# Wow, these people are our future? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 2, 2006, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-these-people-are-our-future/355106 "2006-05-02T15:07:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2006, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-these-people-are-our-future/355106/21 "2006-05-02T20:04:54Z")
Is there a particular reason they need to know? ---
**Author:** ![FlyingDragonFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c89c15/32.png) [@FlyingDragonFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingDragonFan)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2006, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-these-people-are-our-future/355106/22 "2006-05-02T20:13:38Z")
My certified genius-IQ ex-roommate thought New England was a state until she was 30, when I walked her through the geography of our country. It isn’t always stupidity, sometimes it’s just lack of knowledge. Not that I don’t think knowing as much as you can about the world is ever a bad thing, but as others have said, does it really matter to most Americans exactly _where_ Iraq is? I’d be sad for them if they didn’t know what was going on over there, but the actual physical location doesn’t seem too important in the big picture. ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_Wombats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_Wombats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_Wombats)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2006, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-these-people-are-our-future/355106/23 "2006-05-02T20:15:16Z")
Well, I’m tempted to suggest that unless you’re capable of identifying every country on a globe then perhaps you ought not to be critical of other’s lack of geographical knowledge? But I’ll refrain 😉 Obviously the Middle-East and it’s population are of rather strategic value to us, at the moment… However, During Vietnam, how many average kids could pick out where Vietnam was on a map? As it has been mentioned… Geography, while valuable, isn’t necessary knowledge for a lot of people… On the otherhand, at least half of that 2/3’s will end up voting at one point or another… ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_Wombats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_Wombats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_Wombats)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2006, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-these-people-are-our-future/355106/24 "2006-05-02T20:18:00Z")
Oh! To clarify, lest someone think I was being snippy… that was a general “you.” I certainly can’t name the geographical location of all 192 or so countries in the world. So, it wasn’t aimed at the OP. ---
**Author:** ![blinkingblinking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea5d25/32.png) [@blinkingblinking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blinkingblinking)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2006, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-these-people-are-our-future/355106/25 "2006-05-02T20:19:28Z")
> [@Snakescatlady](#): > > My husband was stationed in Hawaii when his grandmother died. In order to get compassionate airline fare to fly home, his mother had to go through the American Red Cross to notify the Army of the death and request emergency leave. She was on the telephone with the guy from the Red Cross for over an hour, because the guy couldn’t get it through his head that Hawaii is a State. He kept asking Mom for the APO number, and Mom kept telling him that Hawaii doesn’t have one, it’s a STATE! Excuse my ignorance , but what is APO? And why does Hawaii not have one? I tried to look this up for 15 minutes and could not find an answer that makes sense in the context of your story. APO stands for Army Post Office? If so why does Hawaii not have one. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2006, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-these-people-are-our-future/355106/26 "2006-05-02T20:28:25Z")
> [@control-z](#): > > I worked with a 30-something girl that thought Chicago was a state and that New Mexico was part of Mexico. But when I really think about it, for someone who has hardly ever left their county, does it really matter? She was good at her job so while her lack of geographic knowledge was amusing, it probably didn’t affect her day to day life much. Maybe she’s just focused on practicalities: > [@Sir Arthur Conan Doyle](#): > > I believe I have mentioned this before, but now is a good opportunity for me to mention it once again. Although Sherlock Holmes’s knowledge was so extraordinarily ample and minute that his observations often fairly astound me, his ignorance is as remarkable as his knowledge. Of contemporary literature, philosophy and politics he appears to know next to nothing. Upon my quoting Thomas Carlyle once, he inquired in the naivest way who he might be and what he had done. My surprise reached a climax, however, when I found incidentally that he was ignorant of the Copernican Theory and of the composition of the Solar System. That any civilized human being should not be aware that the earth travelled round the sun appeared to me to be such an extraordinary fact that I could hardly realize it. > > “You see,” he had explained, “I consider that a man’s brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skilful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to > have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones.” > > “But the Solar System!” I had protested. > > “What the deuce is it to me?” he had interrupted impatiently: “you say that we go round the sun. If we went round the moon it would not make a pennyworth of difference to me or to my work.” ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2006, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-these-people-are-our-future/355106/27 "2006-05-02T20:32:30Z")
