Dan wrote:
On Mon, 15 Nov 2004 06:54:03 GMT, m II
wrote:


When more than 300 young Americans in the survey were shown a blank
world map and asked to indicate the location of the United States,
only 89 percent could do so.


"Only" 89 percent?!? That's not bad, considering that *everyone* in
that age group absolutely hates Geography!


Other findings from the survey:

* 34 percent of the young Americans knew that the island used on
last season's "Survivor" show was located in the South Pacific, but
only 30 percent could locate the state of New Jersey on a map. The
"Survivor" show's location was the Marquesas Islands in the eastern
South Pacific.


That's statistically equal. Interesting how it's phrased as "34
percent", but "only" 30 percent!


* When asked to find 10 specific states on a map of the United
States, only California and Texas could be located by a large majority
of those surveyed. Both states were correctly located by 89 percent of
the participants. Only 51 percent could find New York, the third most
populous state.


Where were these mythical "young Americans" from? If they had been
from somewhere other than California, they would have done better.
Most people can find their state and a few neighboring states.


* On a world map, Americans could find on average only seven of
16 countries in the quiz. Swedes could find an average of 13 of the 16
countries.


Where were these countries located? Europe?


* Only 71 percent of the surveyed Americans could locate the
Pacific Ocean, the world's largest body of water. Worldwide, three in
10 of those surveyed could not correctly locate the Pacific Ocean.


Interesting phrasing here, also. 71 percent who *could* find it is
exactly the same as "3 in 10", or 30 percent who could *not* find it!


* Although 81 percent of the surveyed Americans knew that the
Middle East is the Earth's largest oil exporter, only 24 percent could
find Saudi Arabia on the map.


All this proves is that "young Americans" (how old, from where?) are
bad at Geography. This does not mean that they know nothing of other
peoples - they just don't know where these people are. Big
difference!

Dan


Reminds me of Mark Twain and his love of statistics. You may well be
right, but these people seem to think differently.


=====================================
Meanwhile, the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) education bill has had
unintended consequences. The bill requires schools to make adequate
yearly progress in reading and math but says nothing about history,
geography, or social studies. As a result, principals and school
administrators are spending more time on the testable subjects and
less time on history, geography, and social studies.

http://www.coreknowledge.org/CKproto...e_ss_wrong.htm

http://snipurl.com/aoip

=====================================


The attempted 'Ebonics' program was an admission of failure in the
education system, but there's help for the rest of us. We can now
conform to THEIR language instead of teaching them OURS. Neat!

Please type in a common phrase. You WILL be enlightened..

http://www.joel.net/EBONICS/translator.asp




mike