[Dog Gone]

I think I could label nearly all correctly with no prompting, although some of the smaller African countries on the Atlantic coast would give me a problem.

[diogenes ghost]

"...some of the smaller African conntries on the Atlantic coast would give me a problem"...Ya think?? Most of them have been thru more name changes than your corner bank.

[Miss Marple]

When I took Western Civ in college, my wonderful professor required us to be able to draaw, freehand, the continent of Europs and put all countries, major rivers, and mountain ranges. We THEN had to be able to draw the outlines of the Holy Roman Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the Roman Empire at different times, etc. etc.

When the semester started, I didn't think I could do it, but I did. And I have never forgotten how to do it, either.

When I was in grade school (back in prehistoric times) geography was taught as such, and I can still locate the Ural Mountains, Cape Horn, the Khalahari Desert, an many other even more obscure places.

Geography allows you to understand the world. It helps one understand world events when one knows that Indonesia is tropical and was colonized by the Dutch, that bananas do not grow naturally in New Hampshire, and that if one travels to Japan one will see Asiatic people.

I just flat don't understand this. It seems to me that there are a lot of people in this country who go around in a perpetual state of bewilderment. For goodness sake, they don't even understand where they are!!