<p>You argument becomes totally void when you understand that no country is required to learn the history of the UK no matter what. I said learning the location of a country has no intrinsic worth. The instances you have mentioned would be of interest to a History Major but what does this have to do with someone not studying this? You still do not understand what intrinsic worth means. </p>
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<p>Its possible. But the main question is- why is the map thingy so important. You keep giving reasons that pertain to one group of people (i.e people studying history, or people from a certain region who would be obliged to know about another country) but fail to give a clear response on why it is universally important. It has no intrinsic worth in that regard because we can live out lives very well without knowing the location of several countries.</p>
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<p>Moreover, giving passport numbers does not make sense. You data is not even official. Where did you get statistics from? The latest statistics which is like 5-8 years ago shows that 65% dont have passports. Moreover, are you also aware that in Canada 60% dont own passports right? </p>
<p>Passport doesn’t tell you much considering the fact that you could take a train from most stations in the UK to several countries with ease, of course you would need a passport. Travelling to Ibiza or to party in France does not qualify as cultural immersion.</p>
<p>How many of those passports are used for cross-Atlantic travel? You are aware that for several years that Americans did not need passports to travel to neighboring countries like Canada,Mexico and the carribbeans right? Its pretty obvious that passport numbers is a poor indication of travel</p>
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<p>LOL, such arrogance and ignorance. Maybe thats your view. A Venezuelan would not see it that way. There is no written law that the UK or the US should be important to everyone.</p>
<p>Judging by how this discussion has gone, and how it typically has gone when I talk to people- I think its an inferiority complex that makes people argue the obvious. That as a major research university in the year 2010 -Stanford is better than Oxford. Stanford is really next to Harvard in the US. Its good at everything possible. If Stanford has a dept its tops for it. We are not talking of Princeton or Yale who are not strong overall. In terms of prestige- maybe not- though I dont know who you are asking. No engineer in his right mind would care about Oxford.</p>
<p>There is nothing wrong with self-created hypothesis (all hypothesis are self-created, so confused???). Further, you have not clarified what hypothesis I put forward. I just made the statement that knowing the location of a country is not that important. Sit down, and be realistic- how useful has locating countries on a blank sheet of paper been to your life? I can extract this from google in ten seconds anyways. The fact that I can do that is all that matters. Map knowledge is not different from trivia knowledge. Claiming that it displays insularity is very very silly. That is what I have been arguing against.</p>
<p>As long as it fits logical constructs. Relax. Moreover- there are no facts in this discussion. A lot of bigboba’s claims are contrary to what I have seen or experienced. Neither his or mine can be validated. Most Americans I have met can actually place several countries on a map contrary to “unofficial” statistics. Infact the large majority I have met seem far more knowledgeable than their counterparts in other countries. But this is likely because they were at university.</p>
<p>Further, you have not clarified what hypothesis I put forward. I just made the statement that knowing the location of a country is not that important. Sit down, and be realistic- how useful has locating countries on a blank sheet of paper been to your life? I can extract this from google in ten seconds anyways. The fact that I can do that is all that matters. Map knowledge is not different from trivia knowledge. Claiming that it displays insularity is very very silly. That is what I have been arguing against.</p>
<p>Yes. A better statistic is travel volume- how many citizens are leaving and entering a country. Having a passport is weak. You might have something but not use it. Where are they traveling to? Travel statistics is way more accurate. There are no current statistics on passport holders and you just pulled one out of your ****</p>
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<p>Classy rebuttal. I was really impressed with your level of critical analysis <sarcasm></sarcasm></p>
<p>Of the people who went to Stanford from our town in the past 2 years, all were athletes (‘School’?) except two. Those two BOTH had Honor Code violations. I think colleges teach morals by example. Your choice.</p>
<p>good Lord sefago. After your remarks were passed around at this morning’s meeting of the Regents of the University of California, the august body voted to remove an entire academic discipline of Geography from the curricula … after all, there’s evidently no practical purpose for it.</p>
<p>Best at this point to quit while you’re behind.</p>
<p>^ Totally agree, rjkofnovi, that it’s a shame.
Back in the day, I had geography as a separate subject in 4th through 8th grade. One simply cannot understand history or current events without understanding geography. Even without formal study ogf geography, one certainly can learn a good deal just by staying abreast of current events; unfortunately, many people don’t even bother as this might require that they actually read.</p>
<p>^ geography is great as an academic discipline but in high school its really obsolete. Its also not important enough to put in as a core discipline in high school.</p>
<p>I think the Russell Group universities will be relatively unaffected, considering the fee rises which will make up the difference. The provincial universities have rough roads ahead however. :(</p>
<p>^ This is pretty pretty old news. They were initially debating on whether to slash both teaching and research budget- and there are talks on allowing universities being allowed to charge there own fees which could triple domestic fees.</p>
<p>Hmm . . . I am really interested in how fees hikes would be done- would it be based on how good a university is? Or the location? Or by some arbitrary standard?</p>
<p>I believe it’ll be by raising the national maximum each uni can charge a student and then upto the university to decide how close to that limit they want to go. Although apparently Cambridge - and if them presumably Oxford, LSE, ULC, etc also - are considering going private. They’ll lose public funding but will be able to charge whatever they please.</p>
<p>It seems to me that it will be hard for just some of the UK schools to split off since the whole system of admissions is centralized. I think just allowing some fees hikes would make sense.</p>
<p>Geography, taught by itself and not in the context of history/economics/etc. is pretty boring. It’s really a middle-school subject. I found it dull as dishwater. So did my son, who had to put a lot of time into it. But it is important to know where countries are, what their relative sizes are and so on.
Understanding how close England is to France at the channel is important for understanding English/French history.
And, of course, understanding history is necessary for understanding modern international relations.</p>
<p>I agree nemom. Geography as taught at the university level, UCLA for example, studies the relationship between location (soil types, altitude, climate, natural resources, geologic activity, accessibility to other parts of the world, etc.) and human inhabitants, flora and fauna. That’s quite a complex area of study. It intersects with Geology, Oceanography, Atmospheric Science, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, sociology, linguistics, you name it.</p>
<p>Well put, DunninLA. Geography is something we typically encounter in middle school/junior high - and it is often taught there as a fairly dull , largely rote subject. At that level, I think it is dull, but of value. (There’s lots of things that are dull but of value, of course.) Once you get to the university level, it’s a whole new world.</p>