All the hype on the SC beauty pageant girl made me think How well do we know our own countries map? Do you know where other states are in relation to you?My old roommate lives in PA but I always thought it was more North...or that CO is just a state away from NV...
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In PS 255, a political science class on state government, we had a quiz on the first day. The quiz operated as follows: We were handed a political map of the United States and were instructed to add the labels of the states. Of the 40-50 college students in the class, each being interested in political science, only 2 pupils accurately labeled each state. The two geopolitical scholars were myself and E. Sullivan (LCA '01). J. Holcomb (LCA '02) committed only the most common error: The transposition of New Hampshire and Vermont.
FYI - Vermont is 'top heavy' as its first letter. Vermont is to the west of New Hampshire and borders New York, not Maine. Another common mistake is the confusion of Colorado and Wyoming (both squares).
The only reason them I know them as well as I do is because in my news editing class in college, my professor said the ignorance of geography when it came to the american public was astounding. He said, if you are going to write about these places, you need to know where they are. Granted, we should know the middle eastern area better than we do (or i should), but we should at the very least know the U.S. So he told us the first day, that we would have a pop quiz sometime during the semester, but we never knew when. We could score so many extra points by knowing capitals and waterways. Needless to say, i studied my butt off before almost every class in anticipation. The quiz came, of course, in the last weeks of the semester. But by then, I knew the locations pretty well. It was annoying at the time, but I am grateful now.
also, any friends addicts will know they play the "dumb states game" in one episode. My friends and i have tried it many times...i always leave out at least one state. no maps, no globes, no help whatsoever! Try naming all 50 states and 6 minutes and see how you do!
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