There’s been a lot said (and ranted) over the last couple of decades about the dumbing down of America. Not just kids, but adults, too.

I’m not referring to the expertise each of us has that allows us to do our jobs and generally function, but of the general knowledge of the world in which we live—literature, geography, art, etc.—call it liberal arts, if you will.

Few Americans are multi-lingual, as opposed to Europeans, East Europeans, Russians, Asians, etc., and our knowledge of geography is laughable.

I remember a survey during the Bosnia war and more than half of the respondents didn’t know where Bosnia was or that it, along with the republics of Slovenia, Croatia, and Herzegovina, were part of the old Yugoslavia, with Serbia and Montenegro forming the rest—nor did they seem to care.

For centuries, fighting of one kind or another has gone on almost constantly in the Middle East and, to put it mildly, is still going on and having a major impact on us today.

But most people have only a vague idea where these countries are.

How much do you know? Click the MAP below and see how well you do on arranging the listed countries.

On a general level I had them on the right continent, but don’t think much of my knowledge beyond that.

Does it matter? Does knowledge in liberal arts areas foster more than interesting, late night discussions over a bottle of wine?

What does it mean to be educated in the Twenty-first Century?

Your comments—priceless

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Image credit: Rethinking Schools