Spaniards and Geography

As I said in my last post, I've been going over the continents and oceans with my classes and in one of my private classes.  As part of the lesson I asked which continent certain countries are in.  Let's just say Spaniards, or Andalucians, are AWFUL at geography.  I feel like a group of 10-12 year olds should know where at least some countries are, such as China, Brazil, countries within their own continent, etc.  The education system here, or in Andalucia, is most definitely not up to par like the U.S.  People back home complain so much about our education system, but really, they need to travel to other countries and see it for themself. 

Here are a couple examples:  Yesterday in my private lesson I asked where Italy was.  I got various answers from Asia, Africa, to Australia.  Not even close.  Today in my fourth grade class I asked where the United States was.  I'm pretty sure I got every answer except North America.  When I started off the lessons on asking the names of continents I had students shouting countries.  "China!  Ireland!  Italy!"  I kept saying those were countries, not continents, but they don't understand what I'm saying half the time and they were all screaming their heads off so it's not like they really heard me anyway. 

Let's hope that these Spanish ninos have learned something from my lesson this week.