Perhaps americans are stupid...

Forums: News
Email this Topic • Print this Page

It's embarrassing to note that 85% of Americans, before the War with Iraq, could not locate Iraq on a map.

Ironically, 34% of Americans knew the island in the South Pacific where one of last "Survivor" shows was filmed.

Out of nine countries tested, the U.S. came in second to last place. Here are the countries in order of their performance:

Sweden

Germany

Italy

France

Japan

Great Britain

Canada

United States

Mexico

The following results pertain to U.S. participants' ages 18 to 24.

World Statistic Highlights

30% could not locate the Pacific Ocean.

56% could not locate India, home to 17 percent of people on the Earth.

30% think the population of the U.S. is between 1 to 2 billion people. That's roughly one third of world's population. (approximate population of the U.S. is 290 million)

Even though Great Britain is the U.S. closest political ally, 63% of Americans could not find England on a map.

93% of Swedes could find the United States. Only 16% of Americans could find Sweden.

U.S. Statistic Highlights

89% of Americans could locate the United States on a map whereas 95% of the French could locate the United States. It's embarrassing that roughly 1 in 10 Americans could not find their own country.

49% of Americans cannot find New York State on a map.

51% could not locate Pennsylvania.

69% could not find Massachusetts.

link

Topic Stats
Top Replies
Link to this Topic

Type: Discussion • Score: 1 • Views: 5,088 • Replies: 81

No top replies

Not stupid but ill educated and poorly served by the public school system. When I was in 6th grade we had to identify the states and countries of the world with maps that we had to color in (also locate the capital). This was, in later years, denounced as mindless rout work and not intellectually challenging. As a result we a nation that can not read a map never mind a newspaper. What critics of this kind of activity forget, is that before you can do the really interesting stuff, there is a certain amount of basic information you have to learn.

0 Replies

Perhaps part of the problem is that popular culture glorifies ignorance and "everyone knows" that school work is both tedious and boring.

0 Replies

Acquiunk wrote:

Not stupid but ill educated and poorly served by the public school system. When I was in 6th grade we had to identify the states and countries of the world with maps that we had to color in (also locate the capital). This was, in later years, denounced as mindless rout work and not intellectually challenging. As a result we a nation that can not read a map never mind a newspaper. What critics of this kind of activity forget, is that before you can do the really interesting stuff, there is a certain amount of basic information you have to learn.

While being poorly served by schools is a good point, I think the trouble lies much deeper than not having to color maps in the 6th grade. I mean these people couldn't find the pacific ocean... some couldn't find their own country.

I think Noddy makes a good point that it is not "cool" to do homework. I think the much bigger problem is a lack of personal responsibility in a generation of lazy, unmotivated people who expect everything to be given to them.

0 Replies

When a country's President, leader of the free world, can't even pronounce 'Iraq', what can one expect? Lead by example, isn't that how the saying goes?

jp, I have to take issue with your assertion that the bigger problem is "a generation of lazy, unmotivated people who expect everything to be given to them." I do think there are a lot of people who are like that, but you have made a sweeping generalization about US society, based on a few statistics most likely based on a relatively small number of people.

While I agree that there are major problems in the US, both with education and a polarized society, I don't put much faith in polls. They always serve some sort of agenda. IMO, the problems in America go far deeper than anything stated here so far. It's a spider web of problems. There is no one single excuse. America is an empire in decline, I do believe that, but why it is is a complicated question.

Mind you, the statistics on Sweden vs. America were pretty funny. Laughing

I wonder what the figures would have been, had there been two questions:

1. Can you locate Sweden on a map?

2. Have you heard of the Swedish Bikini Team?

0 Replies

It would also be interesting to have these test takers list their country of origin. The United States is home to a huge number of immigrants, many who probably call the Pacific Ocean by some other name.

Survivor is such a stupid show... is it really still on?

