Geography skillz

In one of my recent busywork teacher classes, a social studies teacher pointed out that she was amazed when her middle school kids didn't realize that Madagascar was, in fact, an island and not just a name made up for a movie. As we all shared another one of those 'aren't kids silly' laughs, a classmate (that is, another who is in this teacher-prep program) mentioned that she didn't learn that Kazakhstan was a real nation until after she had seen the Borat movie.

I'll grant that those are both a little obscure but it reminded me of a story a colleague told about how, while in Italy teaching young and rich Americans, she overheard one say to another that 'I may go to Ireland this weekend, I think it's a short train ride away.'