This interesting post on the Geographic Travels with Catholicgauze! blog looks at the last three surveys of geographic literacy to determine whether the push for geographic understanding has resulted in increased geographic literacy. Unfortunately, the data doesn't look good. What are your thoughts? Click "Comments" below...
Top Related Searches geography awareness
Explore Geography
Comments
So sad! It doesn’t matter that there is a Geography Week if the discipline isn’t emphasized or taught in schools!!!!! My high school students tell me the only place they ever get any kind of geography lessons is their foreign language classes! I remember an old NatGeo bumpersticker: Without Geography, You’re Nowhere!
In the early 1930′s learned education theorists, centered at Columbia U. managed to to sell “Social Science.” Until then Geography and History were taught to everyone. At my grade school all history and Geography classes were cancelled and instead we got Social Science, a quite pink version – most academics during the Great Depression ranged from pink to red. Many millions leaned Harold Rugg’s version of the world. What kids learn in school has gone downhill ever since.
I can’t vouch for the accuracy but I recently read that 49% of Americans do not know white bread is made from wheat. How can you expect them to know anything? How embarassing, how hopeless.
NGS has a wonderful website – My Wonderful World- that is full of excellent resources for parents, teachers, and students. This is part of NGS’s grassroots efforts to increase geographic literacy in the U.S. The website URL is MyWonderfulWorld.org. Even if your school fails to teach your students geography, this wonderful website can instruct them in a meaningful, fun way about the world around them.
I’m happy to say that Geography in the public schools is not dead yet. I teach at a public school in Texas, where 9th grade Geography is mandatory for high school graduation. Most of my students in the past seven years I have taught Geography have an abysmal knowledge of geography but a keen interest in learning about the world outside of their activity space. I never focused on having my kids memorize capitals or statistics that change every year. Instead, we learned about the people and places that are so interesting in our world. I had students who said they had never liked a history class before, but now it was their favorite. Last year, I taught AP Human Geography for the first time to a class of 9th grade girls at a public magnet school. I had no idea what to expect, but out of 42 taking the test, 13 received a score of “3″ or higher, with two receiving “4s” and 2 receiving “5s.” My school celebrated National Geography Week this past week by having a trivia question contest revolved around the official theme for each day. We had questions about GPS, the global hotspot of Georgia, Mt. Kilimanjaro’s melting glaciers and others. There was high student participation, and all the school learned the answers at the end of the day. I love geography and I hope I am passing that love on to my students. I believe, that a teacher who goes beyond coloring in maps and lecturing will find students eager to learn more about their world.
Sadly, I’m not surprised. I’ve studied geography fairly extensively in the past year, and although I’m far from knowing everything, it surprises me what kind of questions I can stump people with. I’m reminded of the beauty pageant contestant who, when asked why many americans can’t find the US on a map, replied, “Many Americans don’t have maps.”
Few colleges require any knowledge
of Geography to graduate. I have a degree in Political Science and the state college from which I graduated didn’t really have geograghy courses. I felt ripped off in that I couldn’t take at least some good,basic courses. That situation is not particuarly helpful to those majoring in things like history, political science,etc.
In 1948 Harvard eliminated its
Geograghy Department. It has been some time that many institutions of “higher learning” have been,now for generations, disuading learning about our planet.
Part of the solution I think is
to encourage all colleges to offer geograghy courses and disuade kids from going to colleges that don’t offer these courses. Could you imagine finding out your kid in college wouldn’t have to take any English courses,i.e. The message the school would be sending is they don’t care to enhance the kids ability to read and write in the four years they are there. I think most people would not take the school seriously: as they shouldn’t those where you can’t learn basic geograghy.
Hi-
I am also in a school system (VA) that requires geography for high school graduation. We also celebrated Geography Awareness Week. I’d love to see more school systems emerge that would require the course 9either World or AP)- especially with the global changes taking place. I’m trhilled to use Nat Geo’s My Wonderful World website- it’s a great resource for teachers, parents, and students.
At my middle school we have a subject Humanities and It is basically the same thing as social studies. We learn a minimal amount of geography each week and it is just pathetic to see some of these kids test themselves. We have been doing this for months now, since September, and the majority haven’t even passed naming the states on a map. How is a man going to go to St. Louis if he doesn’t know where Missouri is?
Geography is everything in our lives and I think that it is a shame that these kids are deprived of it because there is really so much to learn and discover about our world
I’ve been teaching 7th grade Social Studies for the last 5 years. Our program was reduced from full year to half year 4 years ago. We have a Pacing Guide that flies through the Eastern Hemisphere in 90 days. Teachers were told not to have students create maps and that they would be able to “figure out” where places were in the world! That just doesn’t work. My students don’t know the difference between a continent, a country, or a city. They are not familiar with map symbols or latitude and longitude. I could spend the entire 90 days teaching just geography! Instead of spending time on that we have to make sure our students understand government and economic systems so they can pass their High School Assessments. I am so frustrated. Hoping our system goes back to 180 days of Social Studies but since it’s not a tested subject, I guess our students will remain in the dark when it comes to geography. So sad.