FAULT - Maphead - page 28

selfthewinnerofChandler'sname-all-the-statesgame,withahighscoreoffifty-six.)Then
John McCain, when asked by a Spanish radio interviewer if he would invite Spain's Pres-
ident José Zapatero to the White House, seemed amenable, stressing “ the importance of
our relationship with Latin America.” (Hey, just like that Arrested Development episode
whereGobthinkshisbrotherhasfledto“Portugal,downSouthAmericaway!”)Andthat's
not even counting Fox News's report that Sarah Palin believed that Africa was a country ,
notacontinent. See,she'sareal-life AliG,onlywith—respek!—more stylish eyewear.On
thoserareoccasions whenapolitician doesdisplay aknackforgeography,he'streated asa
sideshow freak. Al Franken's favorite party stunt has long been his ability to draw a near-
perfect map of the United States freehand, a skill he's used to great effect doing electoral
coverage for Saturday Night Live 's “Weekend Update” and on Comedy Central. In 1987,
he amazed a Letterman audience by whipping off one of his Sharpie maps in less than two
minutes. When the former comedian somehow got elected to the Senate in 2008, his one-
time Stupid Human Trick got rebranded as a wonkishly patriotic bit of Americana and be-
came astaple atcampaign events andfund-raisers. Buttheaudience result isstill thesame:
shocked gasps that a U.S. senator might actually know what the United States looks like ! *
You know that geographic ignorance is a serious societal problem when even Miss Teen
USAcandidatesaregrilledaboutit!In2007,SouthCarolina'sCaiteUptonwasasked,“Re-
cent polls have shown a fifth of Americans can't locate the U.S. on a world map. Why do
you think this is?” Upton finished only fourth in the pageant, but her answer to that ques-
tion made her an international celebrity overnight.
“ Ipersonallybelieve ,”sheansweredwithabsoluteconfidence,“thatU.S.Americans are
unable to do so because, uh, some people out there in our nation don't have maps and, uh,
I believe that our, uh, education like such as in South Africa and, uh, the Iraq, everywhere
likesuchas,and,Ibelievethattheyshould,oureducationoverhereintheU.S.shouldhelp
the U.S., uh, or, uh, should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian coun-
tries, so we will be able to build up our future, for our children.”
In the much-watched YouTube video, even host Mario Lopez can't quite swallow his
grin at the gratuitous “for our children” tacked onto the end, as he mercifully pulls away
the mike.
But educators are worried too, and have been for a while. In 1857, Andrew Dickson
White, who would go on to cofound Cornell University, was put in charge of assessing
the geography acumen of the University of Michigan's sophomore class. Michigan took
great pride in the geography curriculum in its public high schools, but White wrote that “ in
the great majority of my students there was not a trace of real knowledge of physical geo-
graphy, and very little of political.” White told his students to throw away their rote lists
of memorized place-names and browse atlases instead, with great success. During World
War II, a Harvard professor named Howard Wilson was featured in The New York Times,