An American woman said she was shocked to discover that Alaska isn't actually an island, calling for an 'overhaul' of the school curriculum
A woman said she was shocked to discover that Alaska is not an island, and that you can drive to it, despite how it looks on the maps she saw at school.
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An American woman said she was shocked to discover that Alaska isn't actually an island, calling for an 'overhaul' of the school curriculum
Aimee PearcyNov 15, 2023, 9:35 AM EST
Alaska is the largest US state. Teresa Kopec / Getty Images
- A woman said she was shocked to discover that Alaska is not an island, and you can drive to it.
- While Canadians were left baffled, many Americans said they'd made the same mistake.
- Some people pointed out that Alaska is shown as an island on the US map, which causes confusion.
A woman said she was shocked to discover that Alaska is not an island and that it's possible to drive to it during a conversation with her Canadian boyfriend.
In the video posted on October 26, TikToker Sabriena Abrre asked people not to call her a "stupid American" as she admitted her mistake. "Everybody knows that Alaska is cold," she said. "But did I know that it was connected by land? No. I did not know that."
She also said that she hadn't realized how big Alaska was just by looking at a map and that she had thought that Texas was bigger than Alaska.
Alaska is the largest US state, bordering the Canadian territory of Yukon and the westernmost province British Columbia, which sits between the state and the rest of the US. As it is one of the US's noncontiguous states, along with Hawaii, it is often shown separately in a box at the bottom of maps of the US, which could lead some people to assume it's not part of the same land mass.
Abrre explained this was the reason for her confusion, saying, "The curriculum obviously needs some help. We need a good revision — an overhaul of the entire curriculum at this point."
So far, the video has been viewed over 819,000 times. Many viewers who said they were Canadian appeared baffled by Abrre's revelation. Other viewers who said they were American wrote that they had made the same mistake.
TikTok viewer Haley Hopkins commented that the video had just made her realize that Alaska is not an island. "I'm so embarrassed," she wrote.
Meanwhile, a viewer who said they are a teacher wrote that they had "heard this from adults many times" and that they always made sure to tell their students that Alaska is not an island.
There are many misconceptions about Alaska, Business Insider previously reported, partly due to its representation in pop culture, as TV shows such as "Ice Road Truckers" and "The Deadliest Catch" depict some of the most extreme jobs that people do in the state.
This may lead people to believe that Alaska is freezing cold and snowing all the time, with polar bears roaming the street. In fact, temperatures can reach up to 70 degrees Fahrenheit in summer, and while grizzly and black bears are relatively common in the state, polar bears can typically only be seen on the state's arctic coastlines.
