Between A Peninsula And The Deep Blue Pacific

Stop the insanity! Take away cell phones and iPods and X-Box! The youth of today are the first generation less-learned than their parents.

I had some kids yesterday who did not know where the Pacific Ocean was located. THE PACIFIC OCEAN! It's not like I asked about the Sargasso Sea. One asked if it was the water around Florida. Another asked if it was the one between the United States and Europe. The entire question was about where radiated debris from the Fukushima disaster would end up. And I even told them that Fukushima was in Japan. A little gal actually asked permission to use her tablet thingamajig to look up a world map to find the Pacific Ocean. The kids oohed and ahhed when they found out where it was.

The sad part is...they have a geography class. Now according to them, nobody has ever taught them where the Pacific Ocean is. Oh, they have homework. But they just take it home and do it. Sometimes it's a map. But they don't remember if the Pacific Ocean was ever on the homework.

Today, they had a crossword puzzle with clues for sciency article information, and pop culture information. Only a handful knew the monetary unit in India is called the rupee. Even though they had the letters r_pee. I tried to give hints. "See? You only need a vowel. Go through the vowels until one seems right. You know the vowels, right? Even though you have Language I? A, E, I, O, U. The vowels." Yet somebody still asked me if Indian money was the rApee. Yeah. Pronounced rape-eee. I don't think so. Do you see a problem here?

I KNOW that these things are being taught. I used to teach the at-risk students. They brought in homework, because I checked with teachers every day to make sure that I wasn't being hoodwinked. And there were plenty of maps, and states and capitals to be memorized, and histories of other cultures. I seriously doubt that these classes are now leaving out this information. Especially since there has been no teacher turnover in that subject.

Sure, I used to have the occasional kid who thought Canada was a state. And that the Chinese bombed the Japanese at Pearl Harbor, Japan. Then there was that whole class who thought the south won the civil war, because "...you see trucks with the rebel flag on them, and nobody would go around showing off a loser flag." But knowledge seems to be regressing.

For example, a state with two peninsulas. Aside from answering the question, "What is a peninsula?" I thought they should be able to figure it out. But after many blank stares, I gave a hint. "It's in the north. It borders on the Great Lakes."

"Maine!"

"New York!"

"Georgia? Is it Georgia?"

"Washington!"

"Alaska!"

Oh, my. I thought I might faint. But I made one last, valiant effort. "One peninsula looks like a mitten."

ONE KID knew the answer. And just in case nobody ever taught you geography in your geography class...the state with two peninsulas is Michigan. Of course, like my students, you will need me to tell you the abbreviation: MI.

But don't be discouraged. Everybody knew Joe Jonas.