Geography: An Essential School Subject—Five Reasons Why

Geography: An Essential School Subject - Five Reasons Whv

Hanging with serene elegance in a gallery at Fort Worth’s Kimbell Art Museum is Louis-L6opold Boilly’s (1761- 1845) ”The Geography Lesson.” Completed in 1812, the paint- ing is a double portrait showing a father instructing his young daughter in the uses of geography. The scene is in the family drawing room. Spread on the table are maps the two are studying, and to the side, a globe showing Europe and Africa, suggesting the context of the lesson. At the table‘s edge is a strewn stack of books and atlases. One of the maps includes a cartouche with the sphinx and pyramid, no doubt a refer- ence to Napoleon’s failed Egyptian expedition of 1798-1801. The child stands attentively by her father’s side, her right hand casually on his shoulder, as he instructs her on the meaning of the maps spread before them.

pected. Its tone and substance suggest that it ought to be a Dutch painting because it was Dutch artists, who a century earlier, produced art showing, in so many ways, that the prop- er duty of parents is to nurture and instruct their children. Almost always, such domestic scenes included globes full of incognita and gloriously colored maps that served as wall hang- ings and room decorations. These pictures suggest that par- ents were teaching their offspring a world view that included distant places in realms far away and only vaguely known, but still extensions of their own quiet corner of Europe. Nonetheless the emphasis was to present Earth as the home of the diverse human family.

Along with Boilly’s work, the Dutch paintings infer a sense of muted urgency about getting on with the business of a new era that reached limitlessly to worlds beyond the famil- iar dikes, canals, and quays of their small but orderly country. And for the French, even in the aftermath of their wrenching revolution and the turmoil of the Napoleonic years, fathoming the world through the study of maps, charts, and descriptive books was clearly an instructional priority. Such studies promised the excitement of exploration and discovery, colo- nization and trade, and settlement and prosperity. Opportunities abounded, and knowledge of geography was undeniably a key to the future.

cant, it is certainly less prominent than in earlier times. Even though the discipline offers the opportunity to develop compe- tency over challenging subject matter and to learn the skills necessary to interpret the meaning and importance of spaces and places, it suffers from benign neglect. Teachers and administrators typically offer lip service to geography by reas- suring that it has been encapsulated within the social studies. Well meaning as those promises might be, their ultimate out- come has been to neuter geography by denying it any clear curricular identity, and by forcing it to assume disguises with- Journal of Geography 102: 42-43 02003 National Council for Geographic Education

At first glance, the picture is surprising - even unex-

In today‘s world, while geography is no less signifi-

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out substance, form, or structure. Under such an amalgam, even the term “geography” disappears from the lexicon of the social sciences and is replaced by a set of amorphous identi- fiers that include such terms as ”people, places, and environ- ments,” ”culture,” ”global studies,” and ”global connections.” In their own innocuous way, these words say everything and nothing without ever being intentionally critical of geogra- phy’s place in the schools; it is simply excluded. Despite efforts to thwart geography’s discrete presence as a core acad- emic subject, there is a growing body of support advocating the discipline as an essential in a student’s education. Its pro- moters argue that it ought to be a regular part of every stu- dent‘s school experience every year, from kindergarten through the twelfth grade.

The rationale on which geography’s adherents defend its inclusion in the K-12 curriculum to promote competency in this challenging subject includes the following points of view:

1. Geography provides a spatial perspective for learning about the world. It transcends time, chronology, and sequence by teaching students to think in terms of physical and human systems, patterns, distributions, the movement of people, goods, and ideas, the world’s regions in all their forms, and the interaction between people and the environment. It exam- ines the spatial dimension of human experience (i.e., space and place) in ways that cannot be adequately developed if left in the mix of the social studies.

2. Geography describes the changing patterns of places in words, maps, and geo-graphics (e.g., pictures, graphs, charts, computer images, etc.). Then it explains how they came to be. No discipline is more visually oriented. pose is to help students unravel the meaning of these pat- terns. Beginning with the disarmingly simple geometric sym- bols of points and lines on a map, and moving to images of the world conveyed in compellingly colorful pictures, pho- tographs, and drawings, students learn to see the planet in fresh and daring ways that give it new meaning and impor- tance. All these tools assist in the visualization of space in an age more visual than any other.

Geography’s pur-

3. Geography is eminently useful. Its utilitarian value pro- vides real-world examples on topics that range from determin- ing the location of the next McDonald’s franchise, to analyz- ing the impact of global warming on coastal cities. What stu- dents need to know to be effective problem-solvers and com- petent decision-makers derives in part from a set of skills learned through investigations in geography. These include knowing what geographic questions to ask, what resources to use, and finally, how to organize and meaningfully present the

COMMENTARY 43

information they acquire. When these critical thinking skills are developed in the frame of reference of geographic inquiry, students recognize that geographic learning is a continuous process that is both empowering and interesting.

