November 9, 2008
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Geography
A recent news report revealed that John McCain’s running mate Sarah Palin did not know that Africa was a continent and not a country. I am not surprised. Because Sarah Palin went to school in America where geography is not taught in schools.
Read my “Where did you go to school?” here. It was written on July 3, 2004.
I think geography should be a compulsory subject in high schools. It was not only taught in schools in India during my time, we actually had to take a final exam in geography and pass it in order to graduate from high school. Average Americans really have an extremely poor knowledge of geography (not only world geography, but American geography also) and it shows. This “Who cares?” attitude of Americans is causing Americans to perform ever-so-increasingly poorly when it comes to international competitions. No wonder, the experts are projecting that India and China will soon emerge as world’s super-powers.
Shoban Sen
Bestnetguru.com
Comments (2)
I read your ancient post : the test in geography .I believe in Europe it is the same as US because since 1969 the programs and objectives of the teaching have changed , infortunatly . The teachers make a kind of developpement of the brain but neglect the knowledges ( supposedly a brain can be developped without knowledges ) .
I wonder if Mrs Palin knew France existed ?
I came here some time ago and I remember there was no post or no comment box .
Welcome back Shoban
In friendship
Michel
ps : about the case below . Is it so worrying ?
Geography is not taught in American schools. History is not taught in American Schools. Math is taught less every year.That is why homeschooling is becoming evermore popular.