We needn't be lost in a sea of boring geography

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By SUSAN TAYLOR MARTIN

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 14, 2000

Okay, folks, I have a confession. Even though I'm a foreign correspondent, I couldn't answer any of these questions from the National Geography Bee:

• 1) Name the two large islands separated by the Strait of Bonifacio.

• 2) What city is the judicial capital of South Africa?

• 3) Roosevelt Island is surrounded by an Antarctic ice sheet that shares its name with what nearby sea?

• 4) Agulhas and Kuroshio are both names of what kind of physical feature?

Was the total blank I drew yet another example of American insularity, like George W. Bush's inability to name several world leaders? Or were these ridiculously tough questions of no particular import?

I felt better after talking to Dr. Laurie Molina, who runs the Geography Education and Technology Program at Florida State University.

"I have to tell you -- I didn't know any of them, either," Molina said of the questions that stumped me. "I judge state geography bees when I can, and it's really interesting to look at the types of questions they're using -- a lot of facts and minutiae. They are not the things you and I would use or that would be of significance in having a good understanding of the world. . . . Just memorizing is not what geography is about."

Like other professional geographers, Molina worries that geography isn't being taught very well in U.S. schools. Too many teachers lack adequate training, and too many students consider the subject about as much fun as learning the periodic table of the elements.

That's unfortunate, geographers say, because the study of the earth's diversity can be both fascinating and valuable.

"Having a sense of global awareness, of knowing about other countries and cultures, is important in terms of being competitive in the world. I think that's essential to the strength of the U.S. economy," says James Petersen, a Texas professor and president of the National Council For Geographic Education.

As Petersen sees it, a lot of us probably soured on geography when subjected to the "capes and bays" method of teaching -- forcing students to memorize long lists of place names with little discussion of why we should care. A big problem with this approach is that names often change: Just when we got used to Rhodesia, Burma, Peking and Leningrad, they turned into Zimbabwe, Myanmar, Beijing and St. Petersburg.

Our ignorance of the world became apparent in a 1988 Gallup poll that found that one in three Americans couldn't place the Pacific Ocean on a map, and 20 percent of those between 18 and 24 couldn't find the United States unless it was labeled.

Since then, the National Geographic Society and other organizations have been pushing to make the study of geography more interesting and relevant. There have been some innovative results.

The Perry School in Erie, Pa., boasts of being "America's first geography-themed elementary school." The inner-city school, which gives its latitude and longitude as part of its address, is decorated with maps, flags and travel posters to help get students excited about geography in particular and learning in general.

"Geography is a hook -- they like it," says principal Ed Grode. "You can relate anything to geography, sports being an obvious example. Who's the highest-paid geography major -- Michael Jordan."

Teachers are encouraged to use geography as a springboard for teaching other subjects. Students read books with a strong sense of place and practice their math by converting their weight on a British scale from stones to pounds.

However, the school hasn't completely abandoned memorization. First-graders must be able to identify all 50 states by shape ("those rectangles can be tough," Grode jokes), and second-graders have to name and place the 54 nations in Africa.

"What we try to do is give the kids the building blocks, so when they get to middle and high school, they'll know where places are," says Grode. "They learn about the twins -- Niger and Nigeria. They learn where mad people go to gas up their cars -- Madagascar."

Since the school switched to a geography theme three years ago, academic performance has improved, even though many students come from poor families or have special needs. The experiment has been so successful, Grode says, that a school in a nearby district hopes to adopt the same approach.

Most Florida students take geography only as a separate course in middle school, but at least the textbooks are far more appealing than they used to be. In addition to photos, maps and charts, they contain a fair amount on geopolitics -- Lebanon fought a civil war "in which many lives were lost and the economy was almost destroyed," one book says.

Although Michael Jordan never had to rely on his geography courses to make a living, geography can be a more practical major than you might expect. Many universities have geography departments -- there are at least six in Florida -- and graduates are in demand for the hot new field of "geographic information systems," or GIS.

"A business like a bank may hire a lot of GIS students if they're trying to decide where to put a new branch," says Molina of Florida State. "You can overlay socio-economic data, where the competitors' branches are, where the roads are and come up with a geographic location that is the best place for your next branch."

Molina remains concerned, though, that too few teachers in Florida understand what geography is or how to teach it. To help rectify that, her program and others offer workshops, courses and instructional ideas. She hopes the program's endowment, now almost $2-million, will grow to the point it can make grants to individual teachers.

But back to the questions at the start of this column. Petersen, the Texas professor, knew just one answer: that "Agulhas" and "Kuroshio" are the names of ocean currents.

Otherwise, he said, "I'm beginning to sympathize with George Bush."

The remaining answers are 1) Corsica, Sardinia; 2) Bloemfontein; and 3) Ross Sea.

- Susan Martin can be contacted at susan@sptimes.com

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