I ask because of this:

Some young men came into the shop (in Cornwall) earlier. They had quite strong Bristolian/North Somerset accents, and when asked they stated they were from Bath. One of them proceeded to ask if they were in Somerset, a county some 100 miles away. When we responded in the negative, they asked where they were and where Somerset was (we proceeded to explain the concept of "Devon" to them). One even asked what county Bath is in (which any fule kno is in Somerset).

To say we were astonished, if not worried would be an understatement. Just what do they teach in schools these days?

Firstly I would be quite concerned that any driver could miss the 'You are now leaving/entering insert county here' signs. So much for paying attention on the roads.

I can also only see this problem getting worse as new generations grow up with satnav and couldn't plan a journey with an atlas if their lives depended on it.

That's not true Matt, I drive to work without a Satnav everyday.

Send me to the airport however....

Lucky this is concerning the UK.

Oh yeah, when I was at school, we had compulsary Geography from years 7-9 (ages about 11-14) but from then on it was an optional extra.

Bloody yoof of today.

To be honest I though Bath was in Avon not Somerset?

The problem is as you say an over reliance on technology. People do not use maps any longer and have no idea what an atlas is. People do not think what use geography is when they leave school. Lat year I did the South Downs walk with a friend and we commented on the scarp the arbitrary nature of the route and how it might have be created. For example the chalk downs would have meant that the tops of hills would be relatively dry and passable because of the drainage of the chalk compared to the valleys. We got lost a few times but the maps meant that we could see where to take a short cut to get back en route. Though with the exception of holidays many people could barely tell you how to find a country on a world atlas. The Americans are really bad but many Brits are just as bad.

I've driven all over Europe without a SatNav - my previous car had a built in sat-nav, but I decided not to bother with the new one, because I so rarely used it, it wasn't worth the 1,400€ extras cost!

That said, my girlfriend has only been outside of Lower Saxony once in her life, before she met me and she left Germany for the first time last year, when she came with me to England to see my sick mother; mum was too sick and didn't want to meet any strangers, so she never met my girlfriend, before she died but that is another story...

Yes but you are a bloke and as such can read a map.

It's not tech alone. There's also the post office getting rid of counties.

But mostly, no, they don't teach geography and haven't done for some time. You didn't learn what county Bath was in at school either. You learnt it somewhere else along the way.

They teach little bits of geology, demographics and climatology. That's it.

I've got a very good knowledge of where everything is, south of the M4. I also know East Anglia reasonably and then major cities like Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Leicester, etc. I'll be alright with. I learnt all of this, by driving there, a bit of reading and common sense. Not from a teacher.

I don't usually take a map with me, either. I'll write out the route on Post-It notes and stick them on the centre console...

I only needed a map once, which I bought on the spot, when I went to Czech to pick up a girlfriend, the roads were all flooded, so I had to take some detours. I managed to get within 10KM of the village I needed, before I had to resort to a map.

The GPO isn't getting rid of counties - it's just not putting in its databases.

Counties will continue as normal.

Bath was formerly in Avon, but now it is ceremonially in Somerset, with its unitary authoritary being B&NES (Bath and North East Somerset - "Banes").

I have travelled extensively around the UK, Wales and Scotland so I have a very good idea of geography of this country. I don't remember learning where towns were at school it was more about On my travels I have met many people who have hardly left their home towns which I find astonishing.

There's someone at work who hasn't left the Bay in all of her twenty years.
It's showing.

That doesn't surprise me at all. When I was in Florida the lady I stayed with had never been to Miami which was only a couple of hours drive away. Bizarre.