Where In The World Is Iraq?
The U.S. may be going to war with Iraq, but a survey finds that an overwhelming number of young adults don't have a clue as to where that country is on a world map.
A National Geographic survey of nearly 3,000 young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 finds that 87 percent of them can't find Iraq on a map.
CBS Newsman Stephan Kaufman took a world atlas along to a mall in Spokane, Wash., and reports that just helped support the survey's findings.
"I was looking for Iran. Uzbekistan. There's Turkey ... " said a young woman.
"There's Iran ... Afghanistan ... " said a young man. "Saudi, Yemen ... "
"Your finger passed right over it," pointed out Kaufman.
"Iran ... Iraq!" he exclaimed.
With the threat of war focusing attention on Iraq, the National Geographic Society is issuing a new atlas of the Middle East.
The 96-page volume, compiled by the Society's mapmakers, goes on sale in bookstores next week and on the society's Web site immediately. It covers the history and current status of the 16-nation region.
Under development since October, the atlas is being issued about two weeks earlier than originally planned.
The atlas shows Iraq, for example, has a population of 23.6 million, of which 4.9 million live in the capital, Baghdad. Average life expectancy is just 58 years, compared to nearly 77 years in the United States.
Each country has a separate section of the atlas, which also includes maps of the major cities, including Baghdad, Jerusalem, Cairo, Damascus and Tehran.
The Education Commission of the States says geography is a problem in man schools
"Reading and mathematics, especially, have gotten a lot of focus, and I think social studies and geography have been taken up and pushed to the wayside," said Jennifer Dounay, a policy analyst with ECS.
Dounay said the survey speaks loudly for students needing an "international" education, complete with studies about world history, geography, cultures and languages of other countries.
She said schools have been improving in the past five years, re-directing their priorities, but she still calls the classroom change "a work in progress."