Are Americans really this uneducated?

[Ronn_Bman]

Originally posted by Rokenn: For those of you questioning the methodology of the survey here is a link: http://geosurvey.nationalgeographic.com/geosurvey/ To the actual study. Along with a sample of the questions that were on the test so you can see how well you would have done... Just for the record I scored 18/20. I missed the first two :

I don't know if it would be considered worthy of a second thread, but I'd like to see it as one, so those who might not have been interested in this thread would take it and post their results.

[Angelousss]

I am american, i am 19, I am a freshman in college
I got 20/20(i would have been very angry with myself if i hadn't)
Maybe they were just asking the wrong americans?
ps
i wouldn't tell people the answers they may want to take the test themselves

[ 11-21-2002, 07:17 PM: Message edited by: Angelousss ]

[Bardan the Slayer]

I'm not so worried about the Americans that couldn't pinpoint Iraq but pointed to the middle east region. What worries me is that many of them pointed to France, Norway and so on. The last superpower, in charge of the world's largest nuclear arsenal, and many of the citizens might accidentally obliterate Europe if they were the ones asked to target the missles.

I know it's not a big problem, because none of the fools who pointed to Europe (or South America) will ever be in charge of so much as a hotdog stand, but it's still ... unsettling.

[Lord Lothar]

Now that is sad. I got 20/20 on that test and I'm only in grade 8. The low Canadian scores are there because in Canada they don't teach world geography, just Canadian geography until high school and some people choose to not take that subject. I came to Canada from Pakistan in '96 and I was selected to be in the gifted program. The schooling doesn't cover enough world geography.

[Gabriel]

Originally posted by WillowIX: I agree with Larry. This survey probably isn´t very accurate but it is alarming. Now I can probably point out the location of Iraq since it´s north of Saudi Arabia and east of Syria. But to remember all nations locations is not theeasiest thing. There´s almost 200 nations in the world today. Iraq is one of the countries Americans are becoming more aware of. American adults at least. And is the Gulf war taught in history classes? There´s hardly any news of Iraq in Canadian media. A factor could alos be that we are a bit more "isolated" over here. In Europe you study the history of Europe (and the world too) whereas we concentrate on North America. Why? Because neither America nor Canada fave had any colonies in Africa or North America. We have never had any major wars on our continent, Europe has had several. So studying history in European schools will enhance the geographical knowledge won´t it? You can´t read about the colonization without studying North America, Asia and Africa. If you study the 30 year war or the 100 year war you also study European geography etc. And the crusades give you knowledge about the Middle East. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Sorry but from three genrations of G.C.S.E History (With out higher eduaction in history) you will learn about World War II from the Alies perspective (Us really good, them bad), bring up the German perspective and they change the subject (used to love doing that.), the battle of Hastings, The American west (three times in four years!!!) and the Industrual Revolution and very little else. Geography is not much better. You get the Nile, San Palo in Brizal, different types of river formations (ox-bow lakes, etc) and the weather system.
You learn what you need to pass and little else.
I got twenty on the test yea!

[Spelca]

Hmm... If the questions asked were similar to these National Geographic questions, then it's really strange that some people didn't know the right answers... Because when they ask for countries, they give totally different answers, like countries on different continents... So it's not like they give answers of countries that are next to the country they're asking for. [img]smile.gif[/img] I otherwise don't think it bad if people would mix Iran and Iraq, but it is bad when they point to Africa or somewhere in Europe when you ask them... I don't even think it's bad when some people don't know where my country (Slovenia) is, especially those that are not from Europe, though I'd still expect them to at least know which continent. But I do think it a bit strange when some Europeans can't point to the right region of Europe where it is (they often point to the Baltic region). Ohwell, it is a smal country so I can't expect much. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

And I scored 20 too. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[ 11-22-2002, 03:47 AM: Message edited by: Spelca ]

[WillowIX]

Originally posted by Gabriel: Sorry but from three genrations of G.C.S.E History (With out higher eduaction in history) you will learn about World War II from the Alies perspective (Us really good, them bad), bring up the German perspective and they change the subject (used to love doing that.), the battle of Hastings, The American west (three times in four years!!!) and the Industrual Revolution and very little else. Geography is not much better. You get the Nile, San Palo in Brizal, different types of river formations (ox-bow lakes, etc) and the weather system. You learn what you need to pass and little else. I got twenty on the test yea!

But still Gabriel. When you studied WW2 in school surely you must have followed the course of the war? The devastation of the German economy? How Hitler seized power? And so on. And you probably started reading at the beginning of the war, the anschluss, invasion of Poland etc. When we studied WW2 we jumped in to the middle of the war. The only countries we even heard mentioned were the UK, the US, Canada, France, Russia and Germany. Nothing of Italy, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Norway, Finland etc. And our history teacher didn´t even mention the fact that Germany was at war with Russia when the allies invaded...

[Melusine]

Originally posted by WillowIX: In Europe you study the history of Europe (and the world too) whereas we concentrate on North America. Why? Because neither America nor Canada fave had any colonies in Africa or North America. We have never had any major wars on our continent, Europe has had several. So studying history in European schools will enhance the geographical knowledge won´t it? You can´t read about the colonization without studying North America, Asia and Africa. If you study the 30 year war or the 100 year war you also study European geography etc. And the crusades give you knowledge about the Middle East. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Actually, my two specialisation subjects in history happened to be America in the 20th century and Russia from the last Czar onwards...
Of course the World Wars and numerous other topics were touched upon as well (come to think of it, one was about maps in the Middle Ages, and the knowledge of topography of medieval Man ) but history certainly didn't concentrate on exclusively European topics, far from it! [img]smile.gif[/img]

I don't think it has to do with history so much as it has to do with geography. Like Grojlach (and I suppose like most Dutch people), I was taught world topography in primary school. So most of what I know about the locations of countries stems from that. I think it would be a useful thing to learn for children everywhere, regardless of historical backgrounds. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ 11-22-2002, 06:45 AM: Message edited by: Melusine ]

[Kaltia]

Hmm, Gabriel, I may be doing/have done a different board to you but I am doing, for GCSE history, America (From WW2 to Nixon), Russia (the rise of the Bolshevik party to Stalin's death) Britain during WW2 for coursework essays 4,5,6+7 and British women working for coursework essays 1,2,3...and superpower rivalry as our last.

Oh, and Hitler's ascension, as it were, including the Wall Street crash, the hyper-inflation, work-camps, the War from Germany's perspective and the Holocaust.

[ 11-22-2002, 06:51 AM: Message edited by: Kaltia ]

[KAR_MOD1]

that was one of the easiest tests ive ever taken. i too got the religon question wrong, probably mostly b-cuz im not religous and took an educated guess on islam. the only problems imo where the maps where somewhat small, i can read fine just many people are far-sighted (cant read small things up close). i found mostly every country through elimination, or was it all those games of risk when i was younger? when i checked the % of people from america who got it right, i was astounded at how low the %'s were on some very easy ?'s, imo.