Education: Information Please

The lanky American asked the class of British schoolboys: "Suppose you were sitting on the bank of the Mississippi River looking east. How far away would the Atlantic Ocean be?" Blank looks. Many of them had never heard of the Mississippi River. Said a boy who had: "100 miles." Another: "500 miles."

Such is the illiteracy in British schools regarding the U.S. Witness to this Anglo-duncism was Yankee Chester Williams, an assistant to U.S. Education Commissioner John W. Studebaker, who last week reported on his official ten-week tour of British schools. He brought news...