> [@blinkingblinking](#): > > Excuse my ignorance , but what is APO? And why does Hawaii not have one? I tried to look this up for 15 minutes and could not find an answer that makes sense in the context of your story. APO stands for Army Post Office? If so why does Hawaii not have one. An APO is, as you said, an acronym for Army Post Office. Hawaii wouldn’t have an APO because it is part of the United States. An APO address is for people who are stationed overseas. Hawaii is not considered overseas. ---
**Author:** ![blinkingblinking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea5d25/32.png) [@blinkingblinking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blinkingblinking)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2006, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-these-people-are-our-future/355106/28 "2006-05-02T20:43:52Z")
> [@Airman Doors](#): > > An APO is, as you said, an acronym for Army Post Office. Hawaii wouldn’t have an APO because it is part of the United States. An APO address is for people who are stationed overseas. Hawaii is not considered overseas. Thanks. I presume you mean abroad rather than overseas. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2006, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-these-people-are-our-future/355106/29 "2006-05-02T21:19:48Z")
> [@blinkingblinking](#): > > Thanks. I presume you mean abroad rather than overseas. Actually, since military terminology developed in the period of the first 48 contiguous continental states, “overseas” is the term frequently employed in the military to mean abroad, the journeys to Hawaii and Alaska notwithstanding. ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2006, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-these-people-are-our-future/355106/30 "2006-05-02T21:35:46Z")
> [@blinkingblinking](#): > > Thanks. I presume you mean abroad rather than overseas. Although Hawaii is indeed only reached by going _over sea_, it’s not considered overseas relative to the “mainland” USA (see [this page’s](http://www.orderhelpline.com/shippingInfo.html) note in red under the **Shipping Charges** chart). One advantage of military postal designations is that if I write a letter from my home to an APO (or FPO, which stands for Fleet Post Office), I pay only the standard within-the-USA rate for an envelope of that particular weight even though the note is headed for Europe, Japan, or wherever. Similarly, if I’m sending a bunch of one-ounce letters through the United States Postal Service, I pay the same amount for the ones headed to Guam or American Samoa as I do for the ones destined for Indianapolis or New York. [Here’s a useful link.](http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery;jsessionid=1imw56psrgy9z?method=4&dsid=2222&dekey=Military+mail&curtab=2222_1&sbid=lc04b&linktext=Fleet%20Post%20Offices) ---
**Author:** ![Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tastes_of_chocolate/32/3232_2.png) [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tastes_of_Chocolate)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2006, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-these-people-are-our-future/355106/31 "2006-05-02T21:37:49Z")
I can’t repair my car, identify Angola on a map, or paint a room without getting paint on the floor. I CAN build a computer from components, create small stained glass objects and understand the workings of a distillation column. I’m also pretty sure that all of the above accomplishments (or lack there of) really mean very little, when taken alone. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2006, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-these-people-are-our-future/355106/32 "2006-05-02T22:09:40Z")
> [@](#): > > I can’t. . . identify Angola on a map That’s easy: it’s the first town in Indiana when coming from central Michigan (I-69) or from Ohio (Turnpike). ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2006, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-these-people-are-our-future/355106/33 "2006-05-02T22:15:49Z")
[Ambrose Bierce] War is God’s way of teaching Americans geography. [/Ambrose Bierce] It seems Bierce was, in the face of all evidence to the contrary, an optimist. ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2006, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-these-people-are-our-future/355106/34 "2006-05-02T22:24:54Z")
Doesn’t surprise me. I’ve met loads of people that not only are clueless about geography but also about history and current events. Some people just aren’t interested\*, others are just plain thick. The most recent I’ve got is: - How long is the drive from Dublin to London? - Eh, Ireland’s an island. You can get a drive on ferry though. - Oh, is it? OK then, how to drive from Dublin to Glasgow then? I kid you not. I’ve also know Irish people who wouldn’t have stand a chance finding Iraq on a map. I’d actually be surprised if they even got the right continent. \*They can learn all kinds of bollocks about sport and the like but they’re only interested in them and couldn’t give a fuck about the rest. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2006, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-these-people-are-our-future/355106/35 "2006-05-02T23:07:05Z")
