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Map Literacy and Geography in the Classroom

posted by Satri on Thursday August 09, @04:27PM   Printer-friendly   Email story  Permalink  Trackback URI  Slashdotthis  Diggthis  Del.icio.us
from the learning-to-fly-with-maps-as-wings dept.
Education Maps
Direction Mags runs an article by Claudine Bianchi of MetaCarta about today's geography in the U.S. classrooms. From the article: "Only 13% of the Americans surveyed correctly identified Iraq on a map of Asia and the Middle East. Only about half of young Americans were able to locate landmasses such as Japan and India on a global map. And 20% of those surveyed could not find the Pacific Ocean. But set aside our less-than-satisfactory performance at a Geography Bee, and jump ahead to the terrain of public and private firms where geography has become one of the most powerful weapons in the arsenal. [...] Mistick went on to say, "While war teaches us much about geography, a solid knowledge of geography can provide the key to political success. On every rung of the political ladder there is no substitute for a thorough understanding of the geography of an election district or ward or city as our civic wars are fought."" Meanwhile, The Map Room links to a story about a third of Britain not able to read a map: "Over a third of motorists struggled to read a four-figure grid reference and a staggering 83 per cent failed to identify the “motorway” map symbol. … One in six (16 per cent) UK drivers no longer keep a map in their car [...]" See also related stories below.

Related Stories

Americans Are Lost, Spatially Speaking [+]
The GeoCarta blog has an interesting entry named Curing Americans' Cluelessness about a simple geography quiz taken by 400 people on the streets of Atlanta. From GeoCarta's summary: "A study of Americans ages 18 to 24 found: 11% couldn't locate the United States on a map. Almost 30% couldn't find the Pacific Ocean. Among 3,000 people surveyed in Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Sweden and the U.S., the U.S. scored next to last in geographic literacy."
Bringing Back Geography to the U.S. [+]
Sworldwatch discuss and links to a ArcNews Spring 2007 article on history of geography and the state of geography education in the U.S. From the article: "Soon after World War II, however, geography was purged in the United States, and the impact continues today. From 1948 to 1988, the discipline was expunged at the University of Chicago, Columbia, Harvard, the University of Michigan, Northwestern, Stanford, Yale, and other esteemed American universities, oddly even during periods when universities were expanding faster than at any other time before or since. In truth, nobody knows why geography was targeted on such a broad scale." See also related stories below.
Why 1 in 5 Americans Can't Find the U.S. on a Map 4 comments [+]
If you're a gis person of any form you may have already been asked about or emailed a link of Miss South Carolina's response to the question in the title. This post is less informational than cautionary. When you're done listening and laughing at her answer, make sure you can come up with one of your own that's a little better :) Hear her answer here: http://www.youtube.com/v/lj3iNxZ8Dww
In Defense Of Miss Teen Geographers and Maps for US Website [+]
If you can't get enough of the geography bonanza going on due to Miss Teen Carolina's recent map question breakdown, Farhad Manjoo at The Machinist makes the point that the question was flawed, and the only reason there is such a kerfuffle about the whole affair is not because people are concerned about American's geographic (il)literacy, but that she didn't give the scripted type of answer we've come to expect from television personalities. From the entry "Instead of talking about "U.S. Americans," Upton should have pointed out that the children are our future and that we ought to teach them well and let them lead the way; she could have inveighed against leaving any child behind; she might have noted that it takes a village. She was asked a dumb question, and the world's beating her up for the sin of not being able to arrive quickly enough at the sort of meaningless sound bite that we expect from our politicians."
It might also have something to do with people loving to watch a train wreck...

Update: 08/31 17:32 GMT by S : Here's a related submission from a reader: Anonymous Voxel writes "The Miss South Carolina "map episode" has made lots of people laugh and react. One interesting initiative is the site Maps For US. It is not so much the gathering of maps that is of interest here but the extent of the diversity of submissions. In our world of geo map professionals, here is an uncensored public demonstration of what a map is for the rest of the world. I think it would make a great discussion and could be used to analyse the perception of what a map is by the general public. Classification anyone? Cheers, D."
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