Geography Lesson

[nelsapbm]

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080601/COLUMNISTS03/806010314/1053

Have you had any similar situations? I was on a flight coming into Logan and the girl next to me (early 20s) said, "oh, Boston is on the ocean?". Guess she didnt pay too much attention during American History OR Geography class.

 

[deadheadskier]

I used to work on the waterfront in Burlington, VT. It was a quite frequent occurrence that out of towners would ask me if that was the Atlantic ocean. They thought for certain it had to be because of all the seagulls flying around :roll:

 

[wa-loaf]

I had a friend in college who on his first trip to Mt Desert Island, looked at all the brown and orange seaweed and said "gross, look at all the toxic waste!".

I remember another story about a woman asking what had happened to the ocean at low tide.

 

[ctenidae]

In my first collegiate iteration, I sat in on a high school biology class. They were discussing climates, and the teacher had a climate map of the world up on the overhead. One of the students asked where North Carolina was on the map, and the teacher siad, "It's ahrd to point exactly, but it's right in here," and proceeded to point at India. I snorted out loud, then told her that was Indai, and pointed out NC pretty precisely.

I seriously re-thought my desire to go into secondary education at that point. And then I wept for the future.

 

[from_the_NEK]

It is amazing how often I run into people (usually outside the Northeast) who have a very limited Mental Map.
I went to college in Iowa, where it was very surprising how many people didn't really know where Vermont was. Many thought it was on the coast or "on the Atlantic Ocean", I heard "next to Boston", as well as "that where Ben and Jerry’s is from, is that a state?" :roll:. I majored in geography there and one for one of my classes, the professor handed out a map of the U.S. with the outlines of all the states. The task was to label each of the states. I was the only one to get them all right (keep in mind this was a GEOGRAPHY class). There were some that got a lot wrong. Some only messed up the New England states (e.g. getting VT and NH backward). But it was very eye opening. I think living in the compact New England states, many of us are used to having to learn more about where we are so that we can more effectively interact with adjacent states like New York (and Florida :wink.
I was also lucky growing up in that my father's side of the family was in Iowa. We would drive there every 3 years or so. Even though it was a loooonnnnggg ride for three kids in a car with vinyl seats :-o I learned a great deal about the country and some of southern Canada when we took that route. In today’s world, many parents distract their kids with on board DVD players and video games when going on road trips. IMHO going on a trip should be a learning experience for kids that improves their mental map.
These days I fly around the country quite a bit for work. I like to track my progress by looking out the window and picking up major landmarks like lakes, rivers, mtn ranges, and cities to track the progress of my flight. From my flying about, I have a story about a likely well educated high school senior out of a private school in NYC. On a flight to Chicago from NYC, I was sitting next to this kid that was going on a college visit to a school in Chicago. He was able to carry on a pretty intelligent conversation until he stated that he was worried about going to school in Chicago. He was worried that there wouldn't be enough to do there and that the city would be too small for him. I asked him if he had researched Chicago at all before applying to a school there. He said not really. And I proceeded to tell him that Chicago is the 3rd largest city in the county behind NYC and LA and event though NYC is the coolest, most happening city in the country and possibly the world, Chicago was no slouch. There is plenty of action to keep someone entertained there. I could see that this made him feel a bit better. Then when coming into land we could wee Chicago sprawling out from the window of the plane, you could see the downtown area which I told him contains the tallest skyscraper in the U.S. (yes it is taller than the Empire State Building and the former WTC). He said, "Well maybe this will be big enough".
I like the idea from the Free Press article about 30 educational spots. Who's going to pay for it?

 

[ski_resort_observer]

Unfortunately all the people you guys are talking about are allowed to vote....:wink:

 

[wa-loaf]

I got one more. When I first got to basic training at Ft Dix (in 1987) this southern dude asked me where I was from. So I told him Maine and he then asked me what state that was in. :roll:

 

[from_the_NEK]

I got one more. When I first got to basic training at Ft Dix (in 1987) this southern dude asked me where I was from. So I told him Maine and he then asked me what state that was in. :roll:

That was the other question I got when I was in Iowa. MANY people were completely clueless about areas outside the upper mid-west.

