Watching Jimmy Kimmel’s “Can You Name a Country?” segment and seeing my fellow Americans struggle at naming any country on the world map is embarrassing, to say the least.
While this maddening display of ignorance may not be representative of the entire population, there’s no doubt that American geographical education is lacking when compared to other countries.
For example, despite taking World Geography for a semester in freshman year, we never learned much about where countries were, except for the occasional labeling and coloring of a map. Even before 9th grade, I had only brief encounters with geography in my social studies classes.
Officials have said that the increased focus on math, English and science, which are tested on federal levels, have led to the limited focus on geography compared to previous generations.
It’s silly that most Americans are unaware of where certain countries are, considering our major role in foreign politics. Yes, we may not have many neighboring countries the way Europeans do, but at the minimum, all Americans should be able to point out where Canada is (Hint: It’s just up north).
