Geographical Illiteracy

A coworker grew up in Zimbabwe, and around age 11 emigrated to the States with her family. She is now a U.S. citizen. This morning I asked her if there was any news from the homeland, if Robert Mugabe had gone into hiding before somebody wiped him off the face of the planet. She was pleased that I was interested. She was even more impressed that I knew Zimbabwe was named Rhodesia before Mugabe took over in 1980.

Her name is Praise. I like that about several people I've met from Zimbabwe: they give their children hopeful, spiritual names.

Praise and I were talking about the politics and wars in the area of her homeland. She lamented that American children don't learn much about world geography and don't take much interest in the difficulties of other nations. Another coworker, a woman around 40, joined the conversation.

"How big is Africa?" she asked.

"It's a continent. There are lots of countries there," I answered.

She hadn't realized it. To test her knowledge I said, "Egypt is in Africa."

She was flabbergasted. She didn't know. She didn't know what continent Egypt was on.

"You mean," she said, "like the U.S. is..."

"In North America."

"Oh," she said, "yeah. I get it."

Not to put this coworker down -- she really does well in her job -- but she proved Praise's point.