"BTW is Geography taught in schools in the US."

No, not really. Point to a few unlabeled states on a map of the U.S., and ask ten kids what they are. Then ask where France, Denmark, Saudi Arabia, Kenya or India are.

They can't even really teach the kids to read, so how can they be teaching geography, history, or anything else?

The educational system in the U.S. ranks about 28th in the nations in the world. I thought there were only about 19 industrialized countries. Parents scream at the annual test score results, so they lower the requirements. That's the American solution.

Dr. Barbara Bateman of the U. of Oregon: "Near failure-proof methods for teaching all children to read are already available. Continued failure of schools to employ these programs is at best negligent and at worst malicious."

According to Rudolf Flesch, who wrote Why Johnny Can't Read, and much later, Why Johnny STILL Can’t Read, the following are the ten favorite alibis used by educators on why children in their schools can’t read:

1) Everything is Fine means that all the statistics on illiteracy & declining reading achievement are nothing but propaganda.

2) We Do Teach Phonics means they offer a window-dressing token form of phonics, saying that they use all methods combined. Most of them have never seen a good phonics book.

3) No One Method Is Best means that the phonics method, based on common sense & scientific research, won’t work, but look-&-say will.

4) English isn’t Phonetic means just because English is 97.4% phonetic, phonics won’t work.

5) Word Calling Isn’t Reading means just because a child can read a word doesn’t mean he knows what it means. And it’s true that just because he can read the word 'catastrophe' off a page, he probably won’t know what it means. But a look-&-say child won’t be able to read the word at all.

6) Your Child Isn’t Ready means if the look-&-say child can’t read yet, he may be ready by the time he’s twelve.

7) Your Child Is Disabled means that thousands of children from look-&-say classes have been incorrectly diagnosed as dyslexic, brain-damaged, learning disabled, etc. Taught with phonics, the “disability” disappears.

8) It’s the Parents’ Fault is never said out loud, but the meaning is unmistakable. Indifference, abuse, neglect, conflict all causes children not to be able to read.

9) Too Much TV is a handy scapegoat. Of course, since they’re not taught beyond the 1,500 words they’re taught at school, they can’t read anyway.

10) We Now Teach ALL Children means that some children, the dregs of society, aren’t capable of receiving an education; as “many of them have innumerable combinations of genetic factors and experiential backgrounds”. That word genetic is always racist. They’re poor, black, Chicano—the children of lowborn riffraff who are too dumb to learn how to read.

Question: do you think it's easier to control a population that is educated or not educated?

Americans tend not to think much of France, but any child there can read from any book by the time he's six years old. France says our educational system is 'mediocre'. Yes, it is.

We also have the second worst newborn death rate in the developed world, and the ones who don't die within 24 hrs of birth have an unusually high death rate due to accidents and injuries.

Sue