Slowly, we Americans are beginning to grasp the importance of learning geography and the need to be aware of our global neighbors. That’s a positive step because just a few years ago, a survey showed that one in seven Americans couldn’t spot the United States on a map.
It was in 1988-89 that a Gallup Survey of Geographic Knowledge, conducted in 10 countries, revealed that the U.S. ranked in the bottom third. Only Italy, Mexico and the then Soviet Union fared worse in the study that surveyed more than 13,000 people about their attitudes and knowledge about geography.
Since then, teacher training programs conducted in 50 states by the National Geographic Society have helped to stimulate interest in geography education.
“I’m very excited about the interest that has been generated concerning the importance of geography education in the U.S.,” said Gilbert M. Grosvenor, president and chairman of National Geographic, which sponsored the Gallup survey.
“In state after state we are seeing geography proficiency becoming a requirement for admission to state universities. And that is a dramatic help to us,” Grosvenor said in an interview. “We can train the teachers, but we have to have the classroom time (for geography).”
Since the mid-1980s, some 6,000 teachers have participated in workshops funded by the society and its public, private and foundation partners. Through state geographic alliances, these teachers in turn have conducted programs to train tens of thousands of other geography teachers.
Among the results of the efforts to revive interest in geography, which fell dormant after World War II, when the study of geography was folded into social studies and ceased to be taught as a distinct subject:
-The nation’s governors have endorsed educational goals that by the year 2000, students leaving grades 4 through 12 must be able to “demonstrate competence in English, mathematics, science, history and geography.”
-A few states now require geography education as a college entrance requirement. The University of California system will require a year of world cultures studies for admission in 1994. The University of Tennessee revised its admission requirements to include proficiency in geography. So has the University of Colorado’s College of Arts and Sciences. Minnesota requires a geography course for admission to its state university system, starting in 1994.
In some places, parents have caught the geography bug. In Michigan, for example, 4,500 families participate in a project that requires families to attend a one-hour geography workshop, put up a world map in their TV room, watch the news together once a week and talk about the news, using the map.
Grosvenor noted that at Southwest Texas State University (in San Marcos), “500 students are majoring in geography this year, up 100 percent from three years ago.”
Knowledge of geography, Grosvenor said, “helps bankers, city planners, environmentalists, journalists, biologists, commodities brokers. Geography is the fabric around which other disciplines are interwoven. Whether it be economics, politics, public service, international affairs, trade, agriculture, geography plays a role.”
Grosvenor acknowledged it might take 10 years for the U.S. to move up from its lowly position of several years ago. “It may be longer, but we are way ahead of schedule in some areas. We have geography alliances in all 50 states and we have 47 out of 50 states matching our money (more than $70 million since 1985, $8.6 million in 1992).”
Grosvenor suggested that “in another couple of years we’ll take another Gallup Poll test, particularly of the kids that have gone through the kindergarten through 8th grade process. It’s too early to measure their progress.”
The National Geographic chief always has his eye on new projects. “We’re looking at the inner cities. We have a major project in the District of Columbia where we sent 28 teachers through a total immersion course on how to teach geography. We also have provided high-tech learning material to schools where the librarian or a teacher has proven to us they know how to run computers, CD-ROM, and laser disc video technology,” Grosvenor said.
“So often you’ll find a lot of computers in schools but they’re gathering dust because there’s really no one proficient to run the machines. We hold a carrot out there of receiving from us free materials to drive the school, but the school have got to prove they can run the materials. In 1994, we plan to take the model we developed for the District of Columbia and extend it to five or six inner cities in the U.S to see how the model works.”
Besides computers, Grosvenor noted that many inner city schools do have the capability of using videotapes and film strips. “In the world’s richest nation, it is pathetic how unprepared inner cities are for education. I’m very sympathetic to what I call external static in the school systems, whether it be controversial school boards and distractions of crime, drugs and alcohol in the neighborhoods or kids without family support.”
Grosvenor suggested that organizations whose mission it is to work with kids should take them to parks and other nearby places to acquaint them with new environments as a way of interesting them in the elements of geography.
Besides working to turn kids on to geography, Grosvenor for the last two years has had his magazine probe water issues in this country-and water is the theme of this year’s Geography Awareness Week, Nov. 14-20. The result is a special issue of National Geographic, published this month. It focuses on how the U.S. is squandering its water.
“Water, unlike oil, has no alternatives,” Grosvenor said. “Water is a finite commodity and when it’s gone, it’s gone. The exciting part is that with reasonable conservation, we will be OK.”
For Grosvenor and everybody else, there are always new issues on our planet, a never-ending geography lesson.
