“MY MOM SAYS I SHOULD GO TO SCHOOL IN MISSISSIPPI. WHERE IS MISSISSIPPI?”
It’s right here! Geez. What’s going on that a high school senior doesn’t know where the U.S. states are located?
So I decided to investigate, and found this on www.usnews.com:
High School Seniors’ Geography Scores Don’t Improve
High school seniors’ scores on a national geography assessment showed no improvement between 2001 and 2010, and scores have declined from 1994 levels, according to a report released Tuesday by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)…
“Geography is taught as part of social studies in grades K-4,”…Geography typically appears in grades 7 or 8 as a stand-alone course with a ‘world cultures’ label. In high school, geography is rarely taught as a stand-alone course.”
I guess she was absent a lot in elementary and middle school.
And then I found this at the Foreign Policy Research Institute site… no wonder she doesn’t know where Mississippi is!
“We all must learn geography in order to learn history. That is why it is so disheartening that many youth emerge from American schools virtually illiterate in geography. The 2002 “national report card” on geography found that 16 percent of eighth graders could not locate the Mississippi River on a map, and only one-quarter of high school seniors were able to interpret maps, describe regional features and socioeconomic and political factors.”
Good luck, senior, if you go to school in Mississippi. Hope you find it!
Note to readers: the main reason for this post is that I enjoy spelling Mississippi!
OVERHEARD AT................ 