Many Young Americans Unable to Find Louisiana on Map

I'm just guessing here but geography isn't on the standardized test they give now.

That is the only thing I can think of that would explain why kids are not being taught this in school.

You're probably right. But who cares if kids know where Louisiana and Iraq are as long as we can say that at least 80% of them passed the standardized tests. Good luck competing in the global economy.

I guess it is really No Child Left Behind Any Other Kid With An Inadequate Education.

I just enrolled my son in kindergarten for next year after waffeling between public and private schools. I decided on public even after being alarmed that his school does "excellent" on standardized testing.

I think that statistic was supposed to reassure me.

Well, you can't very well be left behind if you don't know where you are!

Lewis Carroll would have been so proud that we have managed to base our education system on the wisdom of the Cheshire puss.

The Cheshire Cat?

I disagree.

There was a young lady of Niger,
Who smiled as she rode on a tiger.
They came back from the ride
With the lady inside,
And the smile on the face of the tiger.

Now that New Orleans is no longer, who cares?

I was thinking of the whole Cheshire cat/Alice conversation about it doesn't matter which road you take if you don't know where you're going in response to Blacksmithin's "how can you be left behind if you don't know where you are".

Sheesh, 6 out of 10? Good grief. We had no standardized testing, yet by the end of 8th grade I had to know all of the world's capitals and be able to find all countries on the world map. This is truly sad.

Hey, is Louisiana that little town that's in California? The one next to Maryland, right?

The 8th graders all know them, and then they've forgotten much of it by the time they're through high school. Rote memorization, learned for one curriculum, and then not touched again doesn't make for good long-term memory. They teach it, the kids learn it, and then it's all but forgotten.

Interesting article in today's paper about college-bound students scored lower on the SAT for the second year in a row. Anybody think NCLB might be the cause?

hmm, well, we still had to know them all in high school, j_b. not sure about other departments, but in my "college" (we don't have college system. let's just say in the first year of university) political geography was a requirement, too.

Yes, geography is pretty much something you study as a young kid. Once you're in high school it's forgotten, and college not mentioned unless you're in a specific major that studies it.

Slappy, I believe LA is in Texas.

Those who believe that the ignorance of most of our young students( Elementary, High School and College) is manifested only in the area of Geography simply haven't followed the news in Education in the USA.
In Chicago,Illinois, only six out of a hundred students who begin High School actually finish College or University.
This is not primarily because of poor teachers, insufficient financing, No Student Left Behind,or even Racial or Ethnic discrimination. It is primarily because of "culture". There have been numerous learned commentators, among the best of whom is Dr. Thomas Sowell, who have pointed out that Asian students, even those who come from relatively poor families, score better on the SAT tests, especially in Math, that relatively more affluent Blacks or Latinos. Dr. Sowell points to "culture" as the major difference.

You know, this talk of discrimination puts me in mind of the discriminating manner in which our President has been able to discern his bold new plan for victory in Iraq!

Racial discrimination favoring asian students at California universities isn't anything new. Even Berkeley realized the problem and tried to correct it, with little success. It's not just that asians score better on tests or have better grades. When the admissions department is all asian it skews things a bit.

San Jose State is the worst of the worst.

Funny you should mention it, but California universities are indeed at the forefront in supplying our President with the trained men and women he needs to implement his innovative plan for victory in Iraq!