As an introductory assignment at the beginning of the second semester, Leezville Road High School’s Advanced Placement (A.P.) Human Geography students attempted to create a world map from memory. Unsurprisingly, most students accurately cut, glued, and labeled the world’s continents.
Georgia York is a highly intelligent sophomore currently enrolled in A.P. Human Geography. She enjoyed this map assignment and found it easy. Knowing that the United States is the most crucial continent in the world helped her place it correctly.
“Obviously, the United States is the largest continent because it’s the most important,” said York. “I was worried at first that I had gotten Africa and China wrong, but it turns out that there’s no wrong answer. It really doesn’t matter.”
York explained that because the continents of Africa and China are so insignificant when it comes to foreign affairs, their inclusion on the world map is optional.
Tex Washington, a Leezville junior, shares York’s ignorant viewpoint.
“Of course I knew where the United States goes. The equator passes right through California, which is why they have so many wildfires there,” Washington said.
Washington showed on his map that Europe touches the United States. According to him, when Europeans immigrate to America, they drive across the border into New England.
“That’s why the New England Patriots are called the Patriots,” said Washington. “Patriots were those people who first came from England to Boston to start their own religion or something.”
The most common error when students completed their maps was the relegation of the United States to the northwest corner of the map.
The oblivious students completing this assignment also needed to name the world’s oceans. They correctly referred to the waters around the United States as the American Ocean.
Throughout the semester, A.P. Human Geography students will continue working with maps, but they will not focus solely on the United States. Instead, the maps will incorporate different regions around the world. York strongly opposes this plan.
“I’m probably going to drop this class. Why do we even need to know this stuff about the rest of the world?” York said. “The United States is the only continent that matters to me.”
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