Information

Several times a year we are subjected to studies which illustrate how poorly educated/aware our youth are. This one is on geography. It points out how grade school/high school/college aged youth in the US can't point out Iraq on a map, or Israel, or Louisiana, or... There have been plenty of other polls on how Americans can not identify their US representative or Senators or Supreme Court justices...or how people think intelligent (inelegant) design should be taught in a science classroom. To a certain extent these types of polls show a shortcoming in the education system or in the concernedness of the American people, but they also tend to hide the fact that there is a ton of information out there and we can not know it all. "One person's trash is another's treasure," is a statement that can be applied to knowledge as well as material objects. Just because I feel that a basic understanding of "what is science?" is important doesn't mean that others will feel the same. I can point out reasons why I am correct (and I am), but that doesn't mean others will care. The same is true of geography, or politics, or religion. People who have memorized the bible (or at least many select verses) may feel that those who have not are in no position to question matters concerning religion. Highly educated people have a tendency to consider rote memorization as a base form of intelligence and a waste of time and effort.

There is not a *good* conclusion. No one can know everything. When it comes to geography it is not hard to stump me--I can easily get Vermont and New Hampshire flipped around, smaller African nations and countries whose names have changed can be cause for puzzlement, and I doubt I could name the capitals of more than 20-30 world nations. Knowing history and geography certainly help. Iraq is the cradle of civilization. Iran was once the center of one of the most powerful empires in human history (the Persian). The landscape--both political and geographical--may have changed, but to think that that history is meaningless is like saying that Americans don't really care about the Constitution anymore (yes, I know GW doesn't but most of us do), better yet try telling a Texan that their state is not a "whole other country." People are proud of their history, even when that history is so far distant that it seems to be irrelevant to us.

And there is always the internet. A certain amount of factual knowledge is necessary, a fair amount more is very helpful, but for anything not related to what one does in life there is a philisophical question about whether any information should be memorized if it can be looked up in 30s on-line. I think yes, but I think discussion is fun, and more so if the internet doesn't need to be referenced every few minutes. Discussion does require some facts (whether or not they are specifically referenced) so minutiae and other stuff is good to know, even if other people will cite the source as "your ass," but in the end what facts are important to have memorized is a value statement for a group or individual. Of course, not looking like an idiot is one of most people's values.