by Elmo Adams

Created on: November 07, 2008

Sarah Palin is not stupid but Geography is hard.

Though an Obama supporter, in an honest show of bipartisanship, I am going to come to Sarah Palin's defense and state that I believe that it is possible, even quite likely that Palin knows and has known for a long time that Africa is a continent.

Having said that I must add that geography is HARD. We Americans are lousy at it because we don't teach it and those of us who do sometimes don't know much about it either. Another thing that is hard about geography is that the "facts" change. Anyone remember the "Belgian Congo?" And if you want to make a politician at a debate look stupid, just ask the name of a newly elected leader of anywhere.

Circa 1980, I taught seniors, 12th graders, a semester course that all Florida students had to pass before they could graduate. It was called AvC which stood for Americanism versus Communism. Since it was required of all, I got the cream of the crop and those more like unto non fat milk. On the first day of class I liked to do something fun that would also indicate their social studies skills to this point so I passed out colored pencils and blank U. S. maps. I asked the students to fill in as many states as they could.

Everyone got hard at it. Nobody ever tires of coloring. Teachers of older students should remember this.

To say the results were mixed would be a masterpiece of understatement. Some knew every state and took pains to draw delicate lines to the tiny ones in New England. They went on to include capitals, rivers, and lakes.

Others, about half, did an admirable job of coloring, but identified three to four states. Those most identified were Florida, California, Georgia, and Texas. Also, students not born in Florida could almost always pick out their state of birth.

I am sure we are doing much better now (not really). What I really think is that we need more geography education.

The national spelling competition is getting its well deserved publicity. There is also a National Geography Bee aimed at students grade 4 - 8. Lets get behind it and see if it too can make it to ESPN. I have included at few 4 - 8 sample questions. Answers at end of article.

1. Which country has the world's largest Muslim population?

2. The North Atlantic current brings warm waters from the tropics to the west coast of which continent?

3. What is the term for a part of an ocean or sea that cuts far into the bordering landmass and may contain one or more bays?

4. The port of Rotterdam is built on the delta of which major European river?

5. Which Canadian province produces more than half of the country's manufactured goods?

To visit the ruins of Persepolis, an ancient ceremonial capital of Persia, you would have to travel to what present-day country?

Indonesia, Europe, gulf, Rhine, Ontario, Iran

One last fun U. S. Geography question. How many U. S. state capitals are named for former presidents?

And, as you would imagine www.nationalgeographic.com has all kinds of cool stuff.

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