The work above by Kim Dingle illustrates a theme that we have been discussing in class: American ambivalence to mere geography. Within Untied Shapes of America (Maps Drawn by Las Vegas Teenages), Dingle takes actual drawings of the United States produced by teenages and collages them together to make a statement about America's lack of knowledge regarding geographical locations. Variations on America include: enormous representations of Florida, a couple without Michigan, and , one that resembles South America. While I have to admit that if I were to draw a map of America, the northern boarders of the nation may be shaky, it seems that teenages should be studying this as a part of their education; yet it appears that many students are not even required to have any sort of knowledge as to how their nation is shaped. Although this article from BBC News may be slightly dated, it does reveal some fascinating facts about American's knowledge of world geography. The article summarizes a survey done by America's National Geographic Society that tested the geographical knowledge of 3,000 young adults (ages 18-24) from nine different countries. American's place 8th in geographic knowledge. This sort of basic geographical knowledge shows that Americans are completely apathetic or else undereducated in regards to mere geophrical information. Furthermore, if these are the results from a geographical survey, I wonder what the results of a more political survey would reveal. According to the survey:
- 11% of Americans could not find America.
- 71% of Americans could point out where the Pacific Ocean - the world's largest body of water - was located. Worldwide, three in 10 of those surveyed could not locate the Pacific Ocean.
- Apart from the Swedes, only 40% or fewer young adults could name China and India as the two countries with a population over one billion.
- Less than 25% of French, Canadian, Italian, British and Americans could name four countries that officially acknowledged owning nuclear weapons.
- 58% of Americans know the Taleban and al-Qaeda were based in Afghanistan, compared with 84% of Britons, but only 17% of Americans can locate the country.
- 34% of Americans know the tiny Marquesas Islands, where the last season of reality TV show "Survivor" was filmed, is located in the South Pacific. But only 30% could point to the location of New Jersey.
- 56% of Americans were unable to locate India, home to 17% of the world's population.
This is so interesting!!! I always knew that Americans were terrible at geography, but I didn't realize just how bad it was! The picture is amazing and gives such a clear depiction of how lacking in knowledge our kids are today, and it's really sad. I think most people know, especially teachers, that Americans have trouble with geography and I don't understand why more aren't trying to help teach young kids about location of countries. Before we can teach kids what is going on in the world, they need to know where things in their world are.
ReplyDeleteThis was very interesting- great post! It is a little embarrassing to see just how bad Americans are at world geography. It was also interesting to find out the percentage of Americans informed about the Taliban compared to those in Briton when we are so greatly affected/involved by the situation!!
ReplyDeleteI can't get too mad about this because I am pretty much the worst at using maps. Lots of my geographical confusion comes from some sort of mental block. I place it in the same realm as geometry. Sometimes I blame it on my bad depth perception and nonexistent sense of direction. Regardless, your point is well taken.
ReplyDeleteI tie this to the book project we are working on. Guess I better includes some maps of the Middle East...
ReplyDeleteWow! This is so interesting and, despite the ignorance that it exemplifies, kind of cool! Amazing how easy it is to skew something based on what is important or apparent in our minds. This kind of makes me want to go try to draw the United States myself... to see in what ways I might be off!
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