er cent of Kansas City high school seniors could not identify three South American Countries (Elliott 329a-b). The connection between such ignorance and the implications for public education policy are summed up in a sentiment expressed in the mid-1980s at a U.S. Senate education hearing, in conjunction with Geography Awareness Week:
In a 1984 survey conducted by the University of North Carolina, fewer than half of the 2,200 North Carolina college students tested could identify Texas and Alaska as the largest states. Just over 20 percent could name Rhode Island and Delaware as the smallest. A National sample of college students had been given this same questionnaire in 1950. A comparison of the results shows that the earlier generation averaged 24 points higher than their 1984 counterparts When reporting the results of 1950, the New York Times had said: "American college students know shockingly little about the geography of their country" (Bennett 17; emphasis in original).
This statement speaks to evidence of an erosion of fundamental geographical knowledge, which is to say a decline in the overall literacy of American elementary and secondary school students, compared, to, say, preceding generations of students. Dowgill and Lambert (143) believe that geographical literacy is a function of the larger question of cultural literacy, although they are cautious about embracing wholeheartedly the first solution to the problem that comes along.
Geographical literacy is important for the reason that it is connected to life-coping skills. Its importance can be discerned in a handbook of elementary and secondary curriculum development and measurement: "The purpose of geography education is to foster the development of citizens who will actively seek and systematically apply the knowledge and skills of geography in life situations (Musick, et al. vii). Implicit in that statement of purpose is the idea that lack of geography literacy ca...