 

[dmc]

i was in Jacksonville Fla yesterday and totally thought i was on the gulf of Mexico...
Figured it out when I took a quick drive to the beach and figured it was the Atlantic...

funny...

 

[dmc]

Why was there a sign or something else .. :wink:

haha... theres a big difference between the Atlantic and the gulf.. I mainly figured it out when the sun came out and i could tell east and west...

 

[Dr Skimeister]

Unfortunately all the people you guys are talking about are allowed to vote....:wink:

And reproduce.....

 

[ComeBackMudPuddles]

From my flying about, I have a story about a likely well educated high school senior out of a private school in NYC. On a flight to Chicago from NYC, I was sitting next to this kid that was going on a college visit to a school in Chicago. He was able to carry on a pretty intelligent conversation until he stated that he was worried about going to school in Chicago. He was worried that there wouldn't be enough to do there and that the city would be too small for him. I asked him if he had researched Chicago at all before applying to a school there. He said not really. And I proceeded to tell him that Chicago is the 3rd largest city in the county behind NYC and LA and event though NYC is the coolest, most happening city in the country and possibly the world, Chicago was no slouch. There is plenty of action to keep someone entertained there. I could see that this made him feel a bit better. Then when coming into land we could wee Chicago sprawling out from the window of the plane, you could see the downtown area which I told him contains the tallest skyscraper in the U.S. (yes it is taller than the Empire State Building and the former WTC). He said, "Well maybe this will be big enough".
I like the idea from the Free Press article about 30 educational spots. Who's going to pay for it?

Could just be that his "mental map" is different than yours, and that his isn't necessarily less valid than yours....

Maybe the kid was a born-and-raised New Yorker. From having met a few, they sometimes do think that anything outside of NYC (even Chicago) is sticksville/"America" (they tend to think New York isn't really "American", in the classic unsophisticated sense).

 

[from_the_NEK]

Could just be that his "mental map" is different than yours, and that his isn't necessarily less valid than yours....).

True, it probably served his personal purposes well up until actually venturing outside of his envelope. At which point the limited mental map needs to grow and I believe it did in this case.
There are ways of expanding the map without having to physically travel somewhere (i.e. looking at a map). However, everyone retains information gleaned from a map differently. The ability to associate the symbolized features on a drawn map to those features that actually exist on the ground is something a lot of people have difficulty with.

Maybe the kid was a born-and-raised New Yorker. From having met a few, they sometimes do think that anything outside of NYC (even Chicago) is sticksville/"America" (they tend to think New York isn't really "American", in the classic unsophisticated sense).

Kinda the point I was tring to make. It doesn't matter if someone is from a rural or very urban location. There are many people who don't look outside their bubble of spatial awareness either from poor education, lack of necessity, fear of the unknown, or general "Where I live is better than everywhere else and therefore I shouldn't have to know anything about anywhere else". For being such a "Global City" it is surprising how many people in NYC have this incredibly narrow minded spatial understanding and tend to look down on other "hick Americans". I wonder how many poeple in NYC could actually point out Boston on a map?

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

I'm uber good at Geography..I could write all the states on a blank map when I was 4 or 5. It boggles my mind how bad most people are at Geography. This one girl I went on a date with recently said she lived outside of a particular city and I asked which side of the city..and she didn't know if it was North, South, East or West and she's 22..doh

 

[drjeff]

I'm uber good at Geography..I could write all the states on a blank map when I was 4 or 5. It boggles my mind how bad most people are at Geography. This one girl I went on a date with recently said she lived outside of a particular city and I asked which side of the city..and she didn't know if it was North, South, East or West and she's 22..doh

I hear you GSS about the geography talent, I'm the same way. My wife on the other hand practically needs a GPS to get from our garage to the end of the driveway I'll be curious to see whose sense of direction our kids get :idea:

 

[ckofer]

I used to work on the waterfront in Burlington, VT. It was a quite frequent occurrence that out of towners would ask me if that was the Atlantic ocean. They thought for certain it had to be because of all the seagulls flying around :roll:

You should have pointed out the westerly sunset and told them its the Pacific.

