Were you one of those kids who really excelled at Social Studies in grade school?
Do you sit there and read through the World Almanac every year?
Can you entertain others at a cocktail party with your ability to name every foreign president in alphabetical order?
Yeah, we didn’t think so. Kids who can do that kind of stuff are pretty much dorks.
The Globalization of World Politics: An Introduction to International Relations
But that could also explain why US students fail miserably at the WORLD SAVVY GLOBAL COMPETENCY SURVEY.
Let’s throw some of the basic question out there and see how well you can do:
- What is the most commonly spoken language in the world?
- Which country is the US’ largest trading partner?
- Afghanistan is located in which region?
- Libya is located in which region?
- The term “Arab Spring” refers to what?
- Roughly how many Euros (EUR) can you get for $100 (USD)?
And yet kids today knew their pop culture:
- 83% could name Zuckerberg as the founder of Facebook
- 45% knew that Pauly D was on Jersey Shore
- But just 68% could name Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. And 34% knew that David Cameron was the Prime Minister of the UK
And when it comes to reading/writing a foreign language, Americans are woefully prepared:
- 71% can only read and write in English
- 20% could read and write in English, and one other language
- just 10% could read and write in English and at least two other languages
When it comes to what type of valuable TV kids today watch, there really are no surprises:
- 50% watched the Super Bowl
- 39% watched the World Series
- 33% watched the State of the Union Address
So how do you feel about your world knowledge? Think you could go head-to-head in a College Bowl against a team from another country? In today’s world economy and shrinking Information arena, becoming a bit more World Savvy might be a good thing.
Maybe you should have paid a bit more attention in that Social Studies class after all.