Reading "The Dumbing of America"

According to a 2006 survey by national Geographic-Roper, nearly half of Americans between ages 18 and 24 do not think it necessary to know the location of other countries in which important news is being made. More than a third consider it "not all important" to know a foreign language, and only 14 percent consider it "very important."

This reminded me of a world sales meeting, which I attended in America 16 years ago.
One American asked me, "How long does it take to go to Hong Kong from Japan by car?"
I was upset, "Drive to Hong Kong?"" I coudn't believe what he was saying. But I answered politely, "Since Japan is separated by the Sea of East-China Sea from Hong Kong, we take a flight and it takes usuually 4 hours."

According to the National Science and Foundation, one in five America adults thinks the sun revolves the Earth. It's the alarming number of Americans who have smugly concluded that they do not need to know such things in the first place.

It's not wise to say that you need not to know a foeign language or the location  of an important country. This is not the case in America 70 years ago.

Franklin Roosevelt took the pain, in the grim months after Pearl Harbor, to explain why U.S. forces were suffering one defeat after another in the Pacific.
In February 1942, Roosevelt urged Americans to spread out a map during his radio "fireside chat" so that they might better understand the geography of  battle. In stores throughout the country, maps sold out; about 80 percent of American adults tuned in to hear the president.  FDR has told his speechwriters that he was certain that if Americans understood the immensity of the distances over which supplies had to travel to the armed forces, "they can take any kind of bad news right on the chin."

I wonder whether the re-elected President Obama is going to be like FDR.