Turns out one in five schoolchildren in the United Kingdom does not have the ability to locate the United Kingdom on a map. For a long time, we’ve been bemoaning the lack of education in the United States.
I suppose it’s comforting that it’s not just American schoolchildren who cannot find their own countries on a map. I suppose it also is useful to deflate the myth that people with British accents are necessarily smart.
But really, it’s kind of sad. It’s a map. You are on it, somewhere. Knowing where on the map you are is a good thing and it’s worth the time to figure that out.
I have never really understood that myself.
Perhaps it is the discovery or realization of this ignorance that drives people to abandon their lives and “find themselves”.