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Originally Posted by TeenGodFather
I couldn't name all the capitals of africa, or place all of the countries on the map.
It all depends what your education system considers important, and after that what YOU find intresting. For example, I could name most asian and south-american capitals and place the countries on the map because I've pondered about travelling there.. africa, no thanks. = No intrest, no knowledge.
What this boils down to, atleast according to my observations of this board, americans have no plans to visit other countries other than mexico or canada. Why should they care what lies where.
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Bingo. The average American doesn't have anything practical to gain from learning world geography. Europeans are much more well-educated in this regard than are Americans, simply because they are in close proximity to neighboring countries.
America is an incredibly diverse place, and the average person can travel it a whole lifetime and still not see everything there is to be seen. Unless an American's business/job is globally oriented, or he plans to travel the world, there isn't much to be gained by learning world geography. Every time I see one of these surveys, the only thing it tells me that the average American has little use for or desire to learn trivia.