I am posting this not because I watched the TV when George W messed upwith
his geography? I am posting thsi more out of my personal experiences after
having spent a couple years..has that got anything to do withe the education
system or what?  any introspection...???

360 responses total.

because americans are taught to be ethnocentric. dubya is just an idiot.

who is dubya???

  it's a nickname for George W. Bush..  "dubya" reads somewhat like "W"
  might be pronounced by an ignorant person..

This response has been erased.

The ignorance is not limited to Americans.  I've known others who didn't get
to know much about the world outside their borders.  (Rarely, though, since
I didn't get out much when I lived in Japan, and I've lived in only two
countries.)

People tend to pick up geography by experience:  Travelers tend to know more
than non-travelers, and Europeans tend to travel more than Americans.

Why are non-americans so likely to overgeneralize? ;)

Re #5:  You might rephrase that as "travel *to other countries*," and the
        reasons for it are pretty obvious.

But for those to whom it isn't: size and relative geographic isolation

Americans are so poor with geography because the USA is so huge,
people don't travel outside the country very often (comparatively)
and most news comes from "here".  

It's also not part of the standard K-12 education, and it's hard
to make a case for making it a part of that curriculum when there
is so little in the news that would make the rest of the world
relevant to the classwork.

The same thing happens on even smaller scales.  There are New Yorkers
who barely believe there's a world outside their city, for example.
I can't do anything about it, so I refuse to bother myself.

Are you sure geography isn't part of the standard K-12 education?

Most news comes from "here" because that's what we're taught to care about.
That's not an issue of travel, that's an issue of being taught
ethnocentricism, as someone already said.
 
Plenty of things happen in the rest of the world. Plenty of things which are
more important in the long run happen in the rest of the world. We just don't
seem to care until they come and blow up our buildings.

I think the travel argument has a lot to do with it.  It's not limited
to Americans, either; Europeans often seem to have a very distorted idea
of distances in the U.S. (like thinking that it's a short drive from
Detroit to Chicago.)

Isn't it? ;}
 
I tend to think of Toronto as closed to Detroit than Chicago is, but it's
roughly the same drive time.

closed>closer, although many Canucks probably DO wish Tranna was closed to
Detroit.

Obviously a certain level of geographical knowledge is nice to have but 
how much does your average American really need to know in order to get 
by? What motivation is there to learn exactly where all the borders in 
Africa are or where certain countries in Asia or Europe are located. Of 
course since our culture is so European, I know more about European 
geopraphy than African, Asian or South American. I think this is pretty 
common. People learn what they are exposed to. 

There are two reasons behind the poor knowledge:
1) In the name itself, americans always think of "us" and NOT "them" or "they"
so they least bother of outside world
2) They donot use amiglobe software

1)Doesnt everyone think it terms of "us" and "them" a little bit? I 
dont think that kind of thinking is unique to people in the United 
States.

2)I have never even heard of amiglobe software. 

Chicago is three hours, Toronto at least four depending upon which part you're
going to.  Both are short drives, though they might seem long to Europeans.
Why would Canadians want Toronto to be closer to Detroit?  Wouldn't they
prefer it to be closer to Chicago?

They use Microsoft Streets USA, where all the roads end at the 
borders.  Did you know that Canada and Mexico have no roads? ;)

I travel all over the place and although I haven't done a systematic 
study it's my impression that the level of geographical ignorance among 
the educated middle class isn't all that much worse in the US than 
anyplace else.  The Brits of my acquaintance are at the well-educated 
end of the spectrum, along with the Spaniards, who are really 
superior.  The French and the Brazilians are at the retarded end.  The 
others (Swiss, Italians, Chinese, Israelis, Mexicans) are about the 
same as us.

Re:- no.17, Once again Mr.Fremont proves that how poor the geo knowledge of
US people, even they dont know the Amiglobe sw.And the credit goes to.......
Pl.pay up some $ and try to improve your knowledge.

try to improve your grasp of the english language.

Any software for it? However there is nothing special in English lang.Neither
Eng.knowledge improves the Geo Knowledge nor it makes anyone super human.

Hey Deb dont bother these dumb guys, they dont know what they r talking.They
feel that there is ONLY one language in the world is English and not knowing
it is a crime

Not really, but telling us to improve our knowledge in incoherent English
doesn't do much for your credibility.

Talking to oneself isn't a great move, either.  Probably a troll.

ha ha youre are a so much of stupids!

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.

An hour and a half can get me to the Wisconsin border, 50 miles outside of
Madison.  

        Just remembering, they seemed to force feed us 
        geography pretty consistently, at the Catholic grade
        school, but omitted local geography for some reason.

Did you go to Gesu?

We had to memorize the capitals of all 50 states, at some point, but
I've forgotten them by now.

329> you and I have had different experiences with Chicago.

I have no doubt. :)  Differing experiences of Toronto, too.

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.

I've done Ann Arbor to Chicago in three hours, but I got lucky on traffic,
construction, and speed enforcement.  ;-)

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.

I remember an exercise like that where we were given a map of the Middle
East and had to ladel all the countries.

Fuck dat.  You's couldn't even find Compton on some map.  Right On!

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