Students need to know their maps

It has recently become very apparent to me how little knowledge many of my peers have of global geography. If a teacher asks about a foreign country or city in class, the room usually falls silent until one student raises his or her hand to make a brave, and often incorrect, guess. I, myself, do not have as much knowledge of geography as I would like either. I know very few world capitals, and I am sure I would leave most spaces empty if I were to fill in a blank world map.

Many would blame the students for this general ignorance, and in some ways that is fair. After all, most of us have taken CCG and learned the world map.  But it is difficult for us as students to carry those facts on in our memories after only a semester of exposure. It is also true that we can learn geography on our own, learning from maps on the Internet or from atlases, but most students are not motivated to do that, and it would be hard to learn without formal education.

It is not really reasonable to blame the teachers for not teaching the students more geography, either. Most history teachers have to focus on state standards when creating lesson plans, and those standards rarely include extensive knowledge of geography. CCG teachers, whose job is to teach geography, generally do a fantastic job, but are only given one semester to impart knowledge of the world map onto their students. Teachers are limited by the education system in their ability to continually expose students to world geography.

I think the underlying component of this issue is our culture’s general disinterest with the rest of the world.  When creating state standards, people may not include content involving much geography because they don’t think it is very important. This ends up hurting students, as it makes them less likely to understand world politics and learn about other cultures.

It is ultimately essential that this generation learn more world geography so we can participate more actively in the world, not just in the US. I know that I will be looking everywhere I can in the future to improve my knowledge of the world map.