Singapore to China

I loved the round-table discussion we had in class on Wednesday discussing various topics in social studies. We talked a little bit about the necessity of knowing where places/countries are, and while I don't think we all need to be as sharp as Lilly (but how cool would that be?!?), I do think it's important to know the general location of countries. And as it so happens, I was at dinner with a couple friends on Wednesday evening and someone was talking about how they were going to Singapore and another friend said why don't you go to China too?!? It's so close! go see the Great Wall of China. There was a pause at the table and someone was like really? And then we came to the consensus that it wasn't really that close at all. In fact, Singapore is at the tip of Malaysia, close to Indonesia and China is a long way north. I think that's part of the reason it's important to know the general location of countries. Imagine if you were planning a trip in your head and then thought you could go to all these places, and then when the map is consulted, it actually doesn't work at all. Although I guess you could also just look at a map to plan the trip. But I think because so many things are so easy to look up, we're becoming a little too dependent on technology. I think we all agree that the multiplication tables is something that's really important to know, not just be able to calculate. But what if later generations decide that we don't need to know those either. There might be some cool gadget that's tiny and will do math for you. I don't know I guess I just think some information you just should know. And I guess everyone's definition of what that information is differs, which is ok, maybe even it's good to have those differing opinions. It makes you look critically at information and decide what is important to you and why.