Seeing the Whole Wide World: Teaching Geography

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Geography is my favorite subject to teach and to learn. Enthusiasm is high for this subject. As usual for one discussing one's favorite subject, I don't see how you can live without it. Bear with my joy here.

I believe a student should be learning geography almost every year. It is one of the most practical of subjects. Understanding the world involves knowing geography. If I don't know the difference between a state and a country, how can I possibly understand political, cultural, and economic issues? If I believe that Greece is one of the states of the US, as I heard someone say recently, am I going to panic hearing that Greece is going bankrupt? And even if it isn't a state, shouldn't I still be concerned? Geography affects how you dress, how your home is built, what you eat, how you travel, and many other basic everyday functions.

Kindergarten is a great time to begin learning geography. I once wrote a Kindergarten and First Grade geography curriculum that focused on two aspects of this subject. The first was how physical geography affects cultural geography. The second was on how geography affects mission activities. It was even used in the classroom by teachers who found it to be a great program, even though it had hand-drawn activity pages and I'm not that much of an artist.

Geography can first be taught using one's own life. Children can learn about the climate of their area by keeping a chart of weather each day. (This also helps in the science sense.) The parent can help them make the connection between the weather and how we dress and what we do because of the weather that day. We can go to local farmers' markets and see locally produced fruits and vegetables and then visit a grocery store and talk about how things that are non-native to our area are going to be more costly to buy because of the greater amount of gasoline and other shipping costs. Florida oranges in orange season will be cheaper than Chilean oranges in Chilean orange season, which is at the opposite time of year.

The clothes I wear today are chosen because of the weather. I chose light-weight clothing such as slacks and short-sleeved shirt that allows air to flow to keep cool but not so light as to make me cold indoors in air conditioning. If I were going to be outside today for more than a few minutes at a time, I would probably have chosen shorts, a light colored shirt and a long-sleeved white shirt to keep the sun off my arms and neck. Those choices have to do with geography.

When I lived in Texas, where the land was more than pretty flat, we talked about distances in terms of miles. How far was it to grandma's house? 220 miles. How far was it to the grocery store? About 2 and a half miles. The land was flat; the weather was pretty constant. You knew how long that would take you in the car. The road stretched to the horizon. When I lived in the central part of Pennsylvania, all that changed. Central Pennsylvania is mountainous, though they are short ones. When I asked how far away something was, people would say 20 minutes or 3 hours or about 12 minutes. It really took me by surprise. And when I asked, "But how FAR is it?", they'd look at me dumbfounded. Who cared how many miles? Why the difference?

When a place is 10 miles away on the map, it could be flat land or hilly land or mountainous land. Ten miles didn't mean anything. Ten minutes on flat land would get you ten miles; ten minutes in mountainous land might get you only 4 miles, because the straight line distance of ten miles on the map was actually a curvy road that would take your car 20 miles to cover, and the speeds would be changeable depending upon the grade. In winter, you had to add more time, because you'd be driving much slower over slick, icy roads, maybe even with more snow or sleet or ice coming down. Your speed would be much lower, so the time would increase greatly. Being told how much time it would take you was much more practical to what would happen.

There are a number of different types of geography that you should study. Physical geography is the study of the land itself and its climate. It includes the study of the available water and resources. It is the geography you can see from space. Knowing the principles of physical geography will allow you to figure out many political situations and economic situations. It allows you to understand military campaigns more easily. Island nations will need resources from abroad and will usually have both fishing fleets and military fleets. Plains nations will often have vast agricultural areas, so getting food isn't such a problem. High mountains mean one side will usually be more desert-like and one side more lush or even have jungle. They will be a natural border for political divisions. The type of mountain can influence history as well in such events as earthquakes and volcanic activity. Mountains can give military advantage by providing high ground or can be a disadvantage due to the nature of that particular type of mountain. Mountains usually mean coal, gold, silver, and other mineral resources. So knowing the principles of physical geography will enormously enhance one's understanding of the world and the competition between nations.

Cultural geography is the study of how the land and climate have affected everyday choices, such as the available food, the necessary clothing, the shelter types, the transportation system, and even religion and the arts. Certain types of religions are more likely to develop in mountain countries. Certain other types are more likely to develop in desert countries. Think it's a coincidence that Christianity, Islam, and the Jewish faith all developed in desert countries? There's a reason. Study cultural geography and find out. I mean, if you don't have any trees, you probably aren't going to develop a religion based on worshipping trees, right? This kind of study is extremely valuable for those in the church who need to understand cultural geography as they make church decisions about missions. I hate it when television reporters say that the average citizen of the country of Mars only makes $20 a month because it DOESN'T say that "and by the way, it only costs 12 cents to go to the movies, and you can eat an entire meal for less than 15 cents, and the house didn't cost anything, because it was made from wood available to everyone, and no one owns any of the land - you just park where you want. This doesn't mean there is no poverty. I'm not saying that. I'm saying that, unless you know the microeconomics of that country, knowing their salary is pointless. When TV commercials guilt you by saying it takes only 20 cents a day to feed that child, it also means that 20 cents covers most meals for most of the people.

