How to Ensure Your Child Doesn't End Up Like Miss Teen South Carolina
Rambling about "The Iraq" and "U.S. Americans," Miss Teen South Carolina attempts to explain why so many of her countrymen can't find their country on a map.
Photo: The Associated Press/Patrick Prather
by Wendy Perrin
"Recent polls have shown a fifth of Americans can't locate the U.S. on a world map. Why do you think this is?" asked a judge in the recent Miss Teen USA Pageant. The brainless reply from Miss Teen South Carolina -- which millions of people have now viewed on YouTube -- was so incoherent that yesterday The Today Show gave her a second chance to answer the question. Even after three days to mull it over, however, she still barely answered it. "I believe there should be more emphasis on geography in our education." You don't say!
Any parent who's viewed the video may be wondering (1) how they can keep their kids from growing up so geographically challenged that they can't locate their own country on a map; and (2) how they can keep their kids from growing up to be Miss Teen South Carolina.
To that end, and just in time for Labor Day road or plane trips with the kids, I hereby offer up my five favorite geography-teaching games for youngsters:
(1) Sticker Set Play Scenes: both the Map of the USA and the Map of the World. I picked these up last month at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History in Atlanta, and as a consequence my five-year-old now knows the location of every state in the U.S., as well as each state's capital. (Now if only he could tie his shoes.)
Charlie and Doug with Eartha, the rotating globe, at DeLorme in Yarmouth, Maine, Sept. 2006.
(2) Kids Travel: A Backseat Survival Kit: I found this at the DeLorme Map Store in Maine and now, thanks to the "Geography Bee" and "Life List of License Plates" sections, Charlie spends our car trips "collecting" license plates from as many states as possible and checking them off on the map. Boy, was he thrilled this summer when he spotted a Hawaii plate!
One of the placemats my kids use so they won't be among the one-fifth of Americans who are so map illiterate they can't even find the U.S.A.
(3) Read a Mat
vinyl placemats, both the world map and the USA map: These placemats, which Charlie and Doug have used since they were two, have inspired dozens of dinner conversations. And, as other moms attest too, they've held up amazingly well, considering the amount of macaroni and cheese, glitter glue, and paint that's been smeared all over them (we do our arts and crafts in the kitchen).
(4) MapTangle World Edition: Perhaps best described as Geography meets Twister, this floor game uses a vinyl 33-square-foot floor mat that is a map of the world. (The MapTangle mat is actually dual-purpose: Twenty minutes before your child's birthday party, should you realize you failed to purchase the requisite Dora the Explorer paper plates, napkins, and tablecloth, you can use the MapTangle mat as a last-minute table cover.)
(5) Junior World Map Puzzleball, which the kids and I picked up at the Toy Shop of Concord in Concord, Massachusetts, two weeks ago: It's a globe that's a jigsaw puzzle. How great is that?!
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I saw Ms S.C. try to answer that question on youtube and it was extremely painful to watch.
Of course it comes as no surprise to me really. While I was putting myself through college I worked for a particualr retailer, no names now, and one of my co-workers pointed to Greece on a map and said it was Japan. When I told him it was Greece, not Japan, he said he'd never heard of it. *How* can you not have ever heard of Greece?!
Posted by: tracker1312 | August 29, 2007 at 10:44 AM
If her parents had spent more time and energy on her education as opposed to preparing her for beauty contests, maybe the world wouldn't see her as an airhead. Doesn't she make you proud to be an American.
Posted by: browntucky | August 29, 2007 at 05:22 PM
What browntucky said.
"It's a scholarship program, and they learn poise and self-confidence." Yeah, so instead, go get that for your kid from the Intel Science Talent Search or the National Merit Scholar program.
Thanks for the car game tips, Wendy. I'm a sucker for a license plate search on a road trip.
Posted by: Seafarer | August 30, 2007 at 11:35 AM