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Don't know much about geography...
May. 2nd, 2006 02:43 pmCNN.com has an article about the recent National Geographic-Roper Public Affairs 2006 Geographic Literacy Study, conducted to see how much world geography young Americans know. While the article is pretty vague (it never says how old these people are), and the sample size is tiny (510) for what seems to be pretty sweeping claims, the results are startling enough as it is.
A few choice bits:
There's also an interactive quiz on the page. I managed 5 out of 6, still fairly embarrassing given that the questions are quite simple.
I know that world maps weren't a big part of my history/soc/civ classes in school, but it's also true that I had zero interest in such things back then. I know the layout of the U.S. pretty well, and I owe 75% of that knowledge to, believe it or not, educational games that I played as a kid. Those things really work.
A few choice bits:
Fewer than three in 10 think it important to know the locations of countries in the news and just 14 percent believe speaking another language is a necessary skill.
Two-thirds didn't know that the earthquake that killed 70,000 people in October 2005 occurred in Pakistan.
Forty-seven percent could not find the Indian subcontinent on a map of Asia.
There's also an interactive quiz on the page. I managed 5 out of 6, still fairly embarrassing given that the questions are quite simple.
I know that world maps weren't a big part of my history/soc/civ classes in school, but it's also true that I had zero interest in such things back then. I know the layout of the U.S. pretty well, and I owe 75% of that knowledge to, believe it or not, educational games that I played as a kid. Those things really work.
