Please, America, learn some geography

Learning about people in other places can start with a map

By Megan Bakker
The Collegian

WE’VE BEEN AT war with Iraq for three years now. And this column has nothing to do with politics, so just bear with me.

We’ve had three years worth of news reports, updates, footage, debates, protests and information about the country. And yet, two-thirds of Americans aged 18-24 can’t find Iraq on a map, according to the just-released National Geographic Literacy Survey.

That’s two thirds of Americans, aged 18-24. That’s you. College students. Two-thirds of you don’t know where we’ve been fighting for the past three years.

Some of you reading this might say it’s not important to know, and you wouldn’t be alone. More than 70 percent of those surveyed don’t think it’s important to know the locations of countries in the news.

For those of you that feel this way, you know what? Fine. The next time you see a soldier, go ahead and tell him.

Tell him that you don’t think it’s important to know the location of the country that he’s fighting in, or a single thing about it, or even why we’re there in the first place.

And no wonder. Half of the people surveyed couldn’t find New York State either. (Hint: It’s the one on the East Coast where the planes crashed into the World Trade Center.)

Thirty-three percent can’t find Louisiana, although that’s understandable, since no major disasters happened there recently.

I mean, it’s not like there was a giant hurricane or anything that completely decimated the entire state, gaining wall to wall news coverage in the process.

This has to stop. Americans not knowing anything about other countries is a fairly old stereotype, and one that we’ve embodied, often proudly, often wrongly, for many years. But the lack of geographic instruction is hitting home. And it’s affecting more than just our mental pictures of how the planet looks.

For example, the survey also asked a few questions regarding time zones in the United States. One question asked: “If it is noon in New York, New York, what time is it in Los Angeles, California?” One third couldn’t figure out that since New York is three hours ahead of LA, the answer would be 9 a.m. That means if there was a highly important conference call scheduled at noon in New York, one third of the respondents in California would have missed that call. I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t want to hire that one third.

It gets even more complicated when we start talking about global business.

Not only are there time zones to deal with, but also things like different cultures, and unique practices, and (gasp) other languages.

All of these are things that Americans are notoriously ignorant of, and all are fast becoming necessary knowledge in today’s world. And how are we supposed to stand our own in the world when we can’t even correctly identify high profile states within our own country?

Geography is more than just locations on a map. Yes, that’s part of it. Okay, that’s a lot of it. But more than that, it’s about the people in those locations, who they are and why they act the way they do.

It’s more interesting than you think, and becoming more relevant to your life than you can imagine.

The semester’s not over yet.

Take a little bit to read through the course catalogue. Find a geography course. Pick one.

Whichever looks the most interesting. Sign up for it. And please, at least learn where Iraq is. Otherwise you sound like an idiot when you talk about it.

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