While I don't feel my level of geographical knowledge reflects the mainstream, I would've expected that it would be similar to the kind of people accepted at top schools like Harvard.
It reflects the dumbing down of our educational systems. Even the best schools in our country haven't set strong standards for an overall grasp of our world from a holistic & comprehensive perspective. I must have read 100 articles with similar topics to this one over the last 20 years.
Yet why would we assume that these schools really truly reflect the best and brightest of not just the USA's, but the world's intellectual thinkers? People go to these schools as part of a hyper-competitive process to become successful financially with a focus on particular & increasingly specialized levels of knowledge.
People learn and remember what they learn, when either they believe it is important to know as individuals and citizens and/or when it is impressed upon them upon the larger social systems of which they are apart. When this is lacking, you get the kind "oh stupid me...hehehe...I don't know...is it Ontario?" responses that in my view.
Young people seem afraid to act or come off as smart people. Their desire to be cool, acts as dumbing down process. Sometimes they actually appear dumber than they really are, as in the case of this video and not knowing the capital of Canada - one of the most economically powerful nations in the world.