 

[ckofer]

Frankly, a lot of New Englanders have no idea which midwestern or western state is which. To make it worse they don't really care.

It is amazing how often I run into people (usually outside the Northeast) who have a very limited Mental Map.
I went to college in Iowa, where it was very surprising how many people didn't really know where Vermont was. Many thought it was on the coast or "on the Atlantic Ocean", I heard "next to Boston", as well as "that where Ben and Jerry’s is from, is that a state?" :roll:. I majored in geography there and one for one of my classes, the professor handed out a map of the U.S. with the outlines of all the states. The task was to label each of the states. I was the only one to get them all right (keep in mind this was a GEOGRAPHY class). There were some that got a lot wrong. Some only messed up the New England states (e.g. getting VT and NH backward). But it was very eye opening. I think living in the compact New England states, many of us are used to having to learn more about where we are so that we can more effectively interact with adjacent states like New York (and Florida :wink.
I was also lucky growing up in that my father's side of the family was in Iowa. We would drive there every 3 years or so. Even though it was a loooonnnnggg ride for three kids in a car with vinyl seats :-o I learned a great deal about the country and some of southern Canada when we took that route. In today’s world, many parents distract their kids with on board DVD players and video games when going on road trips. IMHO going on a trip should be a learning experience for kids that improves their mental map.
These days I fly around the country quite a bit for work. I like to track my progress by looking out the window and picking up major landmarks like lakes, rivers, mtn ranges, and cities to track the progress of my flight. From my flying about, I have a story about a likely well educated high school senior out of a private school in NYC. On a flight to Chicago from NYC, I was sitting next to this kid that was going on a college visit to a school in Chicago. He was able to carry on a pretty intelligent conversation until he stated that he was worried about going to school in Chicago. He was worried that there wouldn't be enough to do there and that the city would be too small for him. I asked him if he had researched Chicago at all before applying to a school there. He said not really. And I proceeded to tell him that Chicago is the 3rd largest city in the county behind NYC and LA and event though NYC is the coolest, most happening city in the country and possibly the world, Chicago was no slouch. There is plenty of action to keep someone entertained there. I could see that this made him feel a bit better. Then when coming into land we could wee Chicago sprawling out from the window of the plane, you could see the downtown area which I told him contains the tallest skyscraper in the U.S. (yes it is taller than the Empire State Building and the former WTC). He said, "Well maybe this will be big enough".
I like the idea from the Free Press article about 30 educational spots. Who's going to pay for it?

 

[bvibert]

Frankly, a lot of New Englanders have no idea which midwestern or western state is which. To make it worse they don't really care.

I freely admit to not knowing the exact location of many states. Some I've simply never had any practical reason to know. It doesn't really make any difference to me if I can't pick out Arkansas on a map. If I ever had the need to go there for any reason I'd look on a map, then I'd know.

 

[Warp Daddy]

Knowing names/ locations of US States is easy -- try asking folks about names and locations of countries in AFRICA

 

[ctenidae]

I freely admit to not knowing the exact location of many states. Some I've simply never had any practical reason to know. It doesn't really make any difference to me if I can't pick out Arkansas on a map. If I ever had the need to go there for any reason I'd look on a map, then I'd know.

Exact location and general area are two different things. If you were going to be in Arkansas, wouldn't you expect to have a pretty good idea of where you were? I think the thing sadder than people who don't know where things are is people who don't know where they are.

Knowing names/ locations of US States is easy -- try asking folks about names and locations of countries in AFRICA

The maparium at the Mary Baker Eddy Museum here in Boston is pretty amazing- explains a lot about why things are the way they are now, based on how things were in the 30's when it was built.