Geography Was Dull At School!

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 29, 4 February 1939, Page 2 (Supplement)

Geography Was Dull At School!

By C.J A

IN teaching circles at the present time no phrase is so common as "the new freedom." Summed up in this is the new attitude towards education. "Proficiency" has gone, and teachers are challenged to show themselves worthy of their new-found freedom. As a result bur schools are seething with new and dynamic ideas as never before. Formal drawing was, perhaps, the first to go by the board, and its place has been taken by art and craft -work. Dramatic 'work as a medium for teaching subjects such as history and even arithmetic have given new impetus. In every field ; or.nhers are reaching out for. new ::-ethods, which -shall not merely be mere efficient in the narrow, sense, but shall help to make schooling; a .vital :; ocess. and not a mere Storing lip "of n.'ovmation or a mechanical acquisition of habits and skills. ' ' . It is in the light of this "new; freedom" that I here deal with the subject of geography. As a pupil my experience with this subject 'was probably unfortunate. I found a dull teacher, a dull text book and a dull subject. My teacher, in many - respects, .was an excellent man. .1 have met few since whom I would have' preferred in his

place. He inspired me with a love of learning, which, in spite of a backblock home and the impossibility of attending a' secondary school, eventually led me to the university. But he did not teach me to like geography; Dreary Text BooksPerhaps lie would have succeeded better . if he had Lad more time to devote to us. As it was, however, we were left largely to the text books, and dreary things these were. I can imagine little less interesting than a verbal description of the contour of a country. Metaphysics is exciting in comparison. But our text books would often. insert a page on end of this stuff, and I, at-least, conscientiously skipped it, with the result that-a lot of the succeeding references were . incomprehensible to me. Here andvthere I \be- ; cfime" genuinely interested, but these ; were' little cases few and far between. - What,' however, chiefly cast a cloud over the whole study was that I was supported to remember things; I was expected to know where towns and rivers and mom tains were situated and what various districts produced. Poorly endowed with visual imagery, I found maps troublesome things to remember in any derail, and' L could never keep

in mind the products of a district unless there was some very logical connection, which seldom seemed to be the case. Products had a most disconcerting L habit of appearing in various combma- ) tions, 'and the presence of one was » seldom any guide as to the others. Finally the number of countries iij. the world and the host of facts connfected witli each wee simply appalling and made any resolute attempt to deal with tbe position hopeless. Exercises in Logic When I began teaching I was introduced to a new conception of geography. The head was quite an enthusiast about the: subject, and was never tired of; impressing, upon . us . probationers that what was important was not facts, but reasons, and w© had to arrange our lessons so that the position of rivers was from that of the mountains, climate deduced from latitude, etc., and towns and their products deduced in turn from this data. Here was at least a little more logical coherence, and: for the . teacher nt any rate i it provided quite an interesting exercise

in logic rather comparable with some of the puzzle competitions which appear in the newspapers. Something, however, was still missing. Why go to all this bother to study these countries? Above all, why try to remember it all when the exercise was completed? Why learn geography at all? To broaden one's knowledge of the world we live in? I am inclined to think that an abstract study in logic does not contribute much to this end. Five minutes in Xcw York would teach the average child .move than five days' study about it. And now I come to the essence of my thesis. It is this: The average person is not lacking in theoietical knowledge of thft world at He knows all about China and Japan. He can find Abyssinia on the maj)s and tell you about the products of Spain. The trouble is that these, arc only names and abstractions to him. I did not realise this until sonic years ago when I took up' the study of esperanto. I then wrote to people in several countries, and when I received their replies I was greatly struck by the fact that these men seemed to live' and think exactly as I did myself. I had unconsciously thought of foreigners as people who struggled to express themselves in broken English and lived in a different and inferior world The dis-

covery that a Japanese and a German were indistinguishable when they wrote in a common language was quite an eye-opener for me. Yet there was no more reason why it should have been so with me than with any of my friends. I had read widely. I had obtained top marks in psychology. But I had not then realised the difference between knowing and knowing about. I knew about foreigners and foreign countries, but I did not know them. And that is precisely the trouble in our schools to-day. Attitudes v. Facts What we should do is to place much less emphasis upon having children remember ' facts about countries and "people and much more emphasis upon knowing people and countries. How can this be done? In the first place, we should make use of facilities placed at our "disposal by modern engineering. Sound films can provide a very effective substitute for actual travo!', and can do much to make it real. Why cannot we make use of it? * \Vhtu children would not sit fase*»iated* during a talkie tour of the world? And what could be better designed to make them realise the place of their own country in the world? What does lie know who only New Zealand knows? And what does he know of the world who has only

read about it in a geography book? About as much, t should say, as a man knows of love if he has or.ly read a novel! In the second place, Ave should make i sc of actual correspondence with children in other countries. Esperanto is ideal for this purpose, since it can be used in every country in the world, but there are other means available, and these should be exploited to the utmost. Supplementary to this correspondence should be a study of the stories of the countries being studied and a general attempt to get the atmosphere of the people .living there. In conclusion, the aim of all geography teaching should be the promotion of better world harmony. It should promote sympathy and understanding and even a wholesome humility. It should recognise . the importance of other nations, both in the present world and in the processes of history. The remembering of facts it should consider of little- moment. There are always maps and text books." The intelligent use of these should certainly be taught, but children should not be burdened- with the memorising of anything they can obtain easily from books. The chief aim should be the developing of attitudes, the general broadening of the mind. And this cannot be tested objectively at all.