Building Skills by Exploring Maps: The World
I remember in high school I took a ninth grade geography class, but it didn’t mean much to me. About all I can recall from that class was that the teacher had a habit of writing on the board and then sitting on her desk with her feet dangling very near the trash can beside it. We spent most of the time as we listened to her talk of products and regions, etc, waiting for the big moment that usually came — the moment the teacher would get off her desk. Very often, on her way to the classroom floor, she would land in the waste basket, and we anticipated it every day. What I don’t remember is if we ever saw a map of the world. We must have, but I don’t remember it.
I inherited a lack of interest in geography from my mother, who told me she used to keep a book she’d rather read inside her geography book in class. I think my first interest in the subject surfaced when I was homeschooling my children. A couple of things happened during those years that rekindled that interest. First we read a lot of books aloud that were set throughout the United States. We found an old AAA map of the USA and put it on the hall wall. As we read each book, we would use a map tack to pin the name of the book in the place it was set in. Later, we actually visited many of the placed we had read about and pinned.That travel helped all of us learn more about the geography of our country. Here’s how we incorporated this travel into our homeschool curriculum.
We got more interested in world geography when Desert Storm, the first war in Iraq took place. We used a globe and a map of the Middle East in a reproducible book we had so that we could follow what was happening as we got the news reports each day. All of a sudden what was happening in that part of the world became very relevant to our lives. We decided it was a good time to study the Middle East and why it was important.
I’m wondering how many of our young people today would be able to find Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Egypt, or Israel on a map or globe quickly , and how many could give at least one reason why the United States is interested in them. Perhaps someday soon I will conduct my own student in the street interview and find out.
When your students look back at the geography they learned in your class or at home, what do you think they will remember? Parents, do you ever get out the globe or a map after the news and see if your children can find the places the news anchors pointed to or talked about? Do you discuss the news with your children? Could you find these places yourself?
Teachers, do you care about what’s happening in far away countries? Do you know how to make your students understand what those countries have to do with their lives? Or are they reading a textbook and memorizing population figures or product lists that they will soon forget after they are tested? The future of the world will someday be in the hands of today’s students? Will they know much about that world? The answer is partly up to you.
