The concept of “Where’s Waldo?” should be applied to the American educational system. This popular book/game is one that many children in the United States grow up playing. Trying to identify where the striped man is on the chaotic page has entertained kids and adults for many an hour. This emphasis that we put on finding Waldo is, tragically, a substantial amount more than what we put on teaching geography.
In 2002, a survey was conducted on 18-24 year old students from the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Sweden and Great Britain. The United States came in second to last. Though few studies have been done on America’s lack of geographical knowledge (which in itself is problematic), an article from National Geographic News sums up the attitude many Americans have towards education in this field, “Young adults in the United States fail to understand the world and their place in it, according to a survey-based report on geographic literacy released today.” The article goes on to site a survey that findings were not only astonishing but highly disappointing.
According to the research, 63 percent of Americans, age 18 to 24, could not find Iraq on a map, despite the prevalence of the country’s media presence since 2003. What’s even more disturbing is that seventy percent of Americans in the same age demographic could not find Israel on a map nor could ninety percent find Afghanistan.
Another daunting fact is that the United States is majorly lacking in geography teachers across the board. Take Ohio, for example. In a state with 1,729,916 students enrolled in its public schools and only 254 to 460 geography teachers, the lack of value placed on the study of the world’s nations is evident. At the high end of these numbers, there is an average of one geography teacher per every 3,760 students. At the low end, only one teacher per every 6,810 students.
This absence of geography in America’s schools not only translates into students not being able to identify the countries of the world, but also a lack of interest and understanding of the people who reside in them. National Geographic finds this "even more worrisome is the finding that few U.S. young adults seem to care. Fewer than three in ten think it's absolutely necessary to know where countries in the news are located. Only 14 percent believe speaking another language fluently is a necessary skill."
The take away? How are we, as the next generation of leaders and thinkers of America, supposed to change the world when we cannot identify most of it on a map? This disregard for geography can translate into a discount of culture as well. This indifference is scary because if we are to tackle the world’s issues, we need to have respect for the people in it and the nations they call home. There is no easy solution to this issue, but none the less, it needs to be addressed. We as a society need to become more aware of our gap in knowledge and do something to remedy the situation.The first step? Giving children just as much access to atlases as we do. That way, we may be able to find countries on a map just as easily as we can identify the man with the striped shirt.
