The National Geographic Society published a survey they took of Geographic Knowledge of 18 - 24 year olds throughout the developed countries of the world. As usual, the US comes out near the bottom. Not that the other countries are that much better, but still:

Young Americans show weak performance with regard to the Middle East and Asia. Despite the countries almost daily presence in the news and the potential impact of current conflicts on everyone's lives, only on in seven can find Iraq or Iran on a map of the Middle East.
By contrast, more young Americans could determine that the island used for the last season of Survivor is in the South Pacific.

What's it going to take?!?!? Here's more:

17% could find Afghanistan on a world map.
Young Americans grossly overstated the population of the US. 30% said it was over 1 billion.

The Survey suggested a few things that determined geographic skill:

1. Education (specifically classes focusing on geography)
2. International travel and language
3. Web usage
4. Media Usage
5. Gender (yes, that's right ladies, the men were about 4 points ahead)

Pull out those atlases, people, and start showing your kids. You might learn something too!