h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Not too sure about that, we had a thourough education in geography, but I always despised it, never knew what was where on a map, and now, I roughly know where places are, but only roughly, doesn't matter that I'm looking them up in the atlas so often, they don't stick.

Or, maybe, so what if people don't know about maths, or history, or a foreign language, or English literature or chemistry or biology, or, or... Most of this is fairly abstract too, and not necessary for everyday things in life. They won't die from not knowing any of these either.

It really comes down to whether you value education or not. Most studies would seem to indicate that education is a *very* good thing, but hey, if you don't value it, there's always a career in McDonalds...

See, we did this thing in the CISV* camp I was in, where we made all the groups of kids from the different countries make a map of the world.
All the European kids got the continents mainly in the right place and were very detailed in Europe.
The Indonesian, New Zealand and Philipino kids did most of the continents right and Asia in great detail.
The kids from Guatemala got South and Central America very well, and then added most of the rest of the world.
The American kids did the states around where they lived, so they did the south, added Washington, NY and LA, and then sketched in the vaguest ROW we'd seen.

All the different groups did a great job with their own surroundings, tried to add the countries all the other groups came from, but were vague on their actual location and the rest was very much hit and miss.

If you were to quiz me on world geography, I'd probably get most European capitols, US states and capitols, as well as many of the other majorly news-ified ones right. But ask me to point them out on a map and I'm at a loss - for instance found it fascinating when I discovered the shape, size and location of Chile - last week!

For statistical purposes, I'm resident in UK, although not of the UK ethnically and I'm 28, Gemini specifically.

cheers ismarah

*It would take to long to explain but I did write an Entry on it..

"As far as the "So what if people don't know?" point goes - well, isn't it a possible indication that the education system could do with a bit of work?"

As Lady Scott pointed out, we don't really teach geography in the states as a subject. It comes up in History and Social Studies to be sure, but it's not stressed.

"Or, maybe, so what if people don't know about maths, or history, or a foreign language, or English literature or chemistry or biology, or, or... Most of this is fairly abstract too, and not necessary for everyday things in life. They won't die from not knowing any of these either. "

Well just offhand, it seems to me that history helps us learn from our mistakes, math teaches problem solving, foreign language does I-don't-know-what (but I do know that it does something to our brains, perhaps someone can remind me), literature helps us read more effectively, pay attention to detail and build vocabulary, sciences teach problem solving and a basic understanding about the world around us. These are some of the things that help us function in the world.

As far as I can see it, learning where Mongolia is teaches us where Mongolia is. Maybe I'm missing something?

So it doesn't broaden horizons? It doesn't enrich our knowledge of the planet we call home? It doesn't open our eyes to other ways of life and culture to know that things aren't the same all over the world as they are in our own back yard?

Who knows, it might even strike a spark in a kid's mind and inspire him to learn a bit more than he has to in order to get by.

yeah, but all that is what you get from learning *about* another country. Not from learning where it is.

Whilst looking at a map and going 'I wonder what its like *there*' and going off to read up or visit the place, this only works for certain mindsets.

I'm wondering, though, if there is a correlation between peoples knowledge of where a country is, and the perceived threat or friendliness of that country to their own?

I simply bought an Atlas and whenever something came up on the news or daughter would ask about a place we would look it up. This atlas had details about places such as trade and population, languages etc. It's still in use.We have an updated version now as the world changes. Why can't GW look up places he wants to discuss(I use this term sarcastically) or at least his Aide should?

And learning where different places are on the map is the starting point to understanding that different human realities exist outside of the borders of one's own country and this can help us understand more broadly the issues of world politics and inequalities around the world. Also it can inspire people to travel more, to broaden our outlook and to make us realise that the long-term solutions to our planets problems require a global perspective. Or maybe it's just to gain an appreciation of our planet, which as far as we know, is a pretty wonderful, unique place in this part of the cosmos.

This is not a hit at an American perspective, more a reaction to the "why should I give a damn about learning about the rest of the world" attitude.

Perhaps if GWs geography were better he would realise these countries are a long way from the USA so the threat is not quite as immediate sorry couldn't resist it

And, if you want to learn about the rest of the world (which would appear to me to be just as worthwhile as anything else we discussed above), how do you do this without giving people some sort of geographical perspective about where these different places are?

does any country study world history in their schools?..all my daughter seemed to study was the British perspective on the world wars in her history class. maybe if we all studied how other countries' history had developed their nation today, we'd be a bit more understanding....

And here I am sitting thinking "Does any country NOT teach world history in the school?"

Knowing where a country is, is not the important part. But quite likely you don't know much about the country, if you don't know where it is. we are not surprised people don't know where something is on a map, we are surprised they don't even know something as simple as where it is on a map. If that was all they knew it would also be rather bad.

US researcher here.

I know all 50 states and a majority of the capitals (the rest I could guress the largest city in the state and be right about half the time), I know where most of the countries in the world on a map are except in Africa where my geography is terrible, and I've had the chance to travel quite a bit.

But...

I'm originally from an upper-middle class family (Dad's a doctor), I'm well-educated and I'm fairly intelligent.

Anyone in my circumstance has no excuse not to have at least some knowledge of geography. But, not everyone has the opportunities I've had.

Hi eagle2..I suppose it goes back to what someone said earlier about wanting to learn and also encouragement to learn. In our house if you don't know something you look it up...but not everyone has the means to look things up. I have visited families in the past where there are no books, though I suppose if you had sky TV you could watch national geographic(I don't have Sky so that name may be wrong but an educational channel)

Just as a matter of interest, it may be worthwhile to find out how well we all do at world geography before criticising anyone else. Try this:

http://www.urgames.com/games/geography-game-europe

There are also games on the same website for USA, Central America, Africa and Australia. So while you might know vaguely where a country or state is, can you pinpoint it exactly? I have what I would call a fairly comprehensive geographical knowledge, but I still didn't do too well on some of them (These games are designed for children!)

"Knowing where a country is, is not the important part. But quite likely you don't know much about the country, if you don't know where it is"

I think that's the thing. Knowing where the country is is being presented as some sort of primary knowledge. Having some sort of overarching importance.
Whereas I don;t think it is, or has. It is just one bit of knowledge about the country. What about the countries government? For each country whose location you know, do you know their style of government? Or the general aim of their foreign or domestic policy?

It's the sort of information that one learns whilst finding out about a country. How big is, how many people it has, what it's main exports are. Where it is. Etc.

I'd agree with that pretty much - that's why I wouldn't really set "knowing where a country is" apart from "knowing about the country". If you know much about a country, the chances are good that you'll know where it is. Or, the other way round, not knowing where a country is can hamper your understanding about other aspects of it. It would be hard to fully understand about the Suez Crisis, say, without knowing where it was happening.

It's a question of order.
If you know about a country then you probably know where it is.
But knowing where a country is does *not* mean you know about the country, which is the inference of not knowiung where it is = insularity.

Same goes for the suez example.

Well as Eagle2 pointed out, that's all very well for us middle class educated types with access to the net and all the advantages we enjoy to pontificate on.

Maybe we have time to worry about where other countries are and what they are like. Perhaps we could all could with just not understanding where teh Ukraine is to understand it's politics but we could also do with with re-learning how VAST the USA is and just what it means to be a minimum wage slave and exactly where your priorities lie when you are in that siutuation.

Yeah, that thing with blaming someone for not leaving their country seems stupid when they live in a country the size of Europe, encompassing deserts, mountains and lagoons.