This video has been doing the rounds on the blogosphere. While I would like to say that Miss Teen South Carolina is the exception to the rule my experience tells me that this is not so.

Upon my arrival in the US I was asked by a fellow student how long it took to drive from Ireland to Erie, Pennsylvania. The same girl proceeded to enquire if we had running water, pizza and microwave ovens in Ireland. I kid you not.

While in college in the US I took a course called Geopolitics. On day one of the class we had a pop quiz on entitled "How well do we know our neighbors?" The quiz tested people's general knowledge about Canada and Mexico. I was shocked at the number of people that thought that Toronto and Cancun were the respective capitals of Canada and Mexico. What's more, the last time I checked Mexican was not a language.

I also recall a dispiriting conversation that I had with a girl who told me she was 100% Irish (which causes me to wonder what percent Irish I am!). When I enquired to where exactly Ireland was located in the world I got the reply: "It's in that country, you know, what's it called, yeah right, London."

A recent survey by National Geographic showed that half of young American adults can't find New York on a Map, 20% believe Sudan is in Asia, and only 37% could correctly identify Iraq even though US troops have had a presence there since 2003. Not only is US primary and secondary school education lacking in when it comes to geography, but also in most of areas that should educate children in worldly knowledge such as history, civics, and foreign languages. The situation has not been helped by the No Child Left Behind initiative which has caused a shift in emphasis to areas such as science, maths and reading at the cost of the social sciences.

I'll leave you with a video that makes me glad that I don't live in Australia.

Tags: geography, pageant, Australia, Americans, humour, stereotypes