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Mespo_man
Skeptic Friend
USA
312 Posts |
 Posted - 11/21/2002 : 06:41:19
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"WASHINGTON (AP) -- Young Americans may soon have to fight a war in Iraq, but most of them can't even find that country on a map, the National Geographic Society said Wednesday.
The society survey found that only about one in seven -- 13 percent -- of Americans between the age of 18 and 24, the prime age for military warriors, could find Iraq. The score was the same for Iran, an Iraqi neighbor."
Here's the rest of the article.
http://www.cnn.com/2002/EDUCATION/11/20/geography.quiz/index.html
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Now I know the REAL reason why the US developed "smart" bombs. It turns out, only the WEAPONS can find the target. 
(:raig
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Edited by - Mespo_man on 11/21/2002 07:11:07
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Starman
SFN Regular
Sweden
1613 Posts |
 Posted - 11/21/2002 : 07:18:03 [Permalink]
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40/56
Almost an A.
Guess most of our idiots were hiding during the survey.
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 11/21/2002 : 07:55:53 [Permalink]
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Kind'a pathetic, ain't it?
But really, I don't think that a lot has changed over the years. Those with a curosity will find out. Those who don't care will not worry about it.
Hell, I didn't know where Vietnam was until I was sent there. I developed a vast intrest very quickly.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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Lisa
SFN Regular
USA
1223 Posts |
Posted - 11/21/2002 : 13:48:31 [Permalink]
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Kinda depressing. I clicked on "take the quiz", and got 20 out of 20. And I haven't taken geography since high school (right as the Stone Age was ending)
I mean, how can you not find the Pacific Ocean. Pretty bloody hard to misplace. |
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Denise
New Member
USA
23 Posts |
Posted - 11/21/2002 : 17:15:42 [Permalink]
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| I got 20 out of 20. I thought the graphics were a little hard to read though. For instance, in the first map Israel looked like 50 instead of 58. Also, some were pretty easy as in I really didn't know exactly where Argentina was, I confess, but I did know it was in South America, and there was only one of the numbers that was in South America to choose from. |
| Edited by - Denise on 11/21/2002 17:16:24 |
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welshdean
Skeptic Friend
United Kingdom
172 Posts |
Posted - 11/22/2002 : 03:43:10 [Permalink]
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EASY AS PIE!!
20/20 for me too. I was ashamed to see how low us Brits scored on some questions. Still, the dumbing down of education is so apparent today, it hurts to read CV's and application forms from sub 30 year olds.
If we don't buck our ideas up soon; we can forget great thinkers in the future, we'll be impressed by individuals that can spell or punctuate!! |
"Frazier is so ugly he should donate his face to the US Bureau of Wild Life."
"I am America. I am the part you won't recognize, but get used to me. Black, confident, cocky. My name, not yours. My religion, not yours. My goals, my own. Get used to me."
"Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth."
---- Muhammad Ali
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Espritch
Skeptic Friend
USA
284 Posts |
Posted - 11/22/2002 : 19:15:38 [Permalink]
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I got all 20 also. Of course I'm not sure I would have done as well when I was 16. Still, it worries me that any high school student can't find the Pacific ocean on a map.
PS I am already deeply impressed by anyone who can spell and punctuate correctly.  |
| Edited by - Espritch on 11/22/2002 19:18:46 |
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Gorgo
SFN Die Hard
USA
5310 Posts |
Posted - 11/23/2002 : 05:56:08 [Permalink]
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This isn't about geography, but history, and it serves the same purpose. By Howard Zinn:
May of 1976 the New York Times published a series of articles in which it lamented the ignorance of American students about their own history. The Times was pained. Four leading historians whom it consulted were also pained. It seemed students did not know that James Polk was president during the Mexican War, that James Madison was president during the War of 1812, that the Homestead Act was passed arlier than Civil Service reform, or that the Constitution authorizes Congress to regulate interstate commerce but says nothing about the cabinet.
We might wonder if the Times, or its historian-consultants, learned anything from the history of this century. It has been a century of atrocities: the death camps of Hitler, the slave camps of Stalin, and the devastation of Southeast Asia by the United States. All of these were done by powerful leaders and obedient populations in countries that had achieved high levels of literacy and education. ...
In the case of the United States the killing of a million Vietnamese and the sacrifice of 55,000 Americans were carried out by highly educated men around the White House who scored very well in tests and who undoubtedly would have made impressive grades in the New York Times exam. It was a Phi Beta Kappa, McGeorge Bundy, who was one of the chief planners of the bombing of civilians in Southeast Asia. It was a Harvard professor, Henry Kissinger, who was a strategist of the secret bombing of peasant villages in Cambodia.
Going back a bit in history, it was our most educated president, Woodrow Wilson-a historian, a Ph.D., and a former president of Princeton-who bombarded the Mexican coast, killing hundreds of innocent people, because the Mexican government refused to salute the American flag. It was Harvard-educated John Kennedy, author of two books on history, who presided over the American invasion of Cuba and the lies that accompanied it.
