In middle school today

[creekland]

Generally I'm a math and science sub in our local public high school (12th year doing this), but due to our finances lately, I've branched out a bit to include middle school and subjects outside my specialty.

 

So, today I was in for 7th grade Geography... and the kids were starting a section on Europe. The Atlas they were using to label countries, etc, still had Yugoslavia on it as a country. I suppose I should be thankful that it had Germany united and the USSR broken up. I talked the kids through labeling Serbia and Montenegro, etc, and mentioned it to their teacher (who was still there - leaving for a sports event). He didn't care - and told me it wouldn't matter after this year as our school is DROPPING Geography as a subject. When I asked why, he just shrugged. Other teachers told me later that the Atlas has several current errors in it and most don't get pointed out. Yikes.

 

It was all rather frustrating.

 

Is geography taught in other schools? When I was in ps as a youngster we had it in elementary, then redid it in 9th grade. I had a super teacher who I really enjoyed.

[FairProspects]

I'm in my early 30s and we never had geography as a subject. Occasionally teachers would point out the regions we were studying on a map but even that was pretty rare, since we only had 2 years of World History (one was Western Civ. in 7th and the other was Africa/Asia/Middle East in 10th) from grades 6-12 and the rest was American.

[QueenCat]

We incorporate geography with history and current events. Not as a separate class. That said, both of my kids did World Geography in ps, in 6th grade. They remember the places they studied while studying history and current events, not the places they memorized for map tests.

[theYoungerMrsWarde]

I have never heard of Geography taught as a separate class. What exactly is included in the curriculum, and how is there enough to fill a whole school year? At my school anything about a country would be included with history/social studies. But there certainly is a lot that we weren't taught (I had never even heard of Tunisia until the news reported that they had a new government.)

 

Side note: I collect coins and I have one from Yugoslavia :001_smile:

[missmoe]

Geography is a required high school course in CA. It is a 1 semester class.

 

I myself never had a geography class.

[KristinaBreece]

Wow. I guess I was really lucky! We had one year (grade 7) devoted to world geography, and my teacher was beyond enthusiastic about it. Had there been textbook errors, he would have (and did, I think) correct/update the material as needed. We had world history in 6, 9, & 10th grades & the option to take more geography or more world history as a humanities course the second semester of senior year. The only year we dedicated to American history specifically was 8th grade, with a 1 semester American gov. class (which was very much like my poli sci 101 in college, actually) senior year.

[creekland]

I have never heard of Geography taught as a separate class. What exactly is included in the curriculum, and how is there enough to fill a whole school year? At my school anything about a country would be included with history/social studies. But there certainly is a lot that we weren't taught (I had never even heard of Tunisia until the news reported that they had a new government.)

 

Side note: I collect coins and I have one from Yugoslavia :001_smile:

 

Yugoslavia existed in one form or another until 2003. That's when Serbia and Montenegro came about instead...

 

Geography includes learning the names of the countries and capitals, important rivers, mountains, exports, and the culture of places (lifestyle, major religion(s), etc). It also includes various aspects about our planet as simple as latitude and longitude. There's far more than can easily be covered in one year's time by public school standards.

 

I can't imagine any education being complete without it honestly. I had my boys do it as a yearlong separate course in 8th and 10th grades (respectively) as I felt it was better done later than earlier. My oldest was in ps and did it in 7th grade with his class. All three really enjoyed it and learned a lot about the world. They may not remember oodles of specific details, but they're certainly good at locating countries around the world and can have an intelligent conversation about them. Field trips are fun with this class (not that we could take as many as we'd have liked, but still...).

[KristinaBreece]

I have never heard of Geography taught as a separate class. What exactly is included in the curriculum, and how is there enough to fill a whole school year? At my school anything about a country would be included with history/social studies. But there certainly is a lot that we weren't taught (I had never even heard of Tunisia until the news reported that they had a new government.)

 

Side note: I collect coins and I have one from Yugoslavia :001_smile:

 

We did a lot of mapping, but we also did a lot of other things, too. We sent "GeoBears" off into the world on travels, most of which got sent back with journals & backpacks full of information about the bear's travels. We did a consumer study where examined everything in our houses & charted where all of our products where made. There was a lot of learning about respecting other cultures as well. And world religions made a cameo in that class, too.

