Geography

I thought I was bad at geography, I really did.  But compared to those in school today... I'm more than adequate.

 

This has been one of my biggest rants lately (sorry Mom, you get to see it again) is the lack of education in geography recently.

 

I look at myself.  I can look at a map of the US and tell you a majority of the states when they're outlined, the New England area gets a little hazy with how congested things are up there, and when the map is not outlined I can at least figure out where South Carolina, Texas, North Carolina, Florida, Michigan, California, Hawaii, Alaska, Oregeon, and Washington.  I can muddle through more, but without borders and my depth perception it gets harder.

 

Expanding internationally I can tell you where Canada, Mexico are without hesitation.  In South America I can recognize Brazil and Peru at least. Africa is harder for me, but I don't know the names of many of the countries there - I can point out Egypt though.  I know several of the European countries - especially England, Germany, Spain, Italy (and all of these I'm just pulling from the top of my head, put a map in front of me and I'm fairly certain I can do more).  I have no doubts as to the whereabouts of Russia, China, India, Australia and Japan.  The Mideast gets harder, but I can do one or two there.  I know I don't even know all the names of the countries around Russia that were formerly part of the USSR.  And I'm well aware that my knowledge is just a drop in the bucket as to the amount of countries I do not know.

 

When compared to my siblings though... I'm beyond adequate.  And we can take this further than just physical geography - Cities and Capitols all types of general knowledge about the outside world is not known these days.  And it's not just my siblings - I've seen all the reports showing that they are the same as their classmates throughout the US. 

 

It just amazes me that the information I had to know is not even common knowledge for them today, what happened to that?

 

I joke and tell them that if they don't watch it they're going to get geography tests from me for presents.  Now I think it's not such a bad idea after all.