What did Kennedy or Wilson learn from all that history they absorbed in the best universities in America? What did the American people learn in their high-school history texts that caused them to submerge their own common sense and listen to these leaders? Surely ... how "educated" someone is, tells you nothing about whether that person is decent or indecent, violent or peaceful, and whether that person will resist evil or become a consultant to warmakers. It does not tell you who will become a Pastor Niemoller (a German who resisted the Nazis) or an Albert Speer (who worked for them), a Lieutenant Calley (who killed children at My Lai), or a Warrant Oflficer Thompson who tried to save them). ...
We do need to learn history, the kind that does not put its main emphasis on knowing presidents and statutes and Supreme Court decisions, but inspires a new generation to resist the madness of governments trying to carve the world and our minds into their spheres of efluence.
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I know the rent is in arrears
The dog has not been fed in years
It's even worse than it appears
But it's alright-
Jerry Garcia
Robert Hunter
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riptor
Skeptic Friend
Germany
70 Posts |
Posted - 11/23/2002 : 07:46:04 [Permalink]
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20!
But even more depressing is the fcat, that 14 out of 100 Americans can't even find the USA on a world map.
"Ehm, where to shoot, Sir?"
"See that large country southa canada?"
"Yep"
"That's yer target, whatever it is." |
Hail the Big bearded Jellyfish up in heaven above. |
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riptor
Skeptic Friend
Germany
70 Posts |
Posted - 11/23/2002 : 07:47:24 [Permalink]
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| Sorry, it was 11 not 14. Still to much. |
Hail the Big bearded Jellyfish up in heaven above. |
| Edited by - riptor on 11/23/2002 07:48:04 |
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Espritch
Skeptic Friend
USA
284 Posts |
Posted - 11/23/2002 : 12:24:28 [Permalink]
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quote:
We do need to learn history, the kind that does not put its main emphasis on knowing presidents and statutes and Supreme Court decisions, but inspires a new generation to resist the madness of governments trying to carve the world and our minds into their spheres of enluence.
To paraphrase: "We do need to learn history, the kind that doesn't dwell on facts, but rather promotes Mr. Zin's agenda."
Personally, what I would like to see is History taught in a manner that encourages kids to think critically and arrive at their own conclusions, but knowing how things work in the real world, I expect that it will continue to either be taught as a vapid mass of unrelated sanitized factoids or else hijacked to promote the agenda of whichever ideologue raises the loudest stink at the school board meetings. |
| Edited by - Espritch on 11/23/2002 12:27:33 |
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Kilted_Warrior
Skeptic Friend
Canada
118 Posts |
Posted - 11/23/2002 : 17:13:50 [Permalink]
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aargh!
I only got a pathetic 19 out of twenty, that religion question stumped me.
It is pathetic that so many people older than me could score so low.
I know the evils of ignorance in schools. In grade 10 science last year, no less than five people didn't know that there were more than four elements! they insisted to the teacher that Earth, Air, Fire, and Water were elements, not these silly -iums. I almost fell out of my chair laughing when I heard their arguements.
And I thought the american education system was bad... |
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ktesibios
SFN Regular
USA
505 Posts |
Posted - 11/23/2002 : 20:49:33 [Permalink]
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19 outta 20 here too. If the "number of adherents" question about world religions had been "noisiest adherents" I would have aced it.
Anybody notice the correlation between how far away a place is from a given country and the proportion of people in said country who got a question relating to the place right? The one that really struck me was that for a question relating to El Nino the four top scores were Japan, Canada, USA and Mexico, with European countries falling behind their usual position.
Funny, El Nino is a Pacific Ocean phenomenon and the four countries with the highest proportion of correct answers all have Pacific coastlines. Must be a coincidence. |
"The Republican agenda is to turn the United States into a third-world shithole." -P.Z.Myers |
| Edited by - ktesibios on 11/23/2002 20:50:04 |
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Espritch
Skeptic Friend
USA
284 Posts |
Posted - 11/23/2002 : 21:06:59 [Permalink]
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| I did notice that more Americans were able to locate Mexico than French or Englishmen. Also, most Mexicans were able to find it as well. This would seem to support your hypothesis. |
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13477 Posts |
Posted - 11/23/2002 : 21:31:27 [Permalink]
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I got caught by the religion question too. Oh well. Now I know....
Did anyone notice, once the questions involved looking at the map, all you had to have was a general idea of what part of the world the country in question was to get the answer right? There were no other country's to choose from once you narrowed the answer to an area. Makes those percentages all that much more depressing, I think.
Basically, they gave away answers and people still managed to get them wrong. |
Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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Gorgo
SFN Die Hard
USA
5310 Posts |
Posted - 11/24/2002 : 06:22:41 [Permalink]
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You had a dispute with Mr. Zinn's facts, say which ones and why.
quote:
To paraphrase: "We do need to learn history, the kind that doesn't dwell on facts, but rather promotes Mr. Zin's agenda."
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I know the rent is in arrears
The dog has not been fed in years
It's even worse than it appears
But it's alright-
Jerry Garcia
Robert Hunter
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