Firstly, one of these polls seems to come out every year ors so, and after the third time, the news is never a surprise: large numbers of Americans do not know some fairly basic geography or physics. Big effin’ deal. OTOH, there have been some responses in this thread that clearly show the rampant, and frankly bizarre, anti-intellectualism that seems to exist in this country. While I believe I have said and done enough stupid things in my life to tell the difference between ignorance and stupidity, I don’t think willful ignorance is any less sad than stupidity, and I certainly don’t think that looking for additional knowledge is something to be frowned on if one doesn’t happen to have it as a work requirement. Hey, if you have a complete lack of interest in the physical world anywhere outside your immediate location, no problem, but you really shouldn’t mind if I happen to take more of an interest than you. Can’t find Iraq on a map? Well, no problem if you don’t happen to be going there. But if one can’t find Iraq on a map, chances are you know sweet feck all about the sort of people who might live there, or what issues lay at the bottom of our relations with those people. One’s votes might then elect persons to office who likewise know very little about the area or the people who live there. And thereby an unfortunate foreign policy may be forged. I’m just sayin’. Sorry, just ranting a bit. ---
**Author:** ![Syntropy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/65b543/32.png) [@Syntropy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Syntropy)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2006, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-these-people-are-our-future/355106/36 "2006-05-02T23:13:22Z")
Heh. **if6was9** just called me with almost these exact words. He stopped at McDonalds to grab a couple cheeseburgers and a soda on the way to work. The total came to $3.39. He gave the girl behind the counter $3.50. She pushed a button on the register, made a confused face, and called over to her coworker: “Liiiiiiisaaaa!! Can you come help me? I pushed the wrong button and I can’t count change backward.” It would be funny if it wasn’t so horrifying. ---
**Author:** ![Stainz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecd19e/32.png) [@Stainz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stainz)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2006, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-these-people-are-our-future/355106/37 "2006-05-02T23:23:26Z")
But to not know how to find New York? Or Ohio? Or Louisiana? Seriously, is this stuff not taught in school? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2006, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-these-people-are-our-future/355106/38 "2006-05-02T23:41:05Z")
As has already been pointed out, this is slow news day information. This type of thing has been rediscovered every slow news day for the past century or so. Somehow, the US manages to survive it. People are taught some geography in school, but if they don’t have to use the information, they (much like Sherlock Holmes in the quote above), don’t bother remembering it. Everyone on this board does this. So what? ---
**Author:** ![jake1964](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/50afbb/32.png) [@jake1964](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jake1964)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2006, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-these-people-are-our-future/355106/39 "2006-05-02T23:43:19Z")
I remember when I was in the first grade (1970), we learned to identify all of the continents, oceans, and countries using flash cards. I couldn’t do it now. First of all, a lot of countries have changed borders as well as names since then. Second, I also have no need to know where every country in the world is located. Personally, I find it hard to believe that someone wouldn’t pick up the location of Iraq through osmosis, given the frequency it’s shown and or discussed on the news. One other tidbit… As was stated earlier, it’s not just the young people. Some years back, one of my son’s elementary teachers (I can’t remember which grade) taught the whole class that President Johnson made the world’s longest long distance phone call when he talked to the astronauts on the moon. I had him tell his teacher that she was wrong. It was President Nixon. We didn’t get to the moon until July’69. Johnson left office in Jan. '69. (“Tell her Daddy knows, cause Daddy saw it happen, son.”) She never corrected her mistake. When the kids were given that as a test question, my son was the only one who answered it correctly. But she gave every kid that said Johnson credit for being correct too. How can we expect them to know anything? ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2006, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-these-people-are-our-future/355106/40 "2006-05-02T23:48:23Z")
When I was at school (a long time ago), we learnt by heart: - the alphabet - 12 times table (because of pounds, shillings and pence) - the Monarchs of England in order - some French nursery rhymes - the Counties of England I still use the alphabet, but we have decimalised the currency. So much for knowing that 11x12=132. And 6 shillings and 8 pence is a third of a pound. :rolleyes: I understand Victorian History much better from the works of George McDonald Fraser than from the rote learning of School. I still have no idea why we chanted ‘sur le pont d’avignon’ until we had memorised it. After a local government reorganisation, the Counties have changed. **What this shows is that very little information needs to be memorised. It is instead vital to know how to look things up, and how to check your cites.** I know Iraq is in the Middle East and I know you use an Atlas for its location. If someone stops me in the street and asks me to point to Iraq on a map, I know (as Smeghead pointed out) that they are having a slow news day. Without looking it up, when was Einstein born? When did he die? You don’t know?! Does that make you ‘stupid’ - or is expecting you to know such trivia by heart stupid? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-these-people-are-our-future/355106.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-these-people-are-our-future/355106.md?page=3)