0 Replies

I do think that there is a certain cultural disdain for education in this country. People who attain high levels of education are referred to as 'elites' who know nothing about the 'real world'. I'm totally generalizing and basing my opinion on my own impressions, but it does seem like there is a kind of negativity placed on learning for learning's sake. We send our kids to college so they can get a job. We teach them things in the classroom so they can pass a test and move to the next grade. Smart kids are nerds or geeks and only gain sex appeal when they start making big money in technology fields. We value 'common sense' over 'book learning'.

How about learning about geography because it's interesting to see how other people live? How about being well informed as a means of becoming a responsible citizen?

0 Replies

I think that the reason American's don't know this stuff is because they don't want to know it. We are arrogant. We think that our country is the center of the universe. Why should we learn about some "backward" country a thousand miles away? Our country is very large and very rich and most of us have never been out of it. Our children are taught in school that the US is always right, always the best, always the victory and the champion of less fortunate countries. Our history books are severely biased and incorrect. I don't blame kids for not knowing these things. I blame the adults who know better and still allow our school systems to leave out information or slant the truth. I blame parents for not standing up when their child comes home from school and states that Christopher Columbus "discovered" America. Too bad it had already been "discovered". I don't think that it is that we are stupid. I think it is that we are so self-absorbed that we really don't care. Which is sad.

We are one of the only countries, that has only one national language. We are one of the only countries, perhaps the only, that does not teach our children a second or third language. We are a nation of mono-lingual, culturally ignorant people. It is sad.

0 Replies

I'll admit it, I suck at geography.

I can point out the Pacific ocean, but if you gave me a blank globe, there's a ton of countries I couldn't point out.

Ask me how much I care. If I wanted to spend only 10 minutes looking at one/refreshing memory, I'd be much less "stupid."

0 Replies

I don't like generational put downs as a rule. And the US has produced a huge amount of innovators in varied fields.Even 40 years ago, Language studies,World Culture and Geography were hardly touched on in my school.

0 Replies

We got geography twice, 6th and 8th grade. The first was more physical (environmental) and locational (mountains, rivers location of countries), the second was more cultural and economic (the 5 major products of Mexico are... etc.).

0 Replies

Someone was pooh-poohing your article. Can you cite the source?

0 Replies

panzade wrote:

Someone was pooh-poohing your article. Can you cite the source?

Which article was that?

0 Replies

sorry, was for jpn

0 Replies

cavfancier wrote:

jp, I have to take issue with your assertion that the bigger problem is "a generation of lazy, unmotivated people who expect everything to be given to them." I do think there are a lot of people who are like that, but you have made a sweeping generalization about US society, based on a few statistics most likely based on a relatively small number of people.

Actually I've made sweeping generalizations about the US society based off of my experiences with said generation... and granted it isn't like this everywhere but after moving to Wisconsin I was amazed at the amount of people that have NEVER read a book unless it was required by school. Even then they would do the cliffnotes version. This sin't simply the school system failing them it is an unwilliness to learn.

But point taken about generalizations.

0 Replies

panzade wrote:

Someone was pooh-poohing your article. Can you cite the source?

It is on the bottom of the first post.

0 Replies

I found word-for-word the first few lines of jp's posting at this website:

http://www.edven.com/news_us_geo_illiteracy_stats.html

And here's a more reputable source:

http://geosurvey.nationalgeographic.com/geosurvey/highlights.html

0 Replies

It's not just about what we learned (or didn't learn) in school. It's also about what we pay attention to afterward. I don't sit down with an atlas for fun, but I do occasionally try to figure out where the hell some place is that's in the news.

But even that low level of awareness depends on paying some attention to the news...

0 Replies

I had geography in elementary and middle school, but I never actually learned anything until I took Economic Geography in college (kind of recently at that). It's just a lot more interesting to look at how geography shapes other things than just where things are on a map. And if these things mean nothing to you it's likely you will forget as soon as the test is over.

0 Replies

I think I just proved something....duh

0 Replies

Perhaps americans are stupid...

Related Topics

Quick Links

My Account

able2know