The 2006 National Geographic-Roper Survey of Geographic Literacy was released today. In its survey of Americans aged 18 to 24, it found that this age group continues to lack basic knowledge of the world. Fifty-four percent of the respondents were able to correctly answer all of the survey questions.
Some highlights (or lowlights?): nine in ten couldn't find Afghanistan on a map of Asia, half can't find New York on a map, one-fifth think Sudan is in Asia, three-quarters failed to find Indonesia on a map, and told they could escape an approaching hurricane by evacuating to the northwest, only a third could indicate which way northwest is on a map. Similarly poor results were achieved in National Geographic Surveys in 1988 and 2002.
Read the news report and the summary of findings at nationalgeographic.com.
What do you think of the results and what do we do about them? Select "comments" below and share your thoughts! I'm eager to read what you think!
Comments
Thanks for posting this timely information on your web site.
Steve McCarville
My Wonderful World
Public Engagement Coordinator-Nebraska
I’m shocked that the numbers are that high. Only a third could indicate which way is northwest???? Half couldn’t find New York on a map?? If 18-24 year olds are this ignorant when it comes to geography there should be a geography requirement in middle and high schools. I know geography is included in a “social studies” class, but it needs to be a stand-alone class to make sure kids learn this basic, but very important knowledge.
Good points azlagos! Actually, the survey found that a high school or college geography class did not make a statistical difference in scores! Ugh!
In UK, too much emphasis is placed on social geography instead of physical because of syllabus changes.
When teaching about the coast today to 11/12 year olds in the UK, some students thought that the east coast of the UK (a recognisable coastline, they see it on local TV weather forecast!!)was in fact Florida!!!
Geography is being marginalised in primary schools here because of the emphasis on SATS (not the same as USA SATS) in English, Maths and Science. So in Secondary schools we often have to start from scratch.
In answer to Dianne Gray our Geography programme from ages 11 to 14 includes: Map Skills and map reading, Knowledge of places, coasts(physical and human)The Weather and weather forecasting, including extreme weather around the world, what is it, why is it, where is it! River Systems, Ecosystems, and Earthquakes and Volcanoes. We try to have a balance between human and physical, and within in these topics(we do teach more than this list)we also ensure lots of atlas work and larger scale mapwork to increase Knowledge of places.
The sad thing is students just do not see the importance of geography as a way of understanding how the world interacts.
My job as a geography teacher is to enthuse and promote a love of GEOG!
I am afraid this is not limited to geographic knowledge. There has been a consistent process of “dumbing down” our youth for a geneation – now we are harvesting the fruit of that effort. More money for education – less for war and corporate welfare!
The problem with American (US) youth is that they are so “insular” in their outlook and thinking.
This is understandable given that there is so much diversity in places and people, in their own country, so as to make the US a microcosm of the planet!Geography is a fascinating subject if taught well. The interest of the student should be aroused by the teacher.
Retired teacher here. I am not surprised by the findings because of the emphasis placed on teaching for state tests. Teachers are encouraged to focus on teaching students how to do well on tests
rather than focusing on basic knowledge.
No wonder people are home schooling.
If you want to hear something really shocking, consider this. I took a college geography class to fulfill a credit requirement, and the “college” students were just as geographically illiterate. It was actually quite apalling. We are talking about college age kids who couldn’t surmise the difference between N. and S. America.
Every school district across America should include at least one year long course dedicated soley to geography in the middle school grades! Some districts “incorporate” geography into another social studies subject- it’s not enough! Elementary schools should be teaching U.S. geography and colleges and universities should require it as a general education requirement! Basic geographic knowledge of our world is important to everyone; who can one possibly understand global issues if they don’t even know where the country involved is located?! Geography must be consistently taught at all levels in America!
Hello everyone,
I teach social studies. I think we need to go to the basics more than ever before. There is a glut of information available. Without the basics there is no point in knowing many disjointed facts. On the other hand, students “seem” to know so much because of the bits they are fed from so many sources.
I will start with directions, the five themes of geography as I did this year, but will also do checks to see if students take on board what has been covered before blazing on to the next of VERY MANY topics that students are expected to know. If they do not have something on board, perhaps moving on at all is really confusing….
I could not read all of your comments, but will come back later. I have to go to school now.
Regards.
Geography needs to be taught as a separate course, not just part of social studies. It was how I was taught. Our current mode of air travel does not give one the excitement of seeing the land and people like an auto trip does. You take off and land and never see what’s inbetween, so the excitement of learning about geography just isn’t there. The other sadness comes from Jay Leno’s “Jaywalking segment”, especially when he interviews teachers and college students. I know he picks out the worst of the worst, but it sure makes one think about the lacking education skills. Or maybe the educated ARE the few-and-far-between. How sad!
