So we’ve all seen the videos of Americans finding it hard to know where countries are, and I was just wondering why this wasn’t taught in schools. If it isn’t taught, what is actually being taught in those lessons?

Edit: Spelling

36 comments

  1. There is no standardized national education in the US. The specifics of what is taught in each grade varies from district to district. As an example, 4th grade for me got very detailed on the geography of Virginia, including discussing the 5 major rivers and the 5 major geologic regions. My friends in Maryland did not cover this or even cover a similar set of information for Maryland.

  2. Literally just gonna copy and paste my past comment on this subject.

    This stuff is always edited to Hell and back. Ask a 100 people and leave out everyone that actually gave the right answers. This isn’t Geography with Morgan Freeman, this isn’t meant to educate at all. Hell, for all we know, the people giving dumb answers could be paid to do so. A case of “Here’s $20, can you act as stupid as possible on the camera?”

  3. The videos you’ve seen are often cherry picked to show only the worst examples. Geography is taught and most of us who watch those videos could answer the questions easily, but, of course, the people who make those videos only include the dumb ones because it fits their agenda better lol.

  4. And why exactly are you taking those videos at face value? Why do you think they are showing the the level of geographic knowledge common among Americans?

  5. We learn geography in schools from a young age up through high school. Also check that your source of Americans not knowing geography might not be the best source with perhaps a bit of confirmation bias thrown in.

  6. Jesus Christ, again with this bullshit?

    At what point do they teach media literacy in your country?

    I would hope that someone as fixated on the US as you are would at least not be so fucking clue-

    **[OBSCENE RANT REMOVED SO I DON’T GET BANNED] **

    -In conclusion, intervening in WW2 was a mistake.

  7. In my case we learned states in 4th grade and world geography in 5th and 8th. At one point I knew every country in Europe, South America, and Asia and their capitals, but those days are long gone. I haven’t needed most of that knowledge since I was about 13.

    Not everyone remembers what they learned in school. I personally know someone who was shocked in her 30s to find New Mexico was a part of the US and not Mexico. We were in elementary school together when we learned the states and she was a pretty good student who definitely knew that New Mexico was a state when she was a pre-teen.

  8. So in the USA, we don’t tell children that there are countries other than America until they reach 12th grade. All maps in grade school show just the USA.

    Once children reach 12th grade, they are invited to a secret meeting where they are told that other countries exist. But those students who miss this important meeting never learn that there are countries outside the USA.

    While most students are introduced to the concept of other countries beginning in 12th grade, we don’t tend to focus on these other countries because they are not important.

  9. Dude, you can’t imply you’re so worldly or knowledgeable then talk about everything you know about Americans, you saw on some video.

    It makes you look more ignorant than the people you’re taking a stab at

  10. We literally had to learn where every country in the world is, broken up by continent, and label maps as tests. This was in 7th or 8th grade.

  11. > So even all seen the videos of Americans finding it hard to know where countries are, and I was just wondering why this wasn’t taught in schools.

    It is taught in schools, these videos are heavily edited and do not reflect reality. These videos are meant to entertain, not inform. There’s nothing entertaining about a guy with a reasonable understanding of geography.

    Edit: Look at OP’s comment history, don’t engage

  12. > No wonder America is a shitshow. Everything they do has to either be on the left or right. Third world country at this point

    Oof, buddy. This may not be the sub for you.

  13. I couldn’t tell you at each grade level specifically. But usually in earlier years you focus specifically on your state in depth. Then you move on to the 50 states and their capitals. There’s more focus on what makes up that state than where exactly it is on the map- what is the climate like, what industries are there, when did it become a state, what is their flag, what animals live there, etc. Then in higher levels we get into the rest of the world learning one continent at a time. But again, map memorization isn’t the focus. It’s about climate, animals, the people, what religions to they practice, what type of government do they have, etc. I know where most countries are on a map. Not all, especially not the small ones. And they’ve changed over time- specifically around Russia. But we’re all the way on the other side of the globe. There’s not really a need to know where every single country is. Just the bigger ones. And many people do know where they all are.

    The USA is huge with several regions and 50 states and it takes many years just learning about our own state geography and history, our region’s geography, the rest of the country’s geography and history. It’s not until like year 7 (age 12 I guess) when there’s a focus on the rest of the world in depth to the point where we are looking at maps.

    Also- those videos are fake. They’re paid to act dumb and give wrong answers or they do it to show off.

  14. Bruh. Those videos aren’t any more real than the PUA street level videos are. Unless you’re someone who also takes the PUA videos at face value, in which case I can’t help you…

  15. We don’t have geography typically.

    We don’t focus on the location of countries on the map as much as histories of those countries and how their histories contributed to society now.

    The people you see on TV shows are way stupider than the average American, but I do think we have deficits in that subject.

    At 7th grade my kid could tell you about the difference between taoism vs daoism, but probably couldn’t positively locate China on a map.

  16. Besides at least some of those videos being cherry picked, here are some possibilities.

    I can’t remember specifically what was taught in ever grade but, from what I remember in Georgia, geography was a class taught one year of middle school and one year of high school. The location of different countries was definitely taught. The education system can vary state-to-state and county-to-county but I imagine almost ever one gets taught this.

