I just finished reading a very good but short article about teaching our youngsters Geography.  A very good point was made in that article.  Our young people are being forced to live “away from” the very place that they are studying.  Even though they are “there”, we have enclosed them in houses, buses, cars, vans and buildings, so they don’t notice what is out “there”.  They don’t get to experience it, unless their parents take the time to go with them and try to teach them about the environment they live in.  One of the suggestions in the article was to have the student write down every thing they could about the environment outside their home.

The idea is to force the student to look, go, see outside and then write what they observe.  The hope is that the student will get interested in the “outside” space and eventually want to protect it and keep it like it is.  I suppose that is a good place to start.  But will our teachers pick up on that?  Probably not, so if you are a parent reading this you might want to help things out by asking your youngster to do this on their own and you become the teacher.

When you think about the beginning of our country, the good old U.S. of A.  A bunch of folks landed on the rock and proceeded to chop down trees and make themselves homes etc.  The beginning of the destruction of our environment.  But it had to be done, or they would not have been sheltered and safe from the very elements of the environment.

Kind of a catch 22.  Save the environment.  But have a home.  Save the environment.  But heat your home.  Save the environment.  But grow your crops.  Save the environment.  But have something to eat.  And it goes on and on.  You get the point.

Anyway, Geography, is more than just what is around us physically, like the mountains, valleys, streams and lakes.  It’s the air we breath, water we drink, soil we plant in….even how the people live in different climes and relate under different religions.  Geography is a wonderful thing to study, but it seems the kids now days don’t know anything about it.  Why?  I think the guy who wrote the article I read is spot on with his statement about keeping the kids “closed in”.  We have become so protective of our kids, they can’t even fall off a bike without us making sure they don’t get a scrape on the knee.  Heck!  Asphalt is part of our geography isn’t it?  Let them experience it!

Bears Butt

Jan. 2012