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Oh, HELL no. The basics like that are toast these days. Having to memorize state capitols "stifle" a child's creativity, don't ya know? <snort>
When my kids were in elementary just a few years ago they had to learn the song Fifty Nifty and then sing it to the community in a public assembly. The younger kids looked forward to it and it was considered a right of passage to become one of the "big kids" and get to sing it on stage.
I suspect they are in the same areas where the adults don't believe in science & local school boards are trying to figure out how to rename the Civil War & slavery & integrate "Intelligent Design" as an "alternative" in the curriculum.
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Think about what you just said and the topic of this discussion: Ignorance of our own country. If you really believe what you just said, that's worse than someone not knowing New Mexico is a state. Someone who doesn't know can learn something new.
I currently live in West Virginia and I have had the same problem particularly on the phone when asking about something, like insurance for instance where they try to give me to the agent that handles Virginia. I tell them no I mean West Virginia and it is a separate state, followed by stunned silence.
By the way my grandson who is autistic learned all the fifty states all the state capitals, all the countries and capitals in the World when he was seven. He also has an photographic memory and can remember basically everything.
I currently live in West Virginia and I have had the same problem particularly on the phone when asking about something, like insurance for instance where they try to give me to the agent that handles Virginia. I tell them no I mean West Virginia and it is a separate state, followed by stunned silence.
By the way my grandson who is autistic learned all the fifty states all the state capitals, all the countries and capitals in the World when he was seven. He also has an photographic memory and can remember basically everything.
I recall being on a "customer assistant" phone call to someone with a very obvious "Southern drawl". After asking where I was from, and answering, "Alberta", they wanted to know what State that was. I said it's in Canada. They again said, "Yes, but what State is that?". After 3 go arounds with her, I finally asked to speak to another CSR, who actually understood that Canada was a separate country.
Geography went out, in the mid 80s. It's also not just about capitals and states, though.
I guess I hadn't noticed because our school district teaches U.S. geography in elementary school and world geography in middle school. In any case, a person who at a minimum had to memorize the states and capitols in elementary school would surely have recognized that New Mexico was within the U.S. boundaries. Not to know such a thing is inexcusable, at least to me.
Last edited by randomparent; 12-02-2018 at 06:32 PM..
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