The teaching of Geography in Schools

In my school Geography lessons, it has struck me that we do much working from books, that are outdated and very little work on the current situation in other countries.
I don’t know if this is the case in many other schools, but it certainly is in our school. Just the other day, we were doing a quiz, outside of a Geography lesson, in which the question was “What is the most popular spoken language in our world?” and having seen other things outside of school, half of the people said Chinese/Mandarin, but the other half went “No, its obviously English, because we don’t speak Chinese, the Spanish don’t speak Chinese and the French don’t speak Chinese, so obviously, its not the most popular” this comment was shortly followed by many a facepalm.
But this comment got me thinking that maybe we don’t do enough in the classroom about the world in General, because we spend an awful lot of time looking at individual countries, mostly within Europe, when half of the year probably would not be able to pinpoint where on the map India is.
Very little time is spent teaching us about the development of countries, maybe spending one lesson on each one.
I would like to know what everyone else thought about this, as I don’t know if this is only occurring in my school and schools in my area.

Our Geography books were 2003 I think so year they are getting a little dated. Idk my geography class we got to the development of countries.

One thing is for certain; Americans suck hard at geography. So yes, we need to start improving the situation.

I don’t even think I was ever taught geography. I just graduated high school yesterday, as well. Kind of disappointing.

Canadians also kind of fail at geography, but not nearly as much as Americans.

Americans fail at many things. It’d be quicker to name the things America doesn’t fail at.

i was never taught Geography as a class, we had little bits here and there in social studies and such, we would focus on continents when we did it though, covered South America, Europe, Africa and Middle East through out school, but never had a specifically designated Geography class, kind of wish i had though because that is one thing that really interested me. and Geography text books generally are outdated within the year, think about African Countries and such, with wars and revolutions, not to mention East Europe, Caucus region, and places like Sealand.

Originally posted by dd790:

Americans fail at many things. It’d be quicker to name the things America doesn’t fail at.

way to generalize and be racist,
your ignorance is offensive.

Originally posted by darkfrogger:

Canadians also kind of fail at geography, but not nearly as much as Americans.

‘’War is God’s way of teaching Americans about geography’’.

Ironically, something like 80% of Americans can’t find Iraq on a world map.

Originally posted by woodythedon:

Originally posted by darkfrogger:

Canadians also kind of fail at geography, but not nearly as much as Americans.

‘’War is God’s way of teaching Americans about geography’’.

Ironically, something like 80% of Americans can’t find Iraq on a world map.

Thats just sad.

Just look at what I linked woody. Half of those surveyed couldn’t find New York on a map.

Originally posted by SaintAjora:

Just look at what I linked woody. Half of those surveyed couldn’t find New York on a map.

That’s simply astonishing. I suppose with a population as large as yours, you’re bound to have a fair few idiots. Still though, NYC? It’s not exactly a hamlet now is it?

couldnt this just be summed up by saying americas public education needs serious reform.

Originally posted by darkninja210:

couldnt this just be summed up by saying americas public education needs serious reform.

Is that the case though. Is this general ignorance surrounding geography purely a result of the educational system? I’m not being rhetorical, I’d welcome some answers.

Originally posted by dd790:

Americans fail at many things. It’d be quicker to name the things America doesn’t fail at.

I love yet hate this post

Most of this seems to be talking about America, But I live in Britain, thats who I was really reaching out towards with my post, but the discussion that has come about seems to be more interesting.

well i was a teacher for a period of time…..and it was obvious to me that less and less is expected of students as time goes on.

Originally posted by darkninja210:

well i was a teacher for a period of time…..and it was obvious to me that less and less is expected of students as time goes on.

I guess now we know why the youth of America have no knowledge of geography.

Originally posted by woodythedon:

Ironically, something like 80% of Americans can’t find Iraq on a world map.

Ironically many people from Austria lough about this and claim this as proof that all Americans are stupid, but can’t find Iraq on a world map themself.

*plays grobetrotter XL*

Dammit! Where is Afhganistan again!?!?!

Now THAT would be funny to see. Dear admins, what’s the percentage of American players that have that hard badge?

Originally posted by woodythedon:

Originally posted by darkninja210:

couldnt this just be summed up by saying americas public education needs serious reform.

Is that the case though. Is this general ignorance surrounding geography purely a result of the educational system? I’m not being rhetorical, I’d welcome some answers.

American schools give priority to reading and math (those would be the two subjects they are required to report test scores on). Everything else is optional. If a kid is struggling, the don’t get remediation in geography, they get remediation in reading and math, and sometimes “study skills”. In the 50’s and 60’s science was a distant third to reading and math, but somewhere in the 70’s we forgot about science. From time to time, in place to place science makes it back to its distant third position, but generally it too is relegated to “stuff that isn’t really important”.

So yes, the general ignorance surrounding geography is, at least in part, due to the educational system.

not since the no child left behind act phil. if a child cant read you just push them into the next grade and pass the problem off on the next teacher……the idea of this matter is that some children just plain reject education and feel that TV is good enough for them.

Originally posted by darkninja210:

not since the no child left behind act phil. if a child cant read you just push them into the next grade and pass the problem off on the next teacher……the idea of this matter is that some children just plain reject education and feel that TV is good enough for them.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/us.html

Literacy:
Definition Field info displayed for all countries in alpha order
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 99%
male: 99%
female: 99% (2003 est.)

I’m guessing they get the figure of 99% by finding out how many people have passed a level of school at which they should be literate, not through some national literacy test, so that figure is actually pretty useless for refuting what darkninja said.

edit: okay well it’s actually something different that’s the problem, but it does signify that the figure is very sketchy at best

Originally posted by unproductive:

I’m guessing they get the figure of 99% by finding out how many people have passed a level of school at which they should be literate, not through some national literacy test, so that figure is actually pretty useless for refuting what darkninja said.

edit: okay it’s actually something different that’s the problem, but it does signify that the figure is very sketchy at best

First reference on that Wikipedia site: CIA World Factbook. My personal opinion is that the definition of literacy should be anyone regardless of age who is fluent in reading in writing (knowing the average 3,000 words)