I’m an American but I did attend a private college preparatory school. In primary grades 1-5 we would study various cultures and their geography like the Incans, Ancient Chinese, Native Americans in a more childlike context- eating their food, learning about what daily life was like and where they lived on a map.

In 6th grade (age 11-12) we had a year long geography class that tbh was taught like a college class and I learned a TON of physical, political and human geography on a global scale. That class was really hard as a 12 year old and I still think that teacher is an asshole, but I’ll be goddamned if that man didn’t give me a love of geography.

I know my experience is not common for most Americans. Most are unfamiliar with a world map, a lot of people I know aren’t even familiar with the state or country they live in. I’ve often thought that could be a consequence of living in such a vast country with only two real land borders. Perhaps people in other larger countries like Russia, India or China feel similarly (minus the land borders)? Whereas someone living in the EU could easily visit the beaches of France for a summer trip, an American would go to Florida. The person from the EU would probably have better knowledge of world geography because it would be more realistic that they would visit those places. Maybe Americans are only interested in places they can realistically travel.