Despite the wall-to-wall coverage of the damage from Hurricane Katrina, nearly one-third of young Americans recently polled couldn’t locate Louisiana on a map and nearly half were unable to identify Mississippi.Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 fared even worse with foreign locations: six in 10 couldn’t find Iraq, according to a Roper poll conducted for National Geographic.
Now that public schools spend all their time teaching students not to criticize authority, not to discuss controversial issues, and not to wear kilts, is it any wonder that they have a hard time finding a few free minutes to teach basic geography?
At what point will we finally wake up and realize that public education is in desperate need of major reform?
- Poll Shows Many Can’t Find Louisiana on Map (AP via Yahoo.com [no longer available]).