Crisis in Western Education

In January of 2013, a small event became national news across Canada. Professor Judith Adler, at Memorial University of Newfoundland, had grown concerned that many of her students might be lacking awareness of geography that would enable them to comprehend course issues about global cultural traditions. She gave her students a quiz consisting of a blank map of the world, with instructions to indicate where places and features such as Africa, Europe, Great Britain and the Atlantic Ocean were. To her surprise, many students had not the most rudimentary geographic awareness. Some did not know where the Atlantic Ocean was, even though they could see it from their university.

The nation was horrified. How could it be that high school graduates could complete schooling and have such a knowledge deficit? Yet this was not the first sign of trouble in the nation’s schools.