Where's Waldo?

If anyone needs evidence that our schools are failing to educate our kids, here's some that startles. AP:

Despite the wall-to-wall coverage of the damage from Hurricane Katrina, nearly one-third of young Americans recently polled couldn't locate Louisiana on a map and nearly half were unable to identify Mississippi.

Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 fared even worse with foreign locations: six in 10 couldn't find Iraq, according to a Roper poll conducted for National Geographic.

"Geographic illiteracy impacts our economic well-being, our relationships with other nations and the environment, and isolates us from the world," National Geographic president John Fahey said in announcing a program to help remedy the problem. It's hoping to enlist businesses, nonprofit groups and educators in a bid to improve geographic literacy.

Here's my contribution:

Note: These map pieces are connected in real life, with the exception of Alaska and Hawaii. These two states are not near each other either, despite the picture, though they are both west of the "Continental US" (correction, the contiguous US). Hawaii is separated from us on the mainland by lots of water and Alaska is separated from us by Canada, our neighbor to the north.

And I learned the Alaskans just call where all of the rest of us live, "Outside". And that Hawaii is the southernmost state. Aloha y'all.