Geographic Literacy and Illiteracy

A while back I came across the following article, "Study: Geography Greek to young Americans", and found it both interesting and disturbing considering the prominent role the U.S. plays around the world:
CNN - Study: Geography Greek to Young Americans

Here is an article about the same story directly from National Geographic:
National Geographic - Young Americans Geographically Illiterate, Survey Suggests

The decisions and actions made and taken by the United States play a profound role and have a great impact in many local places and lives around the world. I think it might be important for U.S. citizens to at least be cognizant of who, what, and where is/are affected by the actions of our country. Here are the results of the actual survey/report described in the above articles:
2006 National Geographic-Roper Survey of Geographic Literacy

and if you would like to test your own knowledge through a twenty-question sample of the survey questions, then go here:
2006 National Geographic-Roper Survey of Geographic Literacy, Sample Questions

And here is an excerpt from WorldHum.com
"Where's Iraq?
Although we Americans are famously lacking in world geography knowledge, there has always been one surefire way we could learn a country’s place on the map: by attacking it, or at least intervening in its affairs. When that happens, our newspapers feature little regional maps with the country colored black, and our TV news shows offer up little glowing maps in the right-hand corner of our television screens. This is how we learned that Vietnam is a nation in Southeast Asia, and that Nicaragua is a small country in Central America. But now, sadly, even this extreme educational method is failing. Reports CNN: “After more than three years of combat and nearly 2,400 U.S. military deaths in Iraq, nearly two-thirds of Americans aged 18 to 24 still cannot find Iraq on a map, a study released Tuesday showed." The National Geographic-Roper Public Affairs 2006 Geographic Literacy Study states that it coincides with the launch of the National Geographic-led campaign called ‘My Wonderful World.’
MyWonderfulWorld.org
A statement on the program said it was designed to ‘inspire parents and educators to give their kids the power of global knowledge.’”

Well, here is a link to conclude this post, if you're interested, to an op-ed I wrote about the disturbing lack of geographic literacy and knowledge among young people in the United States:

May 04, 2006 - Geographic Knowledge in America is Severely Lacking

Hopefully all this will light a fire under many more people to take it upon themselves to become more geographically literate and geographically aware of the world in which they live.

To continue the discussion of the importance and necessity of a knowledge and understanding of geography, here is a poignant article by one eminent geographer, Harm de Blij, in which he comments on the current nature of geography and the importance of geography in this ever increasing era of global interconnections and economic, political, and cultural globalization:
Uncle Sam Wants You...to study geography

Finally, if you want another take on the foundational importance of the field of geography in all walks of life, you may find the following essay, by James Michener (a prominent writer), quite interesting as it describes his take on the field and how geography is quite literally the foundation for many other fields of study:
Geography - The Queenly Science