back to the OP's point, young brains today are flooded with more information than any previous generation. There is more and more to remember, so couple that with American centric education and that might help explain the missing geographic knowledge. When you live in a smaller country you do tend to have a stronger external focus I think

 

[Loulit01]

Jay Leno would go to college graduation ceremonies and ask graduates basic questions. It wasn't pretty.

 

[joluoto]

I've seen videos of US young people not being able to name a single county on a world map and I'm just wondering how that's possible?
I'm not claiming this is all young people as those videos will only feature the worst of the worst for shock value but still.

I'm not expecting much but surely a basic level of geographic understanding should be taught in lower and middle school?
How much geography teaching did you get?
Is geography just something that isn't seen as important in the US?

I don't claim to be any good at geography and I'm unsure how many countries I can pinpoint but it's a fair few of the super obvious ones.

Can we be sure they weren't just trolling? Most youn people, even Americans can show their own country on the map. But if I were young and some boring person asked me to point on a country on the map for some unimportant boring tv show, I might just have trolled them and pointed wrong on purpose for shits and giggles.

 

[BirdinHand]

My son is in 3rd grade and they’ve (in the past 2 weeks?) recently taken a geography test identifying all the continents and oceans.

He just came home with a song with all the US states and a map of the US…so now that they’re done with continents and oceans, they’re moving on to US geography and identifying all the states in the US.

In a world where literally everything is accessible at your fingertips on a phone and the internet - knowing how to access information is more important than memorizing everything in my opinion. .