A more well rounded understanding of geography is needed;especially with our world getting “smaller” through technology. Perhaps a positive way to peak interest in the subject is to reveal areas of employment like travel,business, agriculture where geographic knowledge is useful. A Geographic career fair might get set some career plans in motion.
I started college 35 years after graduating from high school. Initially I was a History major. My instructor, (I took him for Western Civ I & II, and Middle East History), emphasized that GEOGRAPHY was the key element in determing the rise and occasionally the fall of civilizations/nations.
I now am a Geography major, transferring to Cal Poly Pomona this fall and I want to teach Geography in High School and perhaps at night school in a community college.
This web site has been a big help to me in learning about areas of the world I have neglected.
In closing, I’ll say that those of us who are parents and grandparents need to teach our children and grandchildren how to read a map, use a compass, and be made aware of the various landforms we drive by daily and on vacations. My oldest child is 30 and she could read a map and use a compass before she was 10, as can my 10 year old grandson.
Thanks for your hard work Matt
When I was growing up, I spent hours poring over Atlases around the house, not too mention countless hours with National Geographic magazines and the maps within. This helped solidify a life-long interest in geography. Geography is rote and must be learned over and over. Parents must fill their homes with maps and atlases and use these as learning tools as often as possible. “This is where we are going on vacation”, “Grandma grew up here”, etc.. Turn off the televisions and video games. Schools are not the major culprit here. Geography is fun if parents get involved with their children early on.
That’s terrible. Is it possible that you can post this quiz on the site?
-rk
Until each state develops a k-12 geography curriculum we have no hope of solving this problem. In fact the very absence of this curriculum simply tells the next generation that Geography is unimportant. Yet America is more involved in the world community than any other country and and needs this knowledge more than than any nation. It used to be said ‘know thine enemy’, but today it is ‘know thy competition’. Regretably our competition knows us far better than we know them. They all study Geography k-12 and so should we!
This is a great example of what Newton Minnow called the “Vast Wasteland” and the impact that television has had on our society. Kids get to watch garbage for hours on end, the schools graduate kids who can’t read their own diplomas in my town of Washington, DC, the pols call for more money to be wasted on failing schools, and we have generations of illiterates to show for it. Pull the plug on the “idiot box” and sit down with your kids and learn about the real world, before it blows up.
Personally I think our country is beyond hope; there is a critical mass of stupid people, which is evident by our elected leadership. One choice is to bend over and kiss our asses goodbye. I don’t know how we integrate ourselves more into the world’s society, perhaps we will only do so as we eventually become weaker economically, and on more of a level playing field with the rest of the world.
Where can I get a copy of the test? I would like to give it to my high school students- (That’s doing something about it, don’t you think?)
The United States must set up federal guidelines for what must be taught and ways to measure whether or not it is being learned. National Guidelines should be present for what is required of teachers. A core curriculum should be included in the federal guidelines. Geography should be one the components of this core curriculum. Our ‘flat world’ will in the future demand a knowledge of the geography and cultures of our earth – without which employment and self fulfillment will be difficult to achieve. Thank you Matt for doing your part in helping to resolve the problem of geographic illiteracy.
Hi Anne! The questions are available online at http://www9.nationalgeographic.com/roper2006/question_01.html, I hope this helps! -Matt
The lack of geography knowledge does not shock me, having been a U.S. public school student.
Is the questionnaire used in the survey available? I would like to take the quiz to reassure myself that I am not geographically illiterate.
In Ontario, Canada, Geography is a mandatory credit in grade 9. Even with that, it isn’t enough. We have similar findings as does the U.S. about geography illiteracy. Unfortunately we live in a day and age it is very important to know about different cultures. Our economies are so intertwined and with the internet bringing us closer together, geographic illiteracy is more than just ignorance, it is arrogance.
I teach 1st through 5th grade gifted students and have made geography a major component of my curriculum. In Gr. 1 the students must be able to locate all 50 states on an unlabeled US map, all continents, oceans, and countries that may be in the news. By grade 2 the capital cities are required, as are 14 countries & capitals in the Middle East. In 3rd, 4th and 5th we become more detailed and delve into the interaction of man and environment, as well as tracking the spread of languages, plagues, cultures, and religions. One of my students’ favorite activities is to construct scattergraphs illustrating the population density of the 50 states, and of countries under discussion. I still receive flak from parents who argue that primary level children need to know about their communities, and not about places they’ll never get to go to!! I believe I may have the only 6 year old students in my state who can locate Kazakhstan on an unlabeled map of the world and can also tell at least one cogent fact about that country. I spent almost 11 years in Arabia and that experience has taught me more than I could have learned in any class, and began a love affair with geography. I work very hard to share my enthusiasm, but it’s such an uphill battle.
