Every American I've come across doesn't know the capital of Turkey. Why is that?
2007-01-02 19:02:18 · 11 answers · asked by dabomb 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Geography
Oddly enough, there have been studies which suggest that it might be because of the maps we use to teach children geography.
Blast Mercator, in my opinion. Sure, you can use it for finding single compass bearings, but what of it?
Most US schools use the Mercator Projection, centered on the US; and why not? It shows North America as a bit larger than Africa, and so it must be more important, right?
As children, this gets lodged in our brains (guilty of being an American pig). The US is the largest thing on the map, save Russia, and its mostly ice, right? Or in any case we're not really speaking to them.
Biggest on the map = Most important in world.
There has been a push to change the maps we use in elementary schools, but I don't know how successful it will be.
2007-01-02 19:21:49 · answer #1 · answered by BotanyDave 5 · 1⤊ 2⤋
Well, there are a few reasons: a) High School(specifically) is now only about getting you into college. Not making you a productive member of society. What ends up happening is that they spend all of the time trying to get all the students to the same college level, even when that is not realistic. In earlier decades, there were vocational type programs for those that weren't academically inclined. Mind you this is different from the actual functionally retarded people. The ones I am talking about were the C students. These programs taught them trades such as electrical, auto repair, carpentry, etc. that they could use as a bass for furthering a career. Mostly those are gone now. b) No accountability for teachers. There is practically no accountability for academic performance for teachers. In any other profession, if those under you management consistently failed to reach requirements, your job and their job would be on the line. Not so with teachers. No Child Left Behind did attempt to introduce some, but diluted it by applying the penalties to the whole school. It has failed partially due to to this(read that as IT HAS FAILED partially due to this. I'm not a fan) If they would fire the teachers whose children underperformed, and add incentives(increasing pay) then maybe they could turn things around. c) There wa a study a few years ago, that attempted to figure out why the education system's quality has dropped. The study ended up factoring out economic, race, and several commonly attributed factors, including crime, and found one that couldn't be taken out. The one was feminism. While it is generally a good thing, for two professions it hurt: teachers and nursing. The study concluded that before feminism, the women who were academically inclined would take jobs in those fields, because they were higher paying than most jobs women could obtain and the women could leave and return after having a family much easier than other professions. When separated by sex the quality of the male teachers showed an almost flat line, while the female teachers showed a steep decline. The reason was that the brighter women were now going into different fields than before, leaving the less intelligent ones going into teaching and nursing. Oh and your math example is flawed, because th 3's go on infinitely, and thus would actually have a bar over them, as would th 9's in your equation.
2016-05-22 22:08:36 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
There was a time interest in world geography was high in America, partly because it was a world to still to be explored, and partly because Americans were uncertain of their role in the world. That was before World War II. Ever since America's rise to superpower status, especially after becoming the ONLY superpower, the youth of Americans have come to believe that the rest of the world is irrelevant, and certainly can not be any smarter than they.
They've got a real bad reality check coming up.
2007-01-02 19:11:14 · answer #3 · answered by Scythian1950 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Turkey? Your worried because americans dont care what the capital of Turkey is? my god man get a life!!! How cares about turkey. Do you know the capital of rhode island?
2007-01-02 19:12:29 · answer #4 · answered by GuZZiZZit 5 · 1⤊ 2⤋
In some states, the state law requires all students to pass efficiency tests. the students must pass the efficiency tests in order to go the the next grade. By the time they learn all they need to know to pass the efficiency tests, there is no time for the teachers to teach geography. In other words the students are taught to pass the evince tests, which do not include geography.
2007-01-02 19:19:05 · answer #5 · answered by starflower 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because most Americans are self-centered and believe that there is no other world outside of the United States. Even if they do believe that there is another world outside of the United States, they don't really care. That's my opinion.
2007-01-02 19:06:13 · answer #6 · answered by Kevin 1 · 2⤊ 1⤋
Because they don`t care much and do not see the atlas much i am quiet good at geography and that is by reading atlases all the time and yes the capital of turkey is istanbul
2007-01-03 00:21:51 · answer #7 · answered by Achintya s 2 · 0⤊ 3⤋
Turkeys don't have capitals
Duh
2007-01-02 19:09:37 · answer #8 · answered by william 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
yes they do and so do ppl from other countries or nations
so what is the big deal?
who cares?
2007-01-02 19:09:25 · answer #9 · answered by nolike_gohome 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because alot of people don't care I guess.
2007-01-02 19:04:45 · answer #10 · answered by Ryan H 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