I once lived in a country where the houses had dirt floors. It was an advantage. There was almost no rain in that country, and the floors were packed hard. If water dripped on the floor, it just soaked in. You didn't have to clean it up. The floor was so hard packed that there wasn't even dust from it. It was almost like rock. It retained warms in the winter and was cool in the summer. Yet commercials talked about it to ignorant Americans as "look at these poor people who have no floors." The same principle works with those "houses have no walls." That means it is cooler all year. And they have almost no domestic violence because eveyone knows how you treat your family because everyone will see what you do. Sigh. Off my soapbox. Knowing cultural geography means understanding the beauty and goodness of other cultures and their choices, which may be highly reasonable in their geographic region.

Political geography is the third major area of geographic study. This involves the study of the political divisions {both international and intranational boundaries}, government types, military usages, diplomatic relationships, exports, imports, products, etc. It involves knowing the infrastructures available to a region. Political geography is the most unstable area of geography as nations come and go, and boundaries shift, wars change relationships, and nations progress scientifically, artistically, and economically. Political geography can be the least important of the 3 areas to master, since it will change so much in so little time. For this area of study, it is more important to know how to find the information when you need it: almanacs, resource guides, etc. and what those terms mean so that you can understand a country quickly when you need to do so. For example, if I already know what an oligarchy, a tyranny, a marxist, a communist, a democratic, and a capitalist government are, and I have need of studying the country of Peru, I can look in an almanac, get the current form of government, the GNP, the resources, the population growth rate, educational levels, and a few more factors and if I can locate the country on a map and tell you its physical geography issues, I can pretty much know the current country of Peru ENOUGH to understand some political issue that arose or what issues we might face placing a permanent mission there. I haven't walked a mile in their shoes yet, but I would know the kind of shoes in which I'd be walking.

As said earlier, the study of geography can begin very early with physical and cultural geography. Eating the food of a country, learning how to say some standard phrases, wearing the clothes of that country (made out of paper of course), and drawing maps are easily enjoyed by young children. Take a different country each month. Talk about how far away that country is in terms easily understood. (It would take 40 days of walking ten hours a day to get to that country from our house .) Pray for the leaders. Pray daily for the Christians there to be good testimonies of the Lord. Pray for more workers to teach. Watch a movie from that country or about that country. Visit the country's internet site. Listen to their news on the internet in their own language daily for a month. You'd be surprised how fast the kids go from thinking "that's a bizarre language" to "I almost think I could understand it."

For older kids, there are some really nice programs out there. One I love for grades 7 and up is Runkle's Geography. It is a Saxon-like approach to the principles of physical geography. In the first year, your student will learn all the principles of physical geography with units on how water placement affects life, how mountains affect life, how resources affect life, etc. He or she will also learn to draw by heart maps of each continent, including countries and rivers and mountains. There are other things to memorize as well. It is wonderfully easy to use.

Bob Jones Press has a wonderful high school geography course that focuses the first half of the book on physical geography principles {and you get to create your own nation as you go}and the last half of the book on political and historical geography.

Rod and Staff has a great book on Latin American History and Geography (about half a year of each). Your students will learn about Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and South America. In the history section, you will learn how the history of the regions has played a tremendous role in the problems they now have as well as the victories they now have. When have you ever heard of the Pacific War, the War of the Triple Alliance, the Cenepa War, the Chaco War, The Thousand Day War, the Rebellion of Tupac Amaru II, Federal War, the Dirty War, the Plantine War, the War of the Confederation, the Gran Colombia-Peru War, the Chilean War, the Argentine War, the Spanish-Portuguese War, or the French-Portuguese War? It's a boy's dream world of whole new wars about which to learn!

Galloping the Globe and the Trail Guide are two series for elementary kids that have great reviews from our parents. I have not used them myself, but I've looked through them and they do a good job.

Another series is Alpha Omega's 3rd grade and 4th grade social studies. In 3rd grade, you learn US geography by focusing on about 8 key types of states (plains, mountain, industrial, etc.). In 4th grade, you focus on world geography, using a trio of physically similar nations in each unit (3 island nations, 3 mountain nations, etc.). These are great fun for the kids IF you include the activities suggested in the teacher's manual, including reading the novels set in each country.

Six items should be in every home studying geography:
• The first is a globe with physical geography prominent. Get one that's bumpy for the mountains. One on a floor stand will not take up limited desk or table space.
• Also, get two 3D maps, one of the world and one of the US. You will be amazed how much history you understand when touching one of these kinds of maps. I'd recommend one of the state of Florida as well, but it isn't worth the cost because it isn't much different from a 2D map of Florida.
• I'd also have Uncle Josh's Outline Map Book by Wiggers. It is a book of outline maps for all states, all regions of the world, and many, many countries of the world. I got my husband to use his saw and cut the pages away from the binding so I could hole-punch them into a notebook for much easier scanning on the printer.
• A Geography Terms Chart, available for about $5 from Geography Matters at http://www.geomatters.com
• Get Eat Your Way Around the World by Arimini for all those cultural foods OR just use the internet to get recipes as you need them.

This is geography. It's my school subject passion. I've already written 2, 350+ words, so now I'll stop. I've got a million ideas I could share about geography for all ages. Invite me to a Mc Soda some day, and I'll share them.