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I'm not shocked by much of anything any more. Being a history teacher, I see it almost every day. What is frightening is when it involves an adult, especially a supposed authority.
There is a teacher in my department who graduated from a fairly prestigious public university and has a few years experience teaching American History who had no idea in which state Omaha was located. Somewhat excusable for your everyday citizen, but not so for an experienced history teacher.
I have gotten so used to people not knowing basics over the years, that I just have learned to ignore it because it seems so pervasive. It's more annoying when you know it is a unknowing person who is a "teacher."
I think every state has misperceptions. There's a woman who works at my local drugstore who came from some other part of the country because her husband is stationed here with the Coast Guard, and she told me she was shocked that New Jersey is "so green". Um, yeah, it's called "the Garden State". Some people seem to think the entire state looks like the NJ Turnpike where the refineries are, because that's all they saw through their car window.
Just like I've only ever seen the northwest corner of Arizona.
I agree. Living here in CO, there are many who are surprised to hear that Pennsylvania is 1/3 forested, and very rural in the center. Then there are my Pennsylvania friends and family who think Denver is in the mountains, ans has snow up to our eyeballs 9 months a year!
OTOH, a lot of people here are from somewhere else, so have a little more knowledge (it seems) of other places than people I've known in other parts of the country.
Knowledge of the physical characteristics of the states or of other countries is NOT history though, but geography. Unfortunately geography is not taught much today.
Knowledge of the physical characteristics of the states or of other countries is NOT history though, but geography. Unfortunately geography is not taught much today.
My kids had to take a geography class in high school. And as I have lived around the country, it's happened to me everywhere in the past 45 years that I've been "on the move". Easterners don't know much about the west. Someone on NPR, just today, stated that all of Arizona was "obscure". I think s/he needs to get out more. People in Illinois think "easterners" are rude and hostile. They'd be surprised to know that in Colorado, they are considered easterners! Coloradans think the entire eastern US is paved over. And so forth.
My kids had to take a geography class in high school. And as I have lived around the country, it's happened to me everywhere in the past 45 years that I've been "on the move". Easterners don't know much about the west. Someone on NPR, just today, stated that all of Arizona was "obscure". I think s/he needs to get out more. People in Illinois think "easterners" are rude and hostile. They'd be surprised to know that in Colorado, they are considered easterners! Coloradans think the entire eastern US is paved over. And so forth.
I agree this isn't history though.
Your kids are a bit older. Stand alone Geography classes started being removed as a graduation requirement nationally 20 or 25 years ago (in Maryland it was around 1990 when we fully implemented the MD Functional Test in Government, the passing of which was required for graduation. I taught Geography one year, the last year my system offered it as a stand alone, 1990-91 school year). NCLB drove the final spike into it. Instead geography is now to be infused throughout the Social Studies curriculum.
Some high schools do offer AP Human Geography (I never taught it but as AP Coordinator I had to be familiar with it) which can be a decent class, but it's still AP so not every kid can take it and be successful.
Your kids are a bit older. Stand alone Geography classes started being removed as a graduation requirement nationally 20 or 25 years ago (in Maryland it was around 1990 when we fully implemented the MD Functional Test in Government, the passing of which was required for graduation. I taught Geography one year, the last year my system offered it as a stand alone, 1990-91 school year). NCLB drove the final spike into it. Instead geography is now to be infused throughout the Social Studies curriculum.
Some high schools do offer AP Human Geography (I never taught it but as AP Coordinator I had to be familiar with it) which can be a decent class, but it's still AP so not every kid can take it and be successful.
Hmm. Geography is still required of all students in my district. Maybe it helps to be behind the times. And my kids graduated 2002 and 2005. A while ago now, yes.
Your kids are a bit older. Stand alone Geography classes started being removed as a graduation requirement nationally 20 or 25 years ago (in Maryland it was around 1990 when we fully implemented the MD Functional Test in Government, the passing of which was required for graduation. I taught Geography one year, the last year my system offered it as a stand alone, 1990-91 school year). NCLB drove the final spike into it. Instead geography is now to be infused throughout the Social Studies curriculum.
Some high schools do offer AP Human Geography (I never taught it but as AP Coordinator I had to be familiar with it) which can be a decent class, but it's still AP so not every kid can take it and be successful.
I don't remember EVER taking a geography course, though it was wrapped into the Social Studies curriculum in Grades 4 through 7. I consider my knowledge of geography very strong.
Regarding geography, I wonder if the relative affordability of air travel is partly to blame. It's a powerful experience to drive from one coast to the other. I've done it many times, and I recently completed a road trip to the Midwest with my daughter. It's one thing to know that the Mississippi is a big river that cuts through the middle of the United States. It's quite another to see it in person. It's also a tremendously powerful thing to drive from the dry, flat high plains within shouting distance of the Rockies to the humid, verdant, and hilly Midwest. Really opens your eyes to the vastness of our nation and the tremendous resources it provides.
Another thing I've heard my husband and father repeat many times as former military is, "The map is not the terrain," and it is so true. I wanted to show my daughter some historic locations I remembered from childhood during our visit, so I studied the city map carefully. Strangely, I found myself confused by the landscape, even though I had spent the first thirty years of my life there. It's not that I could not find my way around exactly, but more that I would circle the specific locations I was looking for without recognizing them. It was a weird phenomenon and a bit disconcerting.
Last edited by randomparent; 07-03-2016 at 03:20 PM..
Years back I saw the Jay Leno show. He did a thing called JayWalking. Asking people on the street(mostly ages 18 - 30) simple questions you would thing people would know, some really simple ones. Most thought Benjamin Franklin was president. The one that had me laughing was, He asked people, in what year was the War of 1812 fought, and no one seemed to know. Or the year of our independence. Some even said the 1960's.
Years back I saw the Jay Leno show. He did a thing called JayWalking. Asking people on the street(mostly ages 18 - 30) simple questions you would thing people would know, some really simple ones. Most thought Benjamin Franklin was president. The one that had me laughing was, He asked people, in what year was the War of 1812 fought, and no one seemed to know. Or the year of our independence. Some even said the 1960's.
Yeah, I remember that, too, and I often wondered how much was edited out to make it seem like Americans are more ignorant than they really are. The ditsy blonde is a caricature that's good for a laugh, but is it really true? One of my best friends in high school was a blonde bombshell with a cleavage that could stop traffic. She went on to Duke on full scholarship to study genetics where she earned a research fellowship in neuroscience. Just sayin'.
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