105 STAT. 1288 PUBLIC LAW 102-189—DEC. 4, 1991 Public Law 102-189 102d Congress Joint Resolution Dec. 4, 1991 Designating the week beginning December 1, 1991, and the week beginning Novem- [H.J. Res. 201] ^®^ 1^' 1992, each as "Geography Awareness Week". Whereas geography is the study of people and their planet, offering a framework for understanding ourselves, our interdependence with other peoples, our relationship to the Earth, and world events; Whereas the United States has both worldwide involvements and influence that demand an understanding of geography, different cultures, and foreign languages; Whereas the credibility of our Nation's foreign policy largely depends on the support of a geographically informed public, a public which understands both the locations and the significance of historic changes occurring around the globe and their impact on the United States; Whereas an ignorance of geography, different cultures, and foreign languages places the United States at a disadvantage with respect to other nations in matters of business, politics, the environment, and global events; Whereas, although geography as a distinct discipline has virtually disappeared from the curricula of schools in the United States, it is still being taught as a basic subject in other nations, including the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, and the Soviet Union; Whereas our Nation's Governors, in their National Goals for Education, explicitly identified geography as one of five subjects in which American students should demonstrate competency; Whereas a perspective in geography offers a critically needed understanding of the relationship between human activity and the condition of our planet in this time of increasing environmental problems; Whereas the first federally funded National Assessment of Educational Progress revealed a "disturbing geography knowledge gap" among 12th graders: 58 percent could locate Jerusalem on a regional map, but only 36 percent knew that Saudi Arabia is bounded by the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf; Whereas in a 1988 Gallup Poll, 75 percent of those surveyed could not locate the Persian Gulf on a map, and fewer than half of those surveyed could name Asia as the place that Christopher Columbus was hoping to reach when he discovered the New World; Whereas that 1988 Gallup Poll also projected that 24,000,000 Americans could not identify the United States on a map of the world, 58,000,000 Americans could not tell direction on a map, and 105,000,000 Americans did not know the population of the United States; Whereas geography is more than the study of map identification. State capitals, and country names, but geography also gives meaning to location and establishes a context for understanding the connections among peoples, places, and events; 59-139 O - 91 (189)
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