Present Day Relevence of Geography

Geography provokes and answers questions about the natural and human worlds, using different scales of enquiry to view them from different perspectives. It develops knowledge of places and environments throughout the world, an understanding of maps, and a range of investigative and problem solving skills both inside and outside the classroom. As such, it prepares pupils for adult life and employment. Geography is a focus within the curriculum for understanding and resolving issues about the environment and sustainable development. It is also an important link between the natural and social sciences. As pupils study geography, they encounter different societies and cultures. This helps them realize how nations rely on each other. It can inspire them to think about their own place in the world, their values, and their rights and responsibilities to other people and the environment.

This geographic knowledge enables us to understand the things we do on a daily or other episodic basis, and how everyday actions (like traveling to work) affect the world around us (e.g. auto pollution contributing to global warming). This emphasis puts everyday activities in a larger context - notably a spatial one - and by so doing aims to increase our awareness of our personal lives and activities and their socio-spatial contexts at scales ranging from neighborhood to global. We often assume there is no need to learn this type of geography because we already "know" it! "Much geography is just common sense" say our naïve practitioners - as they blithely conduct behaviors that prove beyond doubt that their naïve geographic knowledge is false or dreadfully incomplete (listen to "Jeopardy" or "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" as obvious proof). Many people refuse to believe that they need to know geographic concepts such as location, place recognition, distance evaluation, distribution membership, and regional context. To illustrate the shortcomings of this attitude, let me pursue a few examples which illustrate that people actively practice geography - even if they are unaware of what they are doing. Let me start by simply listing basic geographic tasks we all - at one time or another - seem to perform.

Things that you do that are geographic:

1.                  Choose where to live.

2.                  Select which way to go to work.

3.                  Learn where supermarkets, shopping malls, doctors' offices and local schools are located.

4.                  Choose a place to visit on holidays and figure out how to get there.

5.                  Understand local and global environmental changes so you purchase adequate clothing and plan long trips.

6.                  On a long car trip, estimate where the next town big enough to have a motel will be.

7.                  Understand where ethnic or cultural restaurants will be located in a city.

8.                  Understand where the events are occurring that are mentioned on the evening's international and national newscasts.

9.                  Prepare background material for the location (national or international) of your   next job posting.

10.              Walk around your neighborhood and return home safely.

11.              Find your car in a parking lot or building.

12.              Walk around your house in the dark without stumbling into furniture.

13.              Find your way back to your hotel in a strange city.

14.              Know where places of recreation can be found.

15.              Select a sports team to follow.

16.              Decide which newspaper to buy.

17.              Appreciate the international interactions and flows of goods that keep fresh produce daily in your favorite supermarket.

18.              Know whether New York is north or south of Washington, D.C.

19.              Appreciate why it's difficult to build houses on steep slopes with unstable soils.

20.          Wonder why people continue to live in places where they experience floods or hurricanes or tornadoes or fires or earthquakes or emissions from chemical or nuclear industrial plants.