 

ETA: Geocaching! We discussed that quite a bit, too. GPS was just becoming a reality for most people when I was in 7th grade, to the point where geocaching had just gotten to be a big thing. That was fun!

Edited February 25, 2011 by KristinaBreece

[Laura Corin]

Geography is taught in the UK as a separate subject. It includes a lot of economics, development studies and physical geography (geology, etc.) as well as countries and capitals.

 

Laura

[Luckymama]

I took a one-semester required geography course in 10th grade---public school, rural-ish school district in PA.

 

My teens have not had a separate geography course in their high schools. I know that they cover geography in world and American history courses (because I see the kids' work and read their textbooks :D ). They did do a lot of geography in 7th and 8th grade social studies at their private school. Dd11 hadn't had any geography prior to homeschooling this year.

Edited February 25, 2011 by Luckymama

[Allearia]

We definitely never had Geography. I remember in 7th grade social studies I was the only student who knew all the continents. That was the first and last time any geography was mentioned :001_huh: Both the social studies teachers were coaches and besides watching Roots we generally watched basketball tournaments and videos of football games :001_huh: maybe that is how some kids learned some names of states? I think Yugoslavia was never heard or thought of. I don't even remember seeing any maps in junior/senior high :001_huh:

[athena1277]

When I was in high school, you had to take either world history or world geography. I took the geography because I like maps and didn't like history. Geography was taught by the head football coach. None of us learned much. I'm only just now learning world history through SOTW with dd. :glare:

[regentrude]

I went to school in Germany. We had geography as a separate subject every year from 5th through 10th grade, two periods a 45 minutes a week, if I remember correctly. It is still taught like this in Germany nowadays (I don't know how they do it now in 11th and 12th)

[mcconnellboys]

When I was growing up in a small town, we never had any geography at any level of school!

[dangermom]

Geography is a required high school course in CA. It is a 1 semester class.

 

I myself never had a geography class.

 

I did, since I grew up in CA, but I don't remember a thing except that the teacher was an enthusiastic body-builder and would show Mr. Universe contests on video if there wasn't anything to do. :ack2:

[theYoungerMrsWarde]

Geography is a required high school course in CA. It is a 1 semester class.

 

I myself never had a geography class.

 

Is this new, or old information? Because it wasn't even offered, let alone required at my Califonia HS, and I graduated in 2004.

[Joanne]

Is geography taught in other schools? When I was in ps as a youngster we had it in elementary, then redid it in 9th grade. I had a super teacher who I really enjoyed.

 

My oldest (in public school) has it as a stand alone in 9th grade. World geography (and cultures). He had it in the school district we moved from, also.

 

I am teaching it to my 10th graders at the private school where I teach as a part of world history.

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

I never had Geography as a separate subject. I went to public school for 1st-6th grade, and Christian schools for 7th-12th.

[Annie G]

I had geography when I was in high school in the 1970's, and my kids took a year long geography course in high school. My daughter is currently taking a geography class in college and she's quite amused that so many classmates know so little.

Not only do we enjoy geography, it's a nice addition to their well-rounded education.

[Jennifer3141]

I'm 38 and we had geography for at least one semester in 7th grade. I loved it!

But I cannot remember if it was for one semester or two. :glare:

Edited February 26, 2011 by Jennifer3141

[Crissy]

We definitely never had Geography.

 

Same here.

[creekland]

This sure has been an informative read. It never occurred to me that so many places wouldn't have geography. I guess I just expected what I grew up with to be the norm.

 

Now I know why so many people know so little about our planet I think (between those who weren't interested enough to put things in long term memory and those who never had it to begin with).

[FO4UR]

There was a geography course offered in my high school, but it was mainly for the non-college-bound kids. College bound kids were held to a strict World History-American History-Econ routine so that we could fit in the math & science and Languages needed...and at that the Am. history was an early-bird class (met at 7:10 am:001_huh:) for kids who wanted the math, science, languages AND electives like music or art.

