<<the clue was Mecca, no one knew where or what that was.>>

Well, not everyone's into bingo

Gardyloo, you should have had some fun and told them it is the capital of the Brabant.

Tulips,

Probably only because I'm into traveling around - unfortunately not because our school system thought it was important enough to teach... Riga, Vilnius, Tallinn, Ljubljana, Bratislava, Zagreb

I thought this thread looked familiar... I've pop quizzed here before.

It's not just the US, and I doubt if it's recent, either.

Here in the UK, I've certainly had to identify and explain gooseberries in a supermarket (how often do we get them in supermarkets in the first place?). And much hilarity was caused by a Big Brother contestant who said "East Angular? What country's that then?"

But despite a traditional (=old-fashioned) capitals, rivers and products education (and an unhealthy interest in old atlases - once I could have told you all about Austria-Hungary), I was a bit thrown by a newspaper columnist's pub quiz question about which four capitals beginning with a B have the Danube flowing through them. Try as I might (and I checked with an atlas), I can only find three (I think he's thinking of Bucharest, and on my maps the Danube's nowhere near it). And he's older than me and went to the same college!

I think it's hard to say whether geography is "still taught," as it probably depends on district/city/state/country.

I know that personally, despite going to very good public/private schools, I NEVER was taught any geography until college. And then, only because I was studying a Foreign Service curriculum.

No. Geography is not taught as a separate course anymore.

Another recent funny:

From a university employee (I assume some level of education here . . .)

"Is Switzerland in Europe?"

s

On a more positive note, my twelve year old son is just finishing up sixth grade and they have been teaching quite a bit of geography. His last test included knowing the capitals of all the middle eastern countries and he had to be able to identify each country on a map. They have already covered Asia, Europe and South America. And yes, this is public school!

"Anyone know without looking up the capitals of Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Croatia?"


I do. Although when I went to school those were still included in Jugoslavia and USSR, so only Belgrad and Moscow would have been right then.

They do teach geography here for quite a many years, and in admirable depth. Which is of course good because they also teach world history, and it would be a bit stupid to study that without knowing where everything took place.

did you hear the one about the person trying to get tickets for the Olympics which were held in the US several years ago- the person was calling from New Mexico and was told by the Olympic person in the US answering the call that he had to call from his own country- (Mexico)... the caller tried to say that US WAS his own country-- but.... to no avail

I do know the capitals of Latvia, Lithuania, etc. But I'd have a harder time with the capitals of Namibia, Guyana, East Timor, and Bahrain. So before we all get too self-congratulatory about knowing where Brussels is, perhaps we should recognize that there is much in the world beyond Europe. FOr that matter, there's more to geography than knowing capitals.

Incidentally, when I travel in Europe, I've found that many people think that San Francisco is near Los Angeles, or don't know where in the country Washington, DC is located. So it's not entirely one-sided.

Hey, there's only one place important on the planet, Europe!. Who cares what they call those other places that might exist. Since the world seems to be round, I suppose there's more than just water around us, but who really cares... ;-) ;-)

I graduated high school in 1998 and geography was taught in my school, however it was a private college-prep institution.
One of my cherished memories from elementary school was the "Globe Game". The teacher would place a globe on each table and we would all take turns spinning it with one finger on it as it spun... whereever the finger landed, the student was required to name that country and capital.

In high school, we were given blank maps of the world and had to fill in the names of all countries (the borders were drawn in) and the oceans. Needed a 75% score to pass.
However, today, there are so many more countries and some of them are so tiny, don't know how I'd fill in the names. And I'd have to write in pencil--seems like they change from day to day. Esp. around the former Yugoslavia.

Honestly? they don't. I'm 21, and I don't remember learning much geography in school..almost everything I've learned, I've learned in my travels since leaving school.

Just yesterday a friend of mine (a year older than I am) was telling me how much she wanted to go to Italy "I want to see Rome, Naples, Sicily, Paris". When I informed her that Paris was not in Italy but in France, she accused me of being a know it all!

There's just no way to win.

Mayhap you should have asked her, "Paris? Where exactly is Paris anyway?"

Oh oh oh! This one is even funnier/sadder.

Same friend who made the Paris/Italy comment. She was telling me about a friend of her family's, and said that she is from Australia. Now, I've known this woman for years and she does not have an Australian accent..the conversation went as follows:

me: Are you sure it was Australia?
her: Yeah, she was telling us how she grew up there.
me: Maybe she was just born there and grew up someplace else?
her: Well, she was telling us about her high school there so probably not..
me: wait, are you sure she didn't say she was from Austria?
Her: huh? oh..well, what's the difference?

What the heck do you even SAY to that?? I tried to explain the VERY BIG TREMENDOUS differences between Austria and Australia, but all she could do was shrug and say "oh..well, I don't know, it was one of them.."

WOW.

In Salzburg and other Austrian towns that have a lot of tourists, many stands sell t-shirts that say "There are no kangaroos in Austria."

So I guess MissZiegfeld's friend isn't alone in her ignorance!

I have taught grades 3-4-and 5 for the past 11 years, and YES, we do teach geography as part of our required curriculum content. However, memorization of basic information (times tables, world capitals...etc.) is no longer an emphasis; because, when we work with the kids to learn and REMEMBER facts, we are thought to be old-fashioned and only wanting kids to be "fact regurgitators." Trends in education come and go, and right now, accountability for knowing basic facts by memory is OUT. Don't necessarily think it't the teachers' fault though, as we are asked on a daily basis:
-"Why does my child have to learn how to write in cursive? They'll just use the computer anyway."
-"Why does my child have to memorize their times tables? They can just use a calculator like me!"
-"Please excuse Johnny's lack of homework. He had an important soccer game last night."
And I teach GIFTED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!