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One thing that could be done is for schools to actually teach geography. It’s extraordinarily relevant to history and current affairs. It gets a bad reputation

by JackFr 6y ago

One thing that could be done is for schools to actually teach geography. It’s extraordinarily relevant to history and current affairs. It gets a bad reputation because there is of necessity a significant amount of memorization. Knowing rivers, cities, mountain ranges, climates, the relative size and population of cities and countries really enhances your understanding of both historic and current events. And I really hate to be one of those the-US-is-really-terrible-at-this guys, but it’s been my experience that the US is really terrible at this.

grawprog 6y ago
I never learned much about mapping or map projections until university, I still think it's one of the most valuable things I learned there and one of the things I learned actually worth the money. We had a couple courses on manual mapping, surveying, geography, compass reading triangulation, all that stuff. How to draw a map by hand based on compass and survey data. By far some of the most awesome stuff i've learned. I agree, more stuff like this should be touched on in high school. Mapping is such a large yet underappreciated part of society.
hvdfhbj 6y ago
When I went through high school (in Australia) the memorisation parts of geography had long since gone out of fashion, and what had replaced them was a series of "case studies" where you learned about the lifestyles of some obscure group of people elsewhere on the planet for a few months before forgetting about them entirely. At least memorising the capital cities of every country on Earth gives you some kind of big picture knowledge that you can build on in later life.
- jennyyang 6y ago
  I'm almost 50, and we did a geography project in grade 5 on Brazil. I still remember a lot about that project, despite a lot of that information being completely out of date now (My instinct is to still say cruziero as the currency of Brazil even though it's wrong). I've never been to the country and probably never will just out of lack of interest, but it's funny how some things stick with you.
ineedasername 6y ago
I'm confused at the "didn't learn it in school!" comments. I went to an average public school in lower-middle class area in the US and remember learning lots of geography. Memorizing rivers, mountains, major cities, national parks etc., and yes multiple forms of map projections. 5th grade in particular really hammered it home. We even had to draw maps. This was the early 90's.
- syshum 6y ago
  My public school matches everything on your list except map projections, but it is possible I just did not pay attention to that... I was taught world geography, just have no memory of different map projections
- Moru 6y ago
  Being old I have noticed that a lot of people swear they didn't learn this or that in school. Even though they were to the same school as me. I think it's down to selective memory, it was just not registered because there was something more interesting at the time. Youth only being humans after all.
  - VBprogrammer 6y ago
    I think it comes down to what interests you. Nuggets like how different map projections impact size and shape of the earth is the kind of thing I would never forget. Other kids could discuss specific goals, matches, titles and football players; sometimes from foreign leagues. Even though I vaguely enjoy watching the odd match, the details would instantly be lost to the ether.
- saagarjha 6y ago
  Was this the entire world, or just the US?
disown 6y ago
> It gets a bad reputation because there is of necessity a significant amount of memorization. Ah, the joys of having to memorize all the counties and then all 50 states and their capitals. Never again. > And I really hate to be one of those the-US-is-really-terrible-at-this guys, but it’s been my experience that the US is really terrible at this. We could do better but it's not like we don't learn geography. We learn state and national geography. I supposed world geography could be emphasized more.
Theodores 6y ago
I had high hopes for geography at secondary school but dropped it at the first available opportunity. As a small child I spent a lot of time memorising the atlas, not just the maps with the towns/rivers/capitals but also the pages that went before that about what countries exported what, what countries imported what, how the continents had changed over millions of years, the flora and fauna as well as the volcanoes stuff. At school there was no teaching of the towns/cities/countries it was just about how volcanoes and tectonic plates worked. Which was far too boring for me. If you know towns, cities and countries at the atlas level then it is knowledge learned by rote. If you find yourself living in a cosmopolitan city such as London where you meet people from all over the world then you can find this information useful. Even if you have never been there yourself you once knew a place well enough to remember the name so there is genuine interest in finding out what it is like to live there. I wish they taught this geography of place names as a subject because it could be the one subject that kids who like memorising stuff could do well at.

by JackFr 6y ago

grawprog 6y ago

I never learned much about mapping or map projections until university, I still think it's one of the most valuable things I learned there and one of the things I learned actually worth the money. We had a couple courses on manual mapping, surveying, geography, compass reading triangulation, all that stuff. How to draw a map by hand based on compass and survey data. By far some of the most awesome stuff i've learned. I agree, more stuff like this should be touched on in high school. Mapping is such a large yet underappreciated part of society.

hvdfhbj 6y ago

When I went through high school (in Australia) the memorisation parts of geography had long since gone out of fashion, and what had replaced them was a series of "case studies" where you learned about the lifestyles of some obscure group of people elsewhere on the planet for a few months before forgetting about them entirely. At least memorising the capital cities of every country on Earth gives you some kind of big picture knowledge that you can build on in later life.

jennyyang 6y ago
I'm almost 50, and we did a geography project in grade 5 on Brazil. I still remember a lot about that project, despite a lot of that information being completely out of date now (My instinct is to still say cruziero as the currency of Brazil even though it's wrong). I've never been to the country and probably never will just out of lack of interest, but it's funny how some things stick with you.

ineedasername 6y ago

I'm confused at the "didn't learn it in school!" comments. I went to an average public school in lower-middle class area in the US and remember learning lots of geography. Memorizing rivers, mountains, major cities, national parks etc., and yes multiple forms of map projections. 5th grade in particular really hammered it home. We even had to draw maps. This was the early 90's.

syshum 6y ago
My public school matches everything on your list except map projections, but it is possible I just did not pay attention to that... I was taught world geography, just have no memory of different map projections
Moru 6y ago
Being old I have noticed that a lot of people swear they didn't learn this or that in school. Even though they were to the same school as me. I think it's down to selective memory, it was just not registered because there was something more interesting at the time. Youth only being humans after all.
- VBprogrammer 6y ago
  I think it comes down to what interests you. Nuggets like how different map projections impact size and shape of the earth is the kind of thing I would never forget. Other kids could discuss specific goals, matches, titles and football players; sometimes from foreign leagues. Even though I vaguely enjoy watching the odd match, the details would instantly be lost to the ether.
saagarjha 6y ago
Was this the entire world, or just the US?

disown 6y ago

> It gets a bad reputation because there is of necessity a significant amount of memorization. Ah, the joys of having to memorize all the counties and then all 50 states and their capitals. Never again. > And I really hate to be one of those the-US-is-really-terrible-at-this guys, but it’s been my experience that the US is really terrible at this. We could do better but it's not like we don't learn geography. We learn state and national geography. I supposed world geography could be emphasized more.

Theodores 6y ago

I had high hopes for geography at secondary school but dropped it at the first available opportunity. As a small child I spent a lot of time memorising the atlas, not just the maps with the towns/rivers/capitals but also the pages that went before that about what countries exported what, what countries imported what, how the continents had changed over millions of years, the flora and fauna as well as the volcanoes stuff. At school there was no teaching of the towns/cities/countries it was just about how volcanoes and tectonic plates worked. Which was far too boring for me. If you know towns, cities and countries at the atlas level then it is knowledge learned by rote. If you find yourself living in a cosmopolitan city such as London where you meet people from all over the world then you can find this information useful. Even if you have never been there yourself you once knew a place well enough to remember the name so there is genuine interest in finding out what it is like to live there. I wish they taught this geography of place names as a subject because it could be the one subject that kids who like memorising stuff could do well at.