TikTok user Sabriena Abrre questioned her education in a viral video that has been viewed over 850,000 times, admitting that she used to believe Alaska was an island.
A woman was surprised to learn that Alaska is not an island and can be reached by driving. Many Americans and Canadians were confused, as Alaska is often depicted as an island on the US map.
She believed it was an island, not an American-owned land mass next to Canada, due to this.
“I have so many questions for the US education system. I graduated high school with As and Bs, I was a good student,” Abrre said.
“This is absolutely criminal, the list of things that I didn’t know about Canada, about the United States, about geography as a whole, it is just appalling."
“I know what you are thinking ‘you must be stupid’, ‘you just must not know geography’, it’s a US thing," Abrre continued.
"Elyse Myers on TikTok also mentioned that she had this realization in adulthood and her comments are overflowing with people, adults, that have had the same realization after graduating high school," she said.
She also admitted that she didn't realize Alaska's size from a map and that she mistakenly believed Texas was larger than Alaska.
Alaska, the largest US state, borders Yukon and British Columbia. As a noncontiguous state, it is often shown separately on US maps, potentially misleading people into thinking it's not part of the same land mass. Alaska's temperatures can reach 70 degrees Fahrenheit in summer, with polar bears typically only seen on arctic coastlines, unlike the common belief of freezing cold and snow.
Many Canadian viewers were confused by Abrre's revelation, while others who claimed to be American admitted to making the same mistake.
"I used to wonder why Hawaii was so hot and Alaska was so cold when they were just next to each other," one person remarked.
Another teacher, having heard this from adults numerous times, always emphasizes to her students that Alaska is not an island.
However, other users were taken aback by the fact that this appeared to be a widespread issue.
“Confused Canadian here, were ya’ll not shown a world map in geography class?” one TikToker wrote.
Another user mentioned that they learned things outside of school through NatGeo and the History Channel as a child.
