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A few years ago I went on my first trip to Canada to visit Ottawa, Montreal, and Quebec City.
At the border, I was asked the purpose of my trip and where I was going. I suffered a brain fart and blurted "Montreal and Ontario City".
I was directed to go wait in the inspection line instead of being passed through. I probably made them suspicious or they just wanted to punish the idiot who didn't know their country.
LOL, off topic, but this reminded me of my own goof at the Canadian border. I had been driving for about 10 hours straight and I was pretty tired. When I got to the border I was asked why I was going to Canada.
I love geography too. It was my favorite subject in high school and middle school. I've participated in geography bees. To say the least I have a passion for it.
And like you, I am not happy with the way this has been turned into a political problem, as a reason to bash those who are liberals.
Lack of geographic literacy is not surprising. This is not a Harvard problem. This is a problem in America as a whole. I remember when I took geography classes. I got the feeling many of my fellow students simply didn't care.
Totally agree, wonder how we can raise the geographic literacy of our fellow citizens. At the local level, I think GPS systems don't help as it lets folks go on autopilot in getting to their destination.
I bet a higher percentage of Harvard students know the capital of Canada than the general population. Also, Harvard graduates a lot of liberals. And a lot of conservatives.
Totally agree, wonder how we can raise the geographic literacy of our fellow citizens. At the local level, I think GPS systems don't help as it lets folks go on autopilot in getting to their destination.
There are organizations, and there are youtubers out there trying to raise awareness. Basically, those who are interested in the first place are the ones who would take is seriously. Those don't care, it's hard to convince those persons. I've made even more posts about geographic illiteracy, and apart from you, it falls on deaf ears.
And the irony of GPS systems is this. It takes being geographically literate to produce those systems. I should know. My internship involved me using GPS units to produce maps.
Harvard students not being knowledgeable in geography has alot to do with
Harvard not having a geography program since 1948. It has a geographic research
center now, but the university doesn't have a geography major as far as I
know.
As far as I know, most people who go to Harvard aren't interested
in Geography, and those that are interested aren't going to Harvard. Politics
has nothing to do with it, so keep politics out of this.
Thing is, I learned about all the other countries and their capitals in elementary school. Not high school and not university.
Thing is, I learned about all the other countries and their capitals in elementary school. Not high school and not university.
I learned the state capitals in elementary school, but it wasn't taught to me by my teachers. I learned about it from reading and memorizing for the fun of it. The most I learned about alot of countries came in university, followed by high school. And even then, I did alot of reading on my own, for fun.
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