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My high school didn't even offer Geography. But my middle school taught geography in 7th grade. I think my high school should have, at the very least, offered a geography elective. I am now a Geography major in college despite not having Geography in high school, because the subject interests me so I learned about it on my own over the years.
Someone said why teach geography in high school when it's taught in middle school? That's like saying why teach English in high school when it's taught middle school. The point of high school is to learn more about the subjects you've already learned in middle school.
Maps are an important part of Geography, but there is more to Geography than just maps. Maybe if more high schools taught geography, people would both realize where places are and realize there is more to Geography than just maps.
I remember in 5th grade I did a report on Morocco and in 11th grade, we had to name a lot of countries around the world for a test and spent time talking about other continents and the people who lived there. Also learned about Islam (The five pillars and Mecca…)
I've read similar statistics several times but I don't recall by whom. One study showed some disgracefully high percentage of high school students couldn't even find the US on a world map.
Geography was required for graduation; it was called "Introduction to Geography" and it was a semester-long course that was given to 9th graders. I also took an "Advanced World Geography" course which was offered as an elective. I was always interested in maps and most students at my school were too stupid to figure out the difference between China and Russia, so that class was an easy A.
Geography classes were also taught in the 6th and 7th grades in middle school (but were labeled as simply "Social Studies") and I remember taking some type of geography class when I was in Michigan in the 4th grade.
It is part of Social Studies now. Here in Florida at least, the 5th grade textbook has about 3 or 4 chapters on map skills, capitals of the states, and related history of each region of the country.
Time spent learning most geography is wasteful, sort of like time (and money) wasted physically traveling and seeing tourist attractions
Would rather figure out in which cities and suburbs are HQs of world's most valuable companies...and where their top employees choose to live/dine/play, etc; how they commute to office, etc
In a Net era, such geography "self-learning" and virtual tourism only takes a few minutes (and is essentially free) for any curious, ambitious kid
Learning state capitals, names/locations of economically irrelevant cities/states, and names/locations of ThirdWorld countries that lack oil or something of value today (not 50+ yrs ago) is a huge waste of time w/opportunity costs
My high school didn't even offer Geography. But my middle school taught geography in 7th grade. I think my high school should have, at the very least, offered a geography elective. I am now a Geography major in college despite not having Geography in high school, because the subject interests me so I learned about it on my own over the years.
Someone said why teach geography in high school when it's taught in middle school? That's like saying why teach English in high school when it's taught middle school. The point of high school is to learn more about the subjects you've already learned in middle school.
Maps are an important part of Geography, but there is more to Geography than just maps. Maybe if more high schools taught geography, people would both realize where places are and realize there is more to Geography than just maps.
Geography is important in life, but I would have to say that English is a bit more important.
It's important to know English, but I think the importance of English is overrated in schools. If you're in high school or college and English is your native language, then you know how to speak English. I think English should be taught in high school, but shouldn't be required all 4 years (maybe 3 years). At my high school, English was the only subject that was required all 4 years.
It's important to know English, but I think the importance of English is overrated in schools. If you're in high school or college and English is your native language, then you know how to speak English. I think English should be taught in high school, but shouldn't be required all 4 years (maybe 3 years). At my high school, English was the only subject that was required all 4 years.
Not true AT ALL. Have you spoken to many high school students lately?
Anyway, you don't learn how to speak English...you learn how to read, write, and communicate - which is far more important than geography.
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