<p>My son was one of those slightly weird kids who was rather obsessed with geography (one of his many “enthusiasms” over the years). When he was 4 or 5, he seriously perturbed some mother at a party when it turned out that he knew where Kazakhstan was, and knew its capital. Even now, he sometimes asks me to play these games with him where we’re supposed to try to do things like “name 10 cities in Sweden.” I’m usually lucky if I can get one.</p>
<p>For those interested in increasing your knowledge, at freerice.com you can now quiz yourself on capitals of the world and on recognizing countries on a map. </p>
<p>This discussion brought back memories. I grew up in southern California and remember one summer as a teenager, I was at the beach with a friend, pondering how amazing it was that the Pacific Ocean we were sitting by stretched all the way to Japan. Her response was “the Pacific Ocean? this isn’t the Pacific Ocean, its Redondo Beach!” She never would believe me that the ocean we sat by that summer was the Pacific. </p>
<p>Of course then there’s the number of people I’ve met that don’t know that grocery store eggs come from chickens. After I explained that chickens lay eggs, one woman asked why chicken lay eggs (she truly did not understand that baby chicks come from eggs).</p>
<p>We had to learn the “fifty nifty” song in FIFTH GRADE…to this day, I can name the states in alphabetical order. I’m not as good at knowing which ones are where, but I could make a guess. My 9th grade geography teacher loved that I could name the states in alphabetical order and gave me extra credit, to boot. :)</p>
<p>If we should remember the Presidential election of 2000. W had never been outside of North America and couldn’t associate need to know countries and their capitals. I think people are beginning to realize the importance of some geography is necessary for certain jobs-basketball is not one of the jobs critical for knowing geography.</p>
<p>Of course he wasn’t a real student - he didn’t even qualify for college, and that’s why he’s in the NBA.</p>
<p>He transferred illegally to Westchester when he was a junior, and they had to give up all their games. He transferred there <em>to play basketball</em> and to form a relationship with Nike. In his defense though, high school basketball was probably more useful job training for him than learning the states.</p>
<p>OMG, mine, too! Not the perturbing some mother part, but knowing where Kazakhstan is and knowing its capital (which, when he was little, was Almaty, but is now Astana, which means “capital” in Kazakh; yeah, it rubbed off…). He’s the reason I know all 15 former Soviet republics! I have a picture on my office wall of S at three; he’s typing on a computer, and what he typed was “Yugoslavia is splitting apart.” And when I go to the Kennedy Center, I RULE the Hall of Nations (“Oh, that’s Lesotho’s flag, and look at the flag for the Comoros; isn’t it pretty?”) because of what I learned from raising this child!!</p>
<p>Years ago my mom and aunt were on vacation in El Salvador. When my aunt saw a picture of Pope John Paul II, she said “Isn’t that nice! They put up a picture of our pope.” My mom could not convince her that he wasn’t just the U.S. pope.</p>
<p>When we lived in Germany, we came back here for a short visit. We had left a car here at my sister’s house, and took it in to Sams to have the wheels rotated and balanced. Our Sams card had expired, but the tire service is good for life of the tires. The Sams club customer service rep wanted to renew our Sams card, but we explained that we were currently living in Germany, where it wouldn’t do us any good. </p>
<p>“Oh, Sam’s is a national Company,” she responded confidently. “They’re all over.” </p>
<p>“Yes, but Germany isn’t part of our nation,” I said, not sure whether she just didn’t know the definition of ‘national.’ She looked confused and said, “Really?” We had to call a manager to settle it.</p>
<p>These stories . . . oh boy.
Americans can be blissfully unaware, can’t they?<br>
At my school, we teach states and capitals in fourth grade, too. My Ds love maps and geography and travel, so they are really good at all this. What really kills older D is a total lack of direction on the part of her friends. Not only do they not know what states are on the coast, for example, but they don’t know the names of streets in our own town. They just don’t pay attention.</p>
<p>binx, your story reminded me of a conversation I had with our long distance service provider. We had made a call to Canada, and the charge for it was outrageous. I called to question it, and the young man from customer service informed me that our plan didn’t cover “overseas calls”. I couldn’t hold back my small laugh when I asked him if he was aware that Canada was, in fact, attached to the US. It worked, because I got a refund…haha</p>
<p>New Mexicans are regularly told we’re not part of the US. It happens so often that one of the state magazines runs a monthly column where residents share their stories.</p>
<p>It’s happened to me. It’s happened to my husband and to both my daughters. (DH as trying to rent a car in Missouri and he was told by two different agents that because he was a “foreign national” he couldn’t rent. It took a supervisor and 35 minutes to convince them he really did live in the US.)</p>
<p>Kids used to use their birth certificate for re-entry into the US when we traveled to Canada, Mexico or the Caribbean and it used to make me nervous because although their birth certificates carry the name of the state quite prominently, the certificates themselves are bilingual , printed in both Spanish and English. I always lived in fear that some immigration official wouldn’t know the difference between New Mexico and Old Mexico…</p>
<p>My kids attend charter school that teaches a subject called International Studies to all 5 and 6 graders. One hour a day, every day. With tests, exams, all the bells and whistles.
My DD is right now doing a report on Lesotho (yey Owlice ) - I asked her why Lesotho, she said it was the only country on the list that she has never heard about. Today she even knows what the country’s instrument is - Lesibia , she had to built one.
My kids already know quite a bit geography by osmosis , parents born in one country, kids in another, now living here, plus we travel extensively. But I absolutely love that at school my daughter is learning about other cultures every day.</p>
<p>I was a geography geek. Did anyone play those “Where in the USA/World is Carmen Sandiego?” games years ago? I enjoyed those so much that I was invited to my state’s top 100 Geography Bee competition. Here was the amazing part: there were only **7 girls<a href=“including%20me”>/b</a> and 93 boys participating in the entire competition. Talk about a huge gender imbalance.</p>
<p>There are stupid people in the states, there are stupid people in Canada, there are stupid people in England, there are plenty of dumb French…
The notion that American students are inherently ignorant is, itself, ignorant.</p>
<p>^^^^ That may be true, VASkinsFan, but, as the joke goes:</p>
<p>Q:If a person who speaks 2 languages is bilingual, and a person who speaks 3 languages is trilingual, what do you call someone who only speaks one language?</p>
) - I asked her why Lesotho, she said it was the only country on the list that she has never heard about. Today she even knows what the country’s instrument is - Lesibia , she had to built one.