Geography Lessons

[Samilcar]

Stevie, you had a core class in High School that was purely the study of Geography? If so I'm impressed. That's the way it should be here in the U.S.

The closest I can remember to being taught geography in High School was in certain history and foreign relations classes. These classes were electives (not part of the core curriculum) so most of the kids in these classes were interested in and at least had a basic knowledge of world geography.

 

[ksJoe]

Originally Posted By: Samilcar
Stevie, you had a core class in High School that was purely the study of Geography? If so I'm impressed. That's the way it should be here in the U.S.


I did, here in the US. It was taught by a football coach though.

 

[StevieC]

Originally Posted By: Samilcar
Stevie, you had a core class in High School that was purely the study of Geography? If so I'm impressed. That's the way it should be here in the U.S.

The closest I can remember to being taught geography in High School was in certain history and foreign relations classes. These classes were electives (not part of the core curriculum) so most of the kids in these classes were interested in and at least had a basic knowledge of world geography.
Yes it was all about Geography and a mandatory course for us to take in Grade 9

 

[Shannow]

Yep, we had Geography for an hour a week for years 9 and 10.

It wasn't just maps and things. It included soil formation/deposition, different types of environments and rainfall formation and patterns, how the gulf stream works, and some cultural/population/political stuff.

 

[expat]

In the U.K. it was mandatory through to CSE (Certificate of Secondary Education) exam level, That could be considered Grade 12.
It included Physical geography, Economic, and some political.
I am honestly, Truly, shocked that it is not a mainstream subject in U.S. schools

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: Shannow
Yep, we had Geography for an hour a week for years 9 and 10.

It wasn't just maps and things. It included soil formation/deposition, different types of environments and rainfall formation and patterns, how the gulf stream works, and some cultural/population/political stuff.


Yup, we had that too.

 

[StevieC]

Originally Posted By: Shannow
Yep, we had Geography for an hour a week for years 9 and 10.

It wasn't just maps and things. It included soil formation/deposition, different types of environments and rainfall formation and patterns, how the gulf stream works, and some cultural/population/political stuff.
Yeah I forgot about all the "extras" they taught us about.

 

[Julian]

I saw this on TV the other night, I thought it was pretty cool. Just thought you might find their setup interesting.

http://www.uctv.tv/search-details.aspx?showID=8384

 

[Julian]

Just remembered... this was on right before it, if it's of any interest to you.

http://www.uctv.tv/search-details.aspx?showID=13104

 

[greenaccord02]

Before everybody starts freaking out about how retarded Americans are, let me say that I learned those things in high school and I was there not too many years ago. I can also tell you (since I work for a school district) that they're still being taught and you don't graduate without them.

 

[benjamming]

green,

There are folks that graduate barely able to read & write. Math is a foreign language to them. So yes, one can most certainly graduate w/o learning geography basics. I graduated with about a dozen of them. Really sad when you consider that my graduating class was only about 2 dozen folks.

 

[labman]

I think I am reasonably knowledgeable about geography, but never spend a day in a class after eighth grade. I had 6 years of it in elementary and junior high school. Much of geography hasn't changed since my first class in third grade. Much that has changed since then, has changed since I was in high school, some several times. When I was in college, the story was that in an ROTC class on a test the students were asked to list the countries in Africa and their leaders. One student put up his hand and asked ''Sir, do you want that by the 8:00 or 10:00 news?''.

Unfortunately too much American education is about political indoctrination, and too little content and thinking skills.

 

[greenaccord02]

Well, it varies so much by state. In Texas we do things differently and so does every other state because public education is handled by the state, so it's hard to say exactly what level of education the average American child gets. In texas we have standardized tests now in order to graduate which test the student's knowledge of many different subjects. While it used to be easy to push a child through the system, now it's vary hard to do that without establishing that the kid is seriously disabled. I'm not talking about ADHD - more like Down syndrome. While I don't think standardized testing is the best thing since sliced bread, it does provide a mechanism to keep a lazy child, lazy teacher, or bad system from producing an ignorant graduate.

 

[GROUCHO MARX]

Geography? Most Americans don't know an adjective from an adverb, and they're paid to read the news on television.