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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]No, sorry but I don't think it's excusable to be able to know the Atlantic is east coast/Pac west.  That's not even US geography but knowing about 7 seas.  Not even all 7 but the 2 closest to our country.  I'm not talking state capitals, names of all states or even anything more sophisticated than tracking 2 large bodies of water.  If you look at google maps you would likely notice the names of the ocean if you're looking at a coast of a state east and west.  That's somewhat education but it's also observation.  That Americans can't even track anything obvious is so sad.  While most people in other countries are bi/trilingual, we can't even distinguish between 2 oceans.  I think that's really amazingly devastatingly sad.

I also think that on some level basic elementary school geography should offer up this knowledge.  [/quote]

OP here. This was pretty much my thinking. I recall being taught about the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans in very early elementary school, certainly by second grade. Granted these were women in their 30s, but it really made me wonder about the consistency of education in America and whether basic geography is taught in schools today. I have heard that things like penmanship and spelling are no longer emphasized in schools, and I certainly hope basic geography is not another casualty of the internet era where people can look anything up but apparently rarely do. [/quote]

I wrote curriculum for a non-AP geography elective. Potential teachers were excited. No student ever signed up for it. Not a single one in the entire district. [/quote]

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