 

geography was an after thought...my 8yo knows more geography than I did in high school...

[Renee in NC]

Geography is taught in the UK as a separate subject. It includes a lot of economics, development studies and physical geography (geology, etc.) as well as countries and capitals.

 

Laura

 

This is what my ds is doing in 6th grade ps here.

[Nature]

When I was in public school, I remember having political and physical geography.

[indigomama]

Is this new, or old information? Because it wasn't even offered, let alone required at my Califonia HS, and I graduated in 2004.

:iagree:Maybe it's by county because I've never heard of Geography as a requirement and I graduated in 1999 from a school in San Luis Obispo County.

[Guest Dulcimeramy]

This might shock you: We had World Geography in 10th grade, but World History was an elective course. That was in the late 1980's.

[kalanamak]

So, today I was in for 7th grade Geography... and the kids were starting a section on Europe.

 

I'm in my 50s and we had South American countries in 6th grade after doing the US in the 5th grade. I got quite a bit of detail on Australia when I lived there for 4th grade. That was bloody IT. Just awful, IMO, and a USian tendency, I think. It was no never mind to me, as my dad was a Geography and Geology prof, but I have no idea where my peers were supposed to get an idea about the rest of the world. I have to suppose "the rest of the world" was not considered important.

[Joker]

I remember having a Geography class in 6th grade and loved it. I'm pretty sure our district has a course somewhere in middle school. Both my dds know more now than I did until just a few years ago but they love maps and we have them everywhere.

[Mabelen]

In Spain I studied Geography as a separate subject for several years at the elementary and middle school level. It was political, physical, economic geography etc., plenty to fill several years worth of study.

[TammyinTN]

Generally I'm a math and science sub in our local public high school (12th year doing this), but due to our finances lately, I've branched out a bit to include middle school and subjects outside my specialty.

 

So, today I was in for 7th grade Geography... and the kids were starting a section on Europe. The Atlas they were using to label countries, etc, still had Yugoslavia on it as a country. I suppose I should be thankful that it had Germany united and the USSR broken up. I talked the kids through labeling Serbia and Montenegro, etc, and mentioned it to their teacher (who was still there - leaving for a sports event). He didn't care - and told me it wouldn't matter after this year as our school is DROPPING Geography as a subject. When I asked why, he just shrugged. Other teachers told me later that the Atlas has several current errors in it and most don't get pointed out. Yikes.

 

It was all rather frustrating.

 

Is geography taught in other schools? When I was in ps as a youngster we had it in elementary, then redid it in 9th grade. I had a super teacher who I really enjoyed.

 

A Beka includes geography with it's history program in 8th grade. We do current events and attach a map with it and discuss what is happening in that region. In 9th grade it's a one semester course.

[Ester Maria]

In Spain I studied Geography as a separate subject for several years at the elementary and middle school level. It was political, physical, economic geography etc., plenty to fill several years worth of study.

Same for Italy.

 

I almost choked reading about "Yugoslavia", though. :lol:

[Embassy]

I never had geography as a separate subject until college. When I worked in the public schools as a specialist I would incorporate a tiny bit of geography into the reinforcement activities just before my students left. I would show a map to a group of 2-4 students and whoever found the state or country first got an extra sticker. It was fun and needed. So many kids had no idea of life beyond their state.

[Spy Car]

We did not have a Geography class. But I was obsessed with maps fom the time I was a little kid. We (I) got National Geographic and I would plaster the maps all over my room. My mom would get me these cheap maps from the Teachers store that were printed in blue without the county names and just had the political outlines, and I loved filling in the names. West Africa was always challenging, but the rest of the world was easy.

 

I loved trying to draw my own maps from memory, and visualizing all the neighboring borders each nation has. And what the typography was like, and how the borders effected the geo-politics.

 

Now, of course we have a huge World Map over my son's bed and he is a chip-off-the-old-block :D

 

Bill (who is discovering he's even weirder than he realized :tongue_smilie:)

[Jean in Newcastle]

I learned geography from trying to take over the world from my teenage brother through games like Risk. We also collected stamps and would look up the countries whose stamps we had, on the map.

