A passion to learn about our world

Social Studies Review, Spring 2003 by Cunha, Stephen F, Schell, Emily M, Rocca, Al M, Cunha, Mary Beth

I like geography best, he said, because your mountains and rivers know the secret. Pay no attention to boundaries.

-Brian Andreas, American Poet

From space I saw Earth-indescribably beautiful with the scars of national boundaries gone.

-Astronaut Muhammad Ahmad Paris, Syria (1988)

INTRODUCTION

We live in an increasingly borderless world where people, ideas, and commerce flow across time and space with alacrity. So do disease, weapons, and pollution. Jet travel from Shanghai to San Francisco consumes 10 hours, while air pollution covers the same distance in 10 days. Some believe that wealthy nations-those comprising just 20 percent of the world's population-can invoke superior power and technology to avoid the undesirable elements of a more interdependent mass society. This attitude obligates one to ignore the cataclysmic changes in human fertility rates, income disparity, and environmental change that are sweeping the globe. The contributing authors in this publication vehemently disagree. As an alternative, we share a desire to teach and learn about Earth's diversity through a geographic perspective. In fact, we are immensely pleased to share our passion for geography with you in this special issue of Social Studies Review.

Geography: More than Pretty Maps

A recent National Geographic Society poll indicated that despite improvement in the last decade, American youth still trail their industrial world counterparts in geographic knowledge (San Diego Union Tribune 2002). That is to say, our youth have an inferior grasp of the physical, cultural, and economic forces that order our complex world. Perhaps the most startling revelation is that our students still have trouble identifying major geographic place names such as countries (including our own), mountain ranges, and manufacturing centers on a world map.

Although the National Geographic Society should worry that more young Swedes than Americans can locate the United States on a globe, geography is much more than finding places on attractive maps. Their inability to apply geographic information to specific places is of far greater consequence. Identifying Iraq, Chile, and the Pacific Ocean on a map are to geography what the alphabet is to reading. They open the gate for boundless and lifelong learning. The real heart of geography is understanding the global patterns of climate, landforms, economics, political systems, human culture, and migration that govern Earth. Geographers investigate not just where something is located, but why it is there, and how it relates to other things. Geography explains why your grandparents moved to Tucson (warm and dry climate), how oil from Kuwait reaches Spain (by way of the Suez Canal), where the tropical rainforest grows (near the humid Equator), who faces Mecca as they pray (Moslems), and which continent is the most populated (Asia). In a nutshell, geography is the "Why of Where" science that blends and enriches history, literature, mathematics, and science. Developing the ability to "think geographically" raises a flat map to life.

Thus while it is important to locate Mexico on a map, it is vital to know that since half their population is under 16 years old, the immigration pressure on our border has just begun. Moreover, pinpointing Alaska is great, but knowing that with just one percent of proven global reserves, Arctic oil will not reduce our dependence on foreign sources or affect the price of gas. Our youth will share a more promising collective future when they recognize how epidemic poverty-half the global population drinks filthy water and survives on less than two dollars per day-provides Osama bin Laden and his ilk with an endless cohort of angry suicide bombers. Geography helps students at any grade level understand these cause-and-effect relationships. Understanding people and environments influences the location of everything from K-Marts to hospitals to software manufacturing plants. City planners need population projections and environmental data before they can approve plans to build housing developments, office buildings, and shopping centers. Engineers must study water resources and the lay of the land before starting any project (even a small hill or creek can greatly increase construction costs). Imagine trying to advertise a new product without knowing the ethnic composition (Hispanic, African American, Asian, European), age structure (are they mostly teenagers or grandparents), and economic characteristics (are they mainly farmers or office workers) of the people you want to buy it. Highway construction cannot proceed until information about climate, soil, vegetation, and how many people will drive the proposed route are considered. Each day, kids everywhere awake in sheets woven of Egyptian cotton, pull on clothes stitched in Bangladesh, woof down bananas grown in Central America, and grab schoolbooks printed in Singapore, to board buses assembled in Michigan from parts made in Japan and Germany.

During the last decade, the hurried pace of our global society-the rising dependence of nations upon each other for trade and security-makes geographical studies more important today than ever. Acronyms such as NAFTA, GATT, and WTO are heard on the evening news. The Cold War ended just as new conflicts in Europe and Africa emerge. Schools from Alaska to Zambia stress second language and culture studies to better prepare their students not just for a global economy, but for a more crowded planet where migration, tourism, and the Internet connect our global family more each day. America's recently declared War on Terrorism and military buildup near Iraq further underscore the great importance of more fully understanding the people of the world, how they live, what they believe, and the environment we share.