I am Profoundly Bad at Geography

So, I'm currently taking a class on African Art History and one of the assessments in the class is a quiz on the geography of Africa. Now, I like this class a lot and find it really interesting, but, when I first heard about the quiz, I was a little annoyed. I was like "really? is  this middle school or something? do I really have to do this?" It seemed kind of silly to me because the last time I had to take a geography quiz was 7th grade.

It turns out the quiz was necessary. I am profoundly bad at geography.

When my professor was explaining the quiz, he said something to the effect of "I find that this quiz is necessary because American students tend to be bad at geography." Now, the idea that Americans are bad at geography a fairly common stereotype that people, particularly Europeans, have about Americans. I've always thought it was a little unfair, but it turns out that it's totally true. I looked at a blank map of Africa to study for the quiz and I was like "oh look, there's Egypt, there's South Africa, there's Madagascar...I think that's Libya...that might be Algeria...or maybe it's Tunisia?...I got nothing."

My lack of knowledge of the geography of foreign countries is absolutely unpardonable. Once, I heard someone talking about the capital of Canada and I was like "oh, yeah, I've been to Toronto" and they were like "do you mean Ottawa?" So that was embarrassing.

Now, I initially felt bad about this, until I realized that I couldn't point to Wyoming on a map to save my life. It's not that I'm indifferent to the rest of the world! I don't know where things are in America either! It's a profound relief.

Now that I've taken the time to learn the locations of all the countries in Africa, I'm starting to feel a little embarrassed that I can identify approximately ten states on a blank map of the USA...and most of them are within a two state radius of my home state, Pennsylvania. I can, however, pick out Florida, Maine, Texas, and California because they're funny shaped. I also know that Michigan looks like a mitten.

And, amazingly, I know people who are far worse at geography than me! So, apparently, my art history professor is right -- this is sort of a trend in America. It could be because our country is so big or it could be because we just don't learn much geography in school -- I don't think I learned any geography at all in school until I was twelve. I don't want to call anyone out, but I've meet college students who didn't know that Antarctica was a continent. So, comparatively, I'm doing pretty well. At least I know that Michigan is a mitten and Ottawa is the capital of Canada.

Just sayin'