4. Geography provides an effective context for lifelong learn- ing. What students discover about Earth in their geography classrooms becomes a resource that will inform their world- view for the rest of their lives. That knowledge will take them beyond factoids too often trivializing geography to realms of understanding about the complexities of the planet. They must come to terms with the stresses its physical systems increasingly endure as demands on resources and living space become more burdensome - even to armed conflict. Ultimately, students come to recognize that the character of a place is the legacy of its past and is ever-changing. They must also understand geography’s central reality: the always uncer- tain and fragile relationship between human beings and the environments they use and inhabit.

5 . Geography provides every student with a special opportu- nity to develop a personal perspective about the world that is informed by both a humanistic and scientific viewpoint. It tempers the theoretical with the humane by encouraging stu- dents to value the individuality of places and to see the esthet- ic dimensions of every landscape, even the most harsh and forbidding. Geography’s great strength lies in its overarching qualities as a bridge between the humanities and the physical and mathematical sciences. While geography’s core tenet is always ”location matters,” location is multidimensional. It reaches into art, literature, history, and philosophy - indeed all the areas of human inquiry. Thus, it encourages investiga- tion and discourse on topics that touch every aspect of the mind and soul. Indeed, the humanistic tradition in geography is as old as the discipline itself.

About halfway through the film classic Casablanca, someone asks Humphrey Bogart, the coolly cynical Rick Blaine, why he ever came to Casablanca. He replied that it was for the waters. When reminded that there are no waters there, he recovered in his typical trenchant fashion by saying he was misinformed.

reminder that many people have gone to places ”for the waters“ only to find, as Rick did, that they were “misin- formed.” History is replete with examples. Why Hannibal’s use of elephants in his assault on Italy through the Pyrenees and the Alps in the Second Punic War? Why Napoleon‘s Russian campaign in the winter of 1812? Why the campaign on the Gallipoli Peninsula in World War I where an Allied quest for control of the Dardanelles and the Bosporous turned to carnage? Why Hitler’s hapless invasion of Russia and the siege of Stalingrad in World War II? Why the Vietnam action in the gnarled and impenetrable jungles of Indo-China? All were ill fated because all were ill conceived simply because the reality of geography was ignored.

physical geography. Human geography has been ignored as well. In the long run, will it prove to have been environmen- tally prudent to dam the Blue Nile and build another mono-

As exaggerated as this small aside might be, it is a

Poor decision-making is not restricted to events in

lithic structure similar to the Aswan in Egypt‘s lower Nile val- ley? Was locating Venice on islets in the Adriatic a wise choice for the fifth century refugees fleeing the Lombard invaders in northern Italy? Should they have evacuated as quickly as they came after the barbarian pillage had passed? Plate tectonics being what they are, is San Francisco as doomed as a modern city as Pompeii was as an ancient one, with the only difference that one will lie in its own rubble while the other rests in the gray ash of the erupted Vesuvius? What about decisions being made in today’s energy-voracious world to drill and dig for fossil fuels in such fragile environ- ments as Arctic preserves, remote tropical rainforests, and coastal waters near dense population centers? The worrisome results in these cases illustrate how the physical habitat, when arbitrarily modified by geographically misinformed human activities, can be put at risk for both the short and the long term. In each situation, different and more responsible solu- tions might have resulted had a clearer understanding of geog- raphy been applied.

In the National Geography Standards, readers are fre- quently reminded that geography is for life, and not simply an exercise for its own sake. A more complex and interdepen- dent world resulting from economic development, unprece- dented population growth, technological advances, and increased cooperation (and sometimes conflict) makes a clear- er and more focused knowledge of geography essential in every school curriculum. Of all the school subjects, geogra- phy is the most converging. It joins all the strands and threads of the arts and sciences to provide a coherent under- standing of the causes, effects, and meanings of the physical and human events that occur across Earth’s surface. As a result, the practical applications of geography, based on solid knowledge, must become a part of the academic preparation of all students, as schools ready them for roles as responsible citizens and effective leaders in the world they will inhabit as adults.

REFERENCES Geography Education Standards Project. 1994. Geography for

Life: National Geography Standards. Washington, DC: National Geographic Society.

National Research Council. 1996. Rediscovering Geography: New Relevance for Science and Society. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

James E Marran, Social Studies Chair Emeritus, New Trier Township High School, Winnetka, lllinois

EDITORIAL NOTE

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