    What often happens is people forget the stuff after the class is over because the information isn’t ever used or the students weren’t studying (at least this is what it was like at my school). Also, America only bordering two countries doesn’t help either. It’s not like in Europe where you can drive for two hours in a direction and be in a different country. The physical distance between us and other countries are huge so knowledge of where other countries are located (while good to know) doesn’t have relevance for daily life.

  18. Say it with me, /u/MrDaveMcC.

    “TV is fictional.”

    When you see something on TV that doesn’t look quite right, refer back to “TV is fictional.”

    If you’re in doubt, remember the phrase. “TV is fictional.”

  19. I’ve also seen videos where Europeans can’t identify Asian, African, South American or Central American countries.

    So?? Are y’all not taught any world geography outside of Europe?

  20. They do one of two things for those videos.

    One ask dozens or hundreds of people and only keep the 2 idiots because nobody is going to watch people get the answers right. You think if I asked 100 people from you country a question, any question, I might find a couple idiots who get it hilariously wrong?

    Or two [Outright lie and edit the videos to make Americans look bad.](https://www.reddit.com/r/TikTokCringe/comments/y4iig7/why_you_should_never_trust_those_random_person_on/) To fool gullible people like yourself who want and expect Americans to do badly. You have confirmation bias that Americans are dumb and people wanting clicks prey on that bias and provide what you expect to see.

    Your post history shows your very clear anti American bias. Maybe don’t let us live in your head rent free.

  22. I got perfect scores on every geography test I took in middle school (the last time I had formal geography classes), except for the last test I ever took, and that was only because I failed to notice that I missed labelling one thing, not because I didn’t know the answer. I have managed to name every country more than once when playing those “countries of the world” quizzes and I read maps for fun, so I can locate about 90 percent of the world’s countries on a map (and even for those I’m not sure of I usually know which part of the world that country is in).

  23. Why do you people have no grasp of TV and internet videos being for entertainment, not documentary purposes?

    Edit: you gonna respond to any of these replies, OP?

  25. Without looking, tell me approx where Denver is in the US? What state is it in? Or is it an actual state? Next, tell me what is geographically significant about Denver?

    Bet you can’t do it, yet you came here from some other sub where you got offended because someone you assume is American didn’t know something that to you is well known so you think everyone should know it.

    What are the Badlands in the US?

    What states encompass the Ohio Valley?

    Where are the Appalachians?

    How many Great Lakes are there? Where are they located? Give me a mnemonic for remembering their names.

    What are the 4 Corners?

    Every American on this sub can answer these questions.

  27. Knowledge of European geography is almost completely useless to 99% of Americans. Hell, when I lived on the west coast I was hazy with my east coast geography because knowing which state was which east of the Mississippi wasn’t usefull is any way. I can almost 100% guarantee that you don’t know as much as you think you do about geography.

  28. TV Isn’t real. My gosh, man. Seriously. They do things like point at Aus and ask “What is the largest country in land area”. Seriously, its a scam for laughs for TV. TV is fake, especially “reality tv” and interview shows and news.

  29. I’ve written this about probably a dozen times in this sub so far this year, so here goes number 13. I have a friend who is an engineer with a masters degree and has lived all over the world. He got interviewed for a late night show in one of those man on the street things. When it was finished he asked the guy when this would air so he could watch it, and the guy said to him don’t worry about it we won’t use your interview because you got them all right. Please take what you see in media with a grain of salt.

  30. We use that time for target practice instead brother yee-haw, can’t waste any time over here in ~~the Purge~~ America baby, witness me U S A U S A U S A

  32. There’s a deep and hilarious irony about making broad assumptions off YouTube videos and then assuming *Americans* are the ignorant ones..

  34. Ok we all know it’s not every single American. However yeah there’s an education problem in certain areas of the country. This is why you can find enough of those “dumb” people off the street for content. It’s not hard to find smart people or dumb people. There are plenty I’ve met in person who didn’t know jack shit about geography. My school was extremely underfunded. Our computers were decades old and it took 3-4 minutes to load 1 page on a website. This was in 2015. There was a boy in my class who genuinely thought Egypt was below Mexico. He was shocked to find out it wasn’t during Spanish class. He was 16. My brother didn’t know women could grow armpit hair until he was 18. Could tell you a million examples. All the teens were unruly and there wasn’t any discipline. They were climbing on desks, talking over the teacher, screaming, you couldn’t hear shit to even learn shit. Before I spent 1 year in a public high school, I was “unschooled” which means no education at all. I had to teach myself how to write properly and do basic math only as an adult using websites like khan academy. This is legal in my state. Where it is illegal, it can easily go unnoticed. Go look up how many posts are under the hashtag “unschooling” on Instagram. Go look. It’s booming in popularity to raise kids this way. Well, to NOT raise them. There IS AN EDUCATION CRISIS right under our noses. Maybe more like an education divide. Yes there are plenty of intelligent Americans, but there are many who have been left in the dirt and their potential robbed. That’s the problem with all the posts like this, everyone starts arguing that Americans are fully uneducated or fully educated. It’s drastically both, in my life experience.

  36. A few things you need to know about those videos:

    -They are intended to be funny

    -They are produced for an American audience.

    -The only way an American audience would find that funny is if they knew the right answers and were laughing at how hilariously wrong the person was.

    By basing your opinion of a country’s education system on a few comedic videos, you’re being even more ignorant than you assume us to be.

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