FPA speaks with Melissa L. Rossi, author of the book What Every American Should Know about the World regarding the current state of international education in the U.S., the role of foreign Policy organizations and the media.

TRANSCRIPT:

In a National Geographic survey taken last year, 85% of 18 to 25 year old Americans could not locate Iraq, Afghanistan, or Israel on a map. Only 19% could name four countries that officially acknowledge having nuclear weapons and more young Americans knew that the island featured on Survivor was in the South Pacific then knew where Israel was on a map. Where is this lack of knowledge stemming from?

Its rather alarming isn't it? I think it goes back to the fact that schools are no longer teaching geography, current events, or world cultures. They are not training us to go out into the world and be people who can think on our own. Maybe they are training us to be workers, but not workers capable of deciphering the news. I truly feel sorry for people who are educated in the U.S. public school system because they are coming out crippled in their ability to synthesize and understand what is going on in the world. On top of that, you have a rapid paced media, which is too fast for anyone to absorb information, even when taking notes. There is a real gap between what we learn in school and what the media is presenting us. Where are you supposed to get that information?

This is interesting, because if you look at school curriculum, history classes often do not even cover the second half of the 20th century. As you mentioned earlier, geography is also completely off the board. Students will cover World War I, possibly World War II and then that's it.

That is completely right. Also, we aren't even talking about the Spanish American War of 1898, when the United States was a colonial power and there were many questionable land acquisitions. Even Mark Twain made a lot of noise about what was happening in Cuba, and the Philippines, which we occupied until World War II. We just don't have a sense of history anymore. It is evident in our culture, our architecture, our media, and in our schools. That is why I would love to live in Europe; you see history all around you, it comes alive there, but it just lays dead on a piece of paper here. We need that element of historical context to overhaul the educational system.

There are changes being made so that students can pass the standardized tests, and as far as Bush's "No child left behind" program, I feel we need to go way beyond that and get geography back in the classroom, we need cultural awareness and foreign languages to be part of our national vocabulary. Heaven forbid that Americans learn Spanish or French! We just don't have the basic tools; they are not given to us in schools and the media rarely helps out with them at all. As a result, the caliber of conversation in the United States revolves around "What model is your new car", or "How are your stocks doing", or "How is your love life". We don't challenge ourselves.

We talk about there being a gap in schools and news broadcasts. In particular, there is a huge gap between the somewhat elite "Think Tanks", foreign policy workshops and our local news broadcast. Where is the middle ground for Americans to take part in what is going on outside the United States?

Geopolitics has become the realm of the elite. You have to go study at Harvard and become part of Rand or the Council on Foreign Relations, whom I have no problem with and feel are doing some great reports. But where does the common man come into this? How can they get that information?

I feel the Internet is the new filler of this gap. But, it's not all in one place; it takes you a long time. I was on the Internet, the phone, and traveling for a year to get my information. I feel that the elitist information needs to be distributed, and that is what I am trying to do in my book. And that is what I think the FPA does, and that is what some of these other organizations and sites are trying to do.

Let me site another statistic for you:  65% of those with moderate or low interest in international news say that they lose interest in these stories because they lack the background information to keep up (Pew Research Center for People and the Press). Is your book, What Every American Should Know About the World going after this demographic and trying to introduce them to the language of world politics?

That is definitely part of my target market. What I see this book as doing is trying to bring people up to speed. It's like trying to learn a foreign language! It gives the basic names and explains who they are so you can feel confident when you run into those names because you have become familiar with them.

For example, what is the United States' involvement with Indonesia, Pakistan, what has it been with Israel? Because of the schools, news, and conversation many people do not know these things. In addition, I am also aiming my book at people who are already well informed. I take a lot of information for international media, travel, think tanks, and interviews and consolidate it. This in information that you may not get at even if you watch the news 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and you read Foreign Affairs every time it comes out. It's hard to assimilate it all.

How did you choose and compile the information in your book, and what were some of the challenges you faced?

I tried to decipher what the common themes were. Sometimes I would get a report from some very conservative sources and then I would review some very liberal sources on the same topic. I called many people also, including journalists. In Cairo, for example, I called the Cairo Times and talked to a journalist on September 12th, 2001. He was the one who told me Egyptian Al Jihad was the one to be looking at, he told me about the physicians and the secret societies that were being pushed underground, things you really weren't hearing here.

I was trying to draw from multiple sources because I didn't want things to be just black and white. I think that's what is going on in this country; there is too much black and white. We came from an age of "whatever-ism" and now it is black and white, good and evil, with us or against us. It's now turning into liberal versus conservative, and there is just a lot of name-calling. I wish I could make the world fit into black and white, but them more you look at issues, the more you start to notice the grays.

You said that What Every American Should Know About the World is what you were looking for in every bookstore, garage sale, or on Amazon.com after September 11th, but could never find. Why did it take so long for a book like that to come out and why did you have to do it yourself?

Because, no one is that foolish. There are 191 countries in the world so I think that it is safe to say that nobody is an expert on the world. People tell me that I am an expert on the world, but I am not. If you are less than 300 years old and have not lived in every country, and you do not speak at least 500 languages and assorted dialects, you are not an expert on the world.

Few people wanted to take on this task of giving the big picture of what is going on in the world. I don't know why no think tanks came out with something similar or even Newsweek. At one point I was about to call up Newsweek and say, "Okay, you guys do it". But then I would have gotten $75 and no credit. There were some answers out there, however. The Council on Foreign Relations did their www.terrorismanswers.com, which was very helpful. Again, there are 191 countries in the world and I do not cover all of them. I tried to focus on about 1/3 of them, at least the ones who have been frequenting the news.

Do you think that now that the United States is asserting itself more forcefully around the globe that we will mimic the colonial experience of some European countries?

One would hope, but there is still a large percentage of the American population that just want to watch their reality shows and eat this mind candy. It seems that our media has been feeding us doughnuts for so long. Now after 9/11, they are saying, "Now try some lentils!" and it just seems unappetizing in comparison.

Going back to the Europeans, I don't find it terribly helpful when they call us ‘stupid Americans'. But, the truth of the matter is that Europeans are absolutely confused about the European Union. Also, most Europeans cannot name all then countries that are coming into the EU. They have no idea what is going on in Estonia, Hungry, or Poland. They are clueless in their own ways as well, that is why I hate it when they start acting superior. However, they do travel more and have better educations by and large.

One of the themes that appears in your introductory remarks is the ‘apathy factor'. You look at a number issues, particularly the American reaction towards the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and how the reaction is often, "we got rid of Saddam so it doesn't matter". But when you look at regime change in other countries such as Liberia, people don't want to respond. What is your take on this?

There is an apathy that comes from ignorance, and we are not a particularly analytical society. We have an incredible propensity to forget. It amazed me while doing this book how many things are simply symbols in our society. Saddam was a symbol of evil, a representation of all the threatening people who are out to get us. So as much as the case was made on paper and in the State of the Union Address about weapons of mass destruction, really what was being sold was the creation of this symbol. It goes back to that black and white scenerio. That is why many people do not care about the weapons of mass destruction, because for them that is not why we were going into Iraq to begin with, it was to get Saddam, the symbol of evil.

The last question I would like to ask you is regarding your statement that Americans are squandering the power that we have built up and not learning about the world. Do you see any positive signs of change in the future?

I think for some people September 11th was that kick in the rear that there is a world out there. Even going into Africa is sparking people's interests in international affairs, there is an increased awareness. Is it 100% of the population?  No. Is it 1/3, at least. They do care; they're just trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together. I find it extremely reassuring.