11% of Americans can't find the USA on a map

[orange]

Maybe this is part of the reason...

In my college Geog120 class (basic political/economic geography survey course) my TA is teaching about the Middle East...

TA: "Yemen...Oman...and the UAE"
Student1: "What's the UAE"
TA: "The UAE stands for United Arab Emirates. Basically it's a bunch of local kings, or Emirs, that own land and jointly rule the nation."
(so far so good...)
Student2: "Kinda like Canada"
Me: :snicker snicker snicker:
TA: "Yes, a lot like Canada" [/dead serious]
Me:

[Pekka]

These questions only measure how much you follow the news..

[orange]

Originally posted by rah
Pure ignorance. (not surprising). 1,000 people is a little shy of what you need but if selected properly, will get you within +- 5% with a high degree of confidence.

Which is why I'm always interested in seeing the sampling plan.

IIRC - this is how they get TV ratings. I think it's only 128 people though...or maybe 1280? Can't remember...

[TheBirdMan]

Originally posted by Winston


Bah! That totals much more than 100%, so this survey is obviously a scam.

I have not read the whole thread - but you Winston...... How could you post this.

Edit 5 minutes later.

Now I have. And I think I will (wish to) take Winstons post as a provocation.

OMG (which I do not believe in). I hope this obvious lack of simple knowledge among people, living in what I supposed to be highly educated and civilized nations is nothing but a fake.

[Dauphin]

20/20.

Shame my eyesight test ain't as good.

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by orange


IIRC - this is how they get TV ratings. I think it's only 128 people though...or maybe 1280? Can't remember...

Nationwide? Or local stations?

In the UK about 5,000 households which is around 12,000 people are included in the sample for TV ratings.

[Arrian]

Originally posted by orange
Maybe this is part of the reason...

In my college Geog120 class (basic political/economic geography survey course) my TA is teaching about the Middle East...

TA: "Yemen...Oman...and the UAE"
Student1: "What's the UAE"
TA: "The UAE stands for United Arab Emirates. Basically it's a bunch of local kings, or Emirs, that own land and jointly rule the nation."
(so far so good...)
Student2: "Kinda like Canada"
Me: :snicker snicker snicker:
TA: "Yes, a lot like Canada" [/dead serious]
Me:

You gotta be ****ing kidding me. Are you SURE that you didn't experience a temporary malfunction of your sarcasm detector?

-Arrian

[GePap]

Why must peole be so hung up that when a survey like this comes out, every jingo jumps on it? Every survey like this they have done for years shows the utter lack of gerographic knowledge in the US. So get over it: we are a self-selected bunch of people far more likely to know any of these questions that the average citizen of the same age group. Tkae this survey to a non-civ chatroom and see the results thre, if you trully discount it. And then be proved wrong.

The good thing is that it shows that Americans are not more stupid that anyone, simply living with an education system that places no emphasis on geography.

[MarkG]

20 out of 20.

@ rah

[Shi Huangdi]

20 out of 20, and I took the quiz before reading any posts being the original post of the thread starter.

As for what party the 11% who can't find our country on a map belong to, I very much doubt they vote at all for anyone.......

[Dom Pedro II]

Now THAT I can agree with.

[Datajack Franit]

19 out of 20.. damn muslims, I expected you to be much more that that!

btw, wonder how many americans thought US population was above 1 billion

[SpencerH]

20/20

But I've never attended any american schools

[Dis]

More importantly why do most americans need to know useless geography?

Their only job is to work in a some ****hole factory or in a fast food restaurant. .

[Dauphin]

What are they gonna do if they can't figure out the directions to the factory for the interview due to poor geographical skills?