THE ATTENTION GIVEN TO SCHOOL GEOGRAPHY 



[Editorial Note. — The relation of nature-study and geography, which is 

 growing more and more intimate as nature-study develops along practical and 

 industrial lines in addition to the sensible side of its original aesthetical tendency, 

 makes it certain that many readers of The Review will agree with the following 

 which appeared recently as an editorial in the Journal of Geography. We reprint 

 it with the hope that some nature-study workers may be led to help the geog- 

 raphy in their schools. The improved geography will react helpfully on the 

 nature-study.] 



"This Journal has from time to time voiced its conviction that insufficient 

 attention is given to school geography in many of the school systems of the 

 country. This is indicated in several ways. A large number of the workers 

 in the school field still believe that geography is a cram subject and, as such, 

 deserves no more time than is necessary for memorizing the facts marshalled 

 in a more or less skeletal way in the school geographies. It is also evidenced 

 by the constantly decreasing time allotment in school curricula and by the 

 stuffed courