Do you know what this country is? A small geographical prize from Berlin for correct answers! No cheating, comment below before you read the rest.

Why ask? As usual, the media has been doing some Geography bashing. A report by the National Geographic resulted in the following findings

Several London children did not know they lived in England’s capital

86% of the children interviewed failed to identify Iraq and one in 10 could not name a single continent.

Boys seemed to show a slightly better geographical knowledge than girls, with 65% able to locate a number of countries around the world compared with 63% of girls. (What do you think of that girls?)

Scottish children appeared to be the most geographically aware with 67% able to point out the most countries, out of England, the US, France, China and Iraq, on a world map.

This morning David Bellamy was interviewed on BBC Breakfast about the report.

Let’s have some active citizenship, if you disagree with the comments made and fed-up of Geography bashing, make your comment here to the BBC.

Also support your fellow Geographers, since summer there has been a campaign to raise the profile of Geography in the media. Ask your parents to sign the petition. Also add the campaign logo to your blog, email or My Space area. Show you’re a Geographer and proud!

As David Bellamy says

(Geography is)…so important because it makes children aware of the importance of caring for the environment and, by learning about the world, it helps bring other people’s worlds and cultures closer to their own.”

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Posted in General
Written on Mon, 23 October 2006 at 11:21 am

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