They say we are what we eat…but I maintain that we are where we’re from…that there’s an environmental imprint on us that we cannot deny.
Sorry to have taken up so much space. Keep up the good fight, Matt!!!
How can 54% get all questions correct and 90% get one of the questions wrong?
Lack of state or national standards is NOT the problem, as has been suggested in an earlier comment. Those standards DO exist. The problem is that they are written for educational bureaucrats, most of whom have probably never taught a real class of students for any length of time at all; therefore, they pile all sorts of politically correct expectations on the teachers so that the teachers have little time to devote to teaching the basics. This deplorable situation is compounded by the fact that a teacher has a hard time competing with the myriad forms of entertainment that modern media and technology provide. The key is still an enthusiastic teacher who is knowledgeable about the subject and concerned enough about the future of the students that he/she will demand results.
It is indeed shocking that geography is almost unknown in the public school systems of this country. Whose fault is this? It is a fascinating subject. Our schools are turning out people that know almost nothing of the physical world around them. It’s pathetic that someone can’t place New York City on a map or find Europe or Asia.. I am a certified tutor in a literacy program and I include geography and history lessons right along with the literacy portion. I wish we had the answer to the problem. Maybe if politicians kept their dirty hands off education and let the educators educate, things would be much better. Thanks for letting me vent. The quizzes are great. Keep them coming.
This is typical in this dummy society we live in. I taught Social Studies for 25 years, I always included mapwork & geography in every country we covered. Dont blame the teachers. The students cant retain anything because their focused on sex, drugs, rock & roll, rap, cellphones & other inane idiocies of our society PLUS hormones of which they have no control over or desire to control over. The answer is children cant appreciate education till older, so send them to work at 7 till 23 & THEN educate them after slaving over menial jobs, raising kids themselves, when they got pregnant. Then & only then will they care to retain, because it will cost them MONEY & they’ll be wiser, until then their useless.
Yes, Janet- it wasn’t that 54% of respondents got all the questions right, but respondents, on average, got 54% of the questions right. Big difference. And disheartening.
I think geographic literacy has improved. That age group that they are using reflects early graduates. Wait until they start travelling!!
Matt, is there something wrong with me? What is the answer for 36 on the quiz? Kind of tough, don’t you think?
Hi Bill,
I’ve never published a quiz with more than 10 questions so I’m not sure what you mean by 36?
-Matt
Our world is becoming smaller and smaller, where we are in daily contact with people from many countries. It is now more important than ever to know the geography of the people and places in the world to be able to appreciate other peoples backgrounds, and to have some idea of where in the world these countries are so that we can follow the news media reports.
The question to the young pageant contestant was too sophisticated for her and, I suspect, for almost all educated adults, as it had to do with spatial, historical, and cultural realities of America. Could we expect her to understand the historical spatial isolation of America, made invulnerable for a time by two large oceans? Or, the theme of America’s supposed “uniqueness,” its “City on the Hill” mentality, its isolationist proclivities, that say “We’ll save the world, when called upon to do so, but don’t ask us to know much about that world”? Or, the fact that historians took control of the Social Studies professional organizations after WWI? All we could expect of her was her coached, prosaic answer the next morning when she gushed that not enough geography is taught in American schools. Even if she and her college friends can indeed locate the U.S. on a blank world map, she and they would not know much beyond that basic fact.
Ah ha ha. I’m from Germany and remember a TV show where Americans were shown a map with Australia labeled as Iran and how everyone wanted to invade. This is good for us though.. America’s insular attitude and lack of global understanding gives us more of an edge. Based on this I wonder how America has every won anything.
American educators should hang their head in shame!! We paid for these lousy results and we got what we paid for…..the dumb teaching the dumber.
I was taught geography in the 7th grade. It was a geography-only class and it wasn’t combined with social studies. I loved the class and I never lost my love of geography. Thank goodness I had a good teacher!
These kids deserve better. Maybe they use a computer program to teach geography because the teachers certainly aren’t teaching them. Do you suppose it would work better if it included a video game or MySpace links to people in foreign countries?