geography educators: why state capitals?

[Hampshire]

Since my grade school days I always wondered what the importance of learning the state capitals was.
(In case WW3 starts and all communications are lost and I have some important info for the governor of Wisconsin i'll take it to Madison instead of mistakingly taking it to Milwaukee?)

I had a geogrpahy teacher that had us memorize each states largest city instead, NY,NY, Miami,FL, L.A.,CA, Chicago,IL.
I found this to be more useful in my adult life.

[HeyHomie]

What is the purpose of teaching anything in elementary school beyond the Three R's?

I say this not to be a smartass or anything, but most of those facts one learns in elementary school have little bearing on our everyday lives. I, for one, learned the course of the Illinois river in excruciating detail in 4th grade. The subject has yet to come up in my life.

A knowledge of geography (and this includes state capitals) just makes one a more well-educated person.

[Zsofia]

Well, learning national capitols makes a lot of sense. Unlike a lot of people, it seems, I was forced to take geography in high school, where we had to memorize all sorts of maps - river names, country names, some major cities, all that. Not just what but where they were. And boy was it a pain in my ass, but I could probably point to Azerbaijan to within two countries or so, which is a whole lot better than most of the planet probably can. And I am definately sure I know which one Uzbekistan is. Which is important, with many Americans so willfully ignorant of international affairs.

State capitals, I don't really see the point of. But then, I still know all the counties of South Carolina, set to the tune of Yankee Doodle. That space could definately be used for something more useful.