I’m not a huge fan of
late night talk show television programs. In fact, I’m not a big fan of
television but I occasionally watch a YouTube video to see what I’m missing or
more often, what I’m not missing. Did
you saw the Jimmy Kimmel Live Challenge recently where he sent a person to the
streets and asked people walking by to point to a world map (without names) and
name any county? ANY country. If you missed it, you can Google YouTube Jimmy Kimmel
Live Challenge Country and be entertained? Horrified? Saddened? Those were my
reactions...
I know that the piece
was edited selecting the ones that couldn’t meet the challenge, because it
always makes us feel better when someone else looks like an idiot, right? But
while we are laughing at these dumb-dumbs that allowed themselves to be filmed
not even being able to locate the United States on a map, it really is a sad
comment of some folks lack of knowledge of the planet they live on.
I did not grow up with much world knowledge. Being
a farm family in Northeast Oklahoma in the 1960’s limited travel and my
connection with other countries would have been articles in the Weekly Reader
Magazine (Who remembers those?) or stories my dad told about Germany. We didn’t
have a world globe at our house, and I’m not sure I could have found Germany on
the pull-down map of Europe that hung above the chalk board without reading the
name.
We did have Geography
in school but honestly I can’t remember much about the material, the textbook
or the lessons. I recall playing a game of Pictionary with friends years ago,
and needing to draw the United States to get my team to make a guess of a
state. I’m not proud to say, my USA was shaped something more like a raw
turkey, tail-up to the east. I’m scared to think what any other countries would
have resembled if I didn’t have a visual on the one I lived in.
I’ve been very blessed
to travel the world and walk in countries that were just names on a map. I
wouldn’t want to be challenged on the street to label a globe, but I bring this
up to ask.....could you? One of the many benefits of travel is learning about
the rest of the world and putting faces on places. Those names become real and
have value when you hear them mentioned in the news, books and conversation.
Could your kids and
grandkids name countries on a map? Can you? Our world is so much smaller
because of technology. Our children are better traveled than many of us were
growing up. It might be a great experiment to spend some time with a map, and
learning together. The happy part of the sad Kimmel Country Challenge is that
our entire American pride is saved by a kid, about 10 years of age, who takes
the pointer and… correctly names multiple countries. Sigh.
