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Grex > Agora41 > #112: Why Americans ,in general, are so dumb in geography? | |
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| Author |
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| 25 new of 360 responses total. |
jmsaul
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response 25 of 360:
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Apr 22 23:55 UTC 2002 |
Not really, but telling us to improve our knowledge in incoherent English
doesn't do much for your credibility.
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senna
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response 26 of 360:
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Apr 23 01:00 UTC 2002 |
Talking to oneself isn't a great move, either. Probably a troll.
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happyboy
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response 27 of 360:
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Apr 23 01:13 UTC 2002 |
ha ha youre are a so much of stupids!
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brighn
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response 28 of 360:
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Apr 23 03:12 UTC 2002 |
18> The typo was "closed"... the Canucks might prefer if Tranna, and the rest
of the country, were closed to Detroiters. Except when the Wings when the
Stanley Cup. And while the outskirts of Chicago are closer than the outskirts
of Tranna, I alway sadd another hour and a half to get to the core of Chitown.
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senna
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response 29 of 360:
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Apr 23 05:24 UTC 2002 |
An hour and a half can get me to the Wisconsin border, 50 miles outside of
Madison.
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jor
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response 30 of 360:
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Apr 23 15:05 UTC 2002 |
Just remembering, they seemed to force feed us
geography pretty consistently, at the Catholic grade
school, but omitted local geography for some reason.
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slynne
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response 31 of 360:
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Apr 23 15:37 UTC 2002 |
Did you go to Gesu?
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gull
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response 32 of 360:
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Apr 23 15:44 UTC 2002 |
We had to memorize the capitals of all 50 states, at some point, but
I've forgotten them by now.
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brighn
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response 33 of 360:
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Apr 23 16:36 UTC 2002 |
329> you and I have had different experiences with Chicago.
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senna
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response 34 of 360:
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Apr 24 01:23 UTC 2002 |
I have no doubt. :) Differing experiences of Toronto, too.
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scg
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response 35 of 360:
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Apr 24 06:29 UTC 2002 |
Detroit to Chicago is around 290 miles. You're doing it in three hours?
In general, once they get outside of their core interests, people tend to care
about things that are relevant to them. People I know from the Midwest
generally tend to have a reasonably good idea of Midwestern geography. People
I know from California generally tend to have a pretty good idea of California
geography. People I know who've lived in California all their lives tend to
be pretty hazy on Midwestern geography, while Midwesterners who've never been
to California tend to be pretty hazy on California geography. Many of the
foreigners I know who went to school elsewhere and have only lived in one part
of the US have very little idea of what's in the rest of the US. Really, I'm
surprised anybody would be very surprised by this.
I decorate by hanging maps on the walls, and spend lots of time staring at
them because they fascinate me. I remember being rather shocked a couple of
years ago when, after finding that Denver and Santa Fe were right down the
road from eachother on the map, it still took 400 miles of driving to get from
one to the other.
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jmsaul
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response 36 of 360:
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Apr 24 14:36 UTC 2002 |
I've done Ann Arbor to Chicago in three hours, but I got lucky on traffic,
construction, and speed enforcement. ;-)
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polygon
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response 37 of 360:
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Apr 24 14:38 UTC 2002 |
In middle school we studied geography. For the exam, they gave us
unlabeled maps of Europe, Asia, North and South America, etc., with each
territory numbered: we were expected to write down the name of each one
and its capital. US states and Canadian provinces too. It was great fun,
and I got 100% on the exam.
Sure, in the more than three decades since then, I have forgotten a lot of
it. But I am sure that I am more geographically literate than I would
have been otherwise.
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gull
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response 38 of 360:
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Apr 24 16:31 UTC 2002 |
I remember an exercise like that where we were given a map of the Middle
East and had to ladel all the countries.
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grexalot
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response 39 of 360:
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Apr 24 16:35 UTC 2002 |
Fuck dat. You's couldn't even find Compton on some map. Right On!
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oval
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response 40 of 360:
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Apr 24 16:41 UTC 2002 |
ooooh. so you're trying to sound ghetto or something? i couldn;t tell if it
was ghetto, irish, or speech impediment.
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grexalot
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response 41 of 360:
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Apr 24 16:56 UTC 2002 |
I am sorry. I will do better next time. I think I need a hug.
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oval
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response 42 of 360:
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Apr 24 17:19 UTC 2002 |
*hug*
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grexalot
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response 43 of 360:
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Apr 24 17:21 UTC 2002 |
Thank you. That means more to me than you can possibly know.
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morwen
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response 44 of 360:
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Apr 25 01:02 UTC 2002 |
pobrecito, Senor Grexalot
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senna
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response 45 of 360:
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Apr 25 01:26 UTC 2002 |
I don't live in Detroit, I live a shade west of Ann Arbor, perhaps 230 miles
outside of Chicago. I can average under 80 (less than ten under the MIchigan
limit, a bit more than I prefer to maintain in Indiana, and a traffic
obstruction in Illinois) and make it in three. It's probably closer to three
and change, but still.
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sarkhel
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response 46 of 360:
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Apr 25 02:30 UTC 2002 |
Its really sad to see that the people are so much Exam.oriented. So let us
raise a slogan," Love Geography, and learn Geography by heart"
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avin
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response 47 of 360:
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Apr 25 07:43 UTC 2002 |
Thnaks you guys for all u'r comments. Barring a few, quite interestingly, most
of the gexUSers took the allegation face down. None contested it!! Some of
the comments wree indeed "geographically" limited only to areas within US taht
too MIchigan or Detroit. Why is that? I don't think education or lack of
travel has anything to do with it!
It;s equaly interesting to see one mr(!!) sarkhel creeping in at times with
his((her) own comic reliefs! What;s up with this guy??
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mcnally
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response 48 of 360:
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Apr 25 08:15 UTC 2002 |
The fact that nobody spent much effort contesting #0 shouldn't be taken
as evidence that we agree with your implicit assumption about the quality
of education in the United States..
If you walked into a room full of strangers and asked "Hey! How come
you're all so damn ignorant? What's up with that?" would it be especially
surprising if this didn't lead to a particularly fruitful discussion?
For the record, while it would make me happy if U.S. schools did a better
job teaching world geography I agree with other posters in this item that
provincialism and ignorance of the rest of the world are not problems unique
to America.
Perhaps instead of beginning by slagging the American educational system
(when there's really no such thing, but instead a collection of state and
local educational systems..) you could tell us about the geographic
education you received and how you feel it has been of use to you.
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brighn
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response 49 of 360:
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Apr 25 14:49 UTC 2002 |
(It occurs to me that, when saying that Chi-town is about three hours to the
border for me, the last time I went, I was living in Lansing.)
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