[PRCo] Re: Geography

[John Swindler]

Not just geography.  Another favorite story that Fred related several 
(many?) years ago concerns Jim Henwood, a college history professor. (at a 
Pennsylvania school - is that a close enough link for this list?)  Anyway, 
he would give incoming students a short test to get some sort of idea what 
the students knowledge base was of history from high school.  To the 
question: who was Thomas Jefferson, one student allegedly replied - was he 
one of the Jefferson Airplane?

Well, I thought it was funny - and pathetic.

John




>From: Fred Schneider <fschnei at supernet.com>
>Reply-To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
>To: pittsburgh railways <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>,   Peter 
>Johansson <peter.johansson at ntlworld.com>
>Subject: [PRCo] Geography
>Date: Thu, 08 Jan 2004 20:47:48 -0500
>
>American Automobile Association (AAA Lancaster County) has become
>geographically challenged.  Went in today and asked for a group of
>tourguide books ... "everything from Alabama across the south to
>California, up the west coast, and every book along the northern states
>back to Minneapolis, then down to Chicago.  After staring blankly at me
>for a half minute, the girl then said, "I'm new here.  What does that
>mean?"
>
>Damn glad I didn't ask for a list of B&Bs between Berwick-upon-Tweed and
>Dundee!
>
>For those in the dark, and JCS and EHL won't be, this all relates to a
>National Geographic test (the second one back) in which people in the U.
>S. scored second worst in the world ... ten questions about the
>absolutely most simple geography in the world, such as the 'Persian Gulf
>lies between Saudi Arabia and ___________' or 'In which continent does
>the United States lie?'   After that test I decided to see if it was
>true.  Ed, John and I were eating dinner in a restaurant in Hampton
>Township, fewer than 10 miles west of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.  Just
>for the hell of it I played with the waitress ... told her we were
>traveling from Ohio to a meeting in Philadelphia and were unfamiliar
>with this area ... and then asked her "Isn't the capital of Pennsylvania
>somewhere in this area?"  The girl responded, "I'm not in school any
>more.  I don't have to know."
>I later found out that my niece, who was 17 at the time, was unable to
>tell me which country borders the U. S. to the south.
>
>Sad, no?
>
>
>
>

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