Geo-Ignorant

teh
You know, the really sad part is this doesn’t surprise me in the least.

Even though their country has been at war there for three years, six in 10 young Americans were unable to locate Iraq on a map of the world, a survey found.

They did little better at home: despite the coverage of Hurricane Katrina, nearly one-third of 18- to 24-year-olds could not locate Louisiana, according to a Roper poll for National Geographic.

In general, this is an old story; Americans don’t know shit. But why are they picking on the young here. Is the geographical knowledge of Americans over 24 dramatically better? I doubt it. For one thing, I’ve been seeing similar studies of how stupid kids and young adults since, well, I was a kid (the first wave of “Johnny Can’t Read” media coverage I can remember appeared when I was in high school 30 years ago). So, hey, media, leave those kids alone!

Update: Kevin Drum makes the same observation.