Geography: A Must For U.S. Schools

I'm sure that you have seen the video clip over and over on the news unless you have been in a cave for the last couple of days.

Miss Teen South Carolina's response to the question about locating the United States on a world map was actually a tell-tale sign that many American students, and adults as well, are unable to locate almost anything on a map. I am not sure about her geography skills -- I'm inclined to believe that she was flustered and under a lot of pressure to answer a question she did not expect.

Melinda, my wife, teaches geography to ninth graders, and she tells some real horror stories about some of their abilities with maps. Geography should be a must in all high schools and a requirement for graduation.

I'm sure most of us will never be in Miss Teen South Carolina's situation, but I'll bet we have encountered similiar problems in answering questions, both oral and written. Remember that on some tests when you had absolutely no idea of an answer, you wrote a lot of BS trying to snow the teacher. This, of course, was not her situation because she had to think on her feet -- that is difficult for some people. I feel very sorry for her and her embarrassment over such a disjointed and senseless reply.

I do not do this to further embarrass the girl, but in case you missed it or was not sure what her answer was, the quote follows:

"I personally believe the U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, uh, some, uh...people out there in our nation don't have maps, and, uh, I believe that our education like such as South Africa and, uh, Iraq everywhere like that, such as and...I believe that they should help the U.S., err, uh, should help South Africa and should help Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future for our..."

I truly feel for her or anyone else who has to suffer through the humiliation resulting from her remarks.

We joke about the safe answer to questions in a beauty contest is to somehow work into the answer that you want to help hungry children and are an advocate of world peace.

I have never been a big fan of all of these beauty contests where the sponsors are really not looking for the most intelligent contestant -- I think that they throw in the questions to make the competition look a little more legitimate.

So let's not punish Miss Teen South Carolina anymore -- she made the statement -- it was under pressure -- it probably doesn't reflect her intelligence.