[Melissa in Australia]

when I was at school geography was a separate subject. I took it for 4 years years7-10. It included political geography only in year 7, then moved on to earth science,weather reading and topographic map-reading, lots of time in years 9-10 was spent on land topography, and working out land topography from map-reading. Trigonometry was also touched on. Geography continues on for years 11 and 12. I didn't take the course then though.

[scrappyhappymama]

I'm 38 and we had geography for at least one semester in 7th grade. I loved it!

But I cannot remember if it was for one semester or two. :glare:

 

I am also (nearly) 38 and had geography for one semester in 7th grade. I loved it too! It was also taught by one of my favorite teachers ever.

 

Incidentally, this was in CA, so perhaps the requirement if any can be met in middle school?

[creekland]

Same for Italy.

 

I almost choked reading about "Yugoslavia", though. :lol:

 

Is there something about Yugoslavia that I'm not getting with this quote? Or just that the atlases are so old that they still have it listed as a country instead of totally divided up?

 

I found mixed interest in the classes I was in for. Many students were talking about places they'd like to visit and enjoyed seeing where they were on the map. Others had to be cajoled into doing the assignment.

 

Most of the kids in this school have been out of state due to our proximity to MD (and MD has the nearest beach). Otherwise, many haven't been far. We traveled a fair bit (US and Canada only due to finances) when I was young and I still find myself fascinated by travel and seeing new places. I'd travel the world if we could afford it. There's not a place I can think of that I wouldn't want to see in person (politics aside). My boys will drop everything in an instant if we can go on a trip.

 

The biggest disappointment I have with our current economic status is that we've had to cut our trips out. Someday things will pick back up and we'll be on the road again.

 

But whether people like to travel or not, I still feel KNOWING about places on our planet is worth a separate class as well as reinforcing it though history and the like. It really bugs me when high school kids can't pick out France - or even the US - on an unmarked map. It doesn't make me feel any better when one asks for the name of an African country and gets "Brazil" as an answer (or similar). Some of these things I just consider basic "knowledge" equivalent to knowing how to read or how to do basic math.

 

Granted, these kids were just in 7th grade, but not one could pick out where England was (map of Europe only) since their atlas only listed the "United Kingdom." Yes, I also explained what the United Kingdom was... My boys could all pick out England, France, Spain, and Portugal by that age simply due to studying history if nothing else.

[Ester Maria]

Is there something about Yugoslavia that I'm not getting with this quote? Or just that the atlases are so old that they still have it listed as a country instead of totally divided up?

No, it's just that at the point of writing that post I thought that the atlases were pre-90s, i.e. included Yugoslavia, as in SFRY, before its split up in the early 90s.

Then later it occurred to me that, maybe, they weren't that old and meant only Serbia and Montenegro before their split up. But my first thought was SFRY which was why I was so surprised, because having atlases with SFRY in is pretty much equivalent to atlases with USSR.

(That's what you get when you don't read carefully and connect info with other info in the OP, I guess.)

Edited February 26, 2011 by Ester Maria

[chicagoshannon]

I had geography in 8th grade. We read literature to go along with whatever area we were studying.

[creekland]

No, it's just that at the point of writing that post I thought that the atlases were pre-90s, i.e. included Yugoslavia, as in SFRY, before its split up in the early 90s.

Then later it occurred to me that, maybe, they weren't that old and meant only Serbia and Montenegro before their split up. But my first thought was SFRY which was why I was so surprised, because having atlases with SFRY in is pretty much equivalent to atlases with USSR.

(That's what you get when you don't read carefully and connect info with other info in the OP, I guess.)

 

That's ok, when I first heard a student mention Yugoslavia that was my horrific thought too. I was relieved when I saw Bosnia (and others) on the map. I never did check the year of the atlases, but they are somewhere between 1991 and 2003.

 

Now... when we first started homeschooling and I asked for the school's books (which we can do), my then 7th grader was given a textbook that still had the USSR and Germany divided with no thoughts of reunification, etc. He came to me laughing about it. We didn't use school texts after that, but he enjoyed the read from a bygone era. They've at least updated from there.

[cdrumm4448]

I'm in my early 30s and we never had geography as a subject. Occasionally teachers would point out the regions we were studying on a map but even that was pretty rare, since we only had 2 years of World History (one was Western Civ. in 7th and the other was Africa/Asia/Middle East in 10th) from grades 6-12 and the rest was American.

 

I'm 41 and never had Geography as a subject. Sad. That's why my kids are helping me learn now.

[AHASRADA]

We never had Geography as a separate subject, nor do I recall studying any world geography at all. We were required to memorize the locations of all the states (fill in a blank map) in 8th grade, but that was it. In fact, World History was not even a required subject in HS, but US History was :001_huh:.

 

This was in a highly regarded, well-funded school district in the late 80s-early 90s, where I received an excellent education otherwise. Perhaps the requirements have since changed.

 

I learned most of my European history in college, during Spanish Civilization and French Civilization courses (I was a language major), and tied it all together in my mind while working through SOTW with my kids! I now have a much more thorough understanding of the full span of world history than the majority of (non-hsing) people I know.

 

Interestingly, dh *did* study geography as a separate subject for several years growing up overseas. However, the topic did not interest him, and to this day he has no notion of where countries are located in relation to others. I, with no such instruction to speak of, am much more geographically aware and informed, since I find it fascinating and tend to recall the location of countries once I have found them on a map.

 

I think this is an important phenomenon to keep in mind as homeschoolers. It doesn't matter which subjects we (or our local PS) "cover", only what sticks. What sticks in a student's mind are topics of interest to him, and those presented in an engaging manner.

 

This is likely the reason why I was the only student in my class who, after 5 years of French, left HS actually being able to *speak* French--high interest and strong motivation.

 

My $0.02.

[regentrude]

Now... when we first started homeschooling and I asked for the school's books (which we can do), my then 7th grader was given a textbook that still had the USSR and Germany divided with no thoughts of reunification, etc. He came to me laughing about it. We didn't use school texts after that, but he enjoyed the read from a bygone era. They've at least updated from there.

 

My DS had a worksheet in ps 5th grade (2010) about latitude and longitude where he was asked to find LENINGRAD. He was trying to use our atlas for help...

I did write a note to the teacher pointing out that Leningrad has been renamed St. Petersburg in 1990.

[Joker]

Now, of course we have a huge World Map over my son's bed and he is a chip-off-the-old-block :D

 

Bill (who is discovering he's even weirder than he realized :tongue_smilie:)

 

Not weird at all ~ or if you are weird so are we.:D My dds have maps all over their room as well and we have a large World Map framed and in our kitchen.

[Spy Car]

Not weird at all ~ or if you are weird so are we.:D

 

And people wonder why I hang out on this forum :D

 

My dds have maps all over their room as well and we have a large World Map framed and in our kitchen.

 

I may need to hit the map store :tongue_smilie:

 

Bill

[mommymilkies]

N weird at all! We love geography and Nat'l Geographic. We did one semester of geography in social studies for 7th grade, and I took geography as an elective in 10th grade.

 

Speaking of which-what ate the best geography and map resources out there? I've been wanting to amp up our geography studies.

[Melissa in Australia]

Not weird at all ~ or if you are weird so are we.:D My dds have maps all over their room as well and we have a large World Map framed and in our kitchen.

We are map lovers as well, my pride and joy is a massive wall map that once adorned a school wall. It is on canvas, at least 8 feet long, and can be rolled up . It has the whole world, and all of the British Empire marked out in red. It must have been made in the 1930's as it still has Dutch Indies for Indonesia, and Germany is still one country, Austria is part of Germany, so perhaps late 30's.

I bought it with a smaller Australia map, on canvas, that has all the explorers routes marked on it. I paid a princely sum of $8 for both.:001_smile:

Edited February 27, 2011 by melissaL

[kalanamak]

 

Speaking of which-what ate the best geography and map resources out there? .

 

 

I don't know, but I'm afraid of 7, because 7-8-9.

 

I got our huge wall map at

http://www.metskers.com/

 

if you are looking for quality. They don't carry junk.

[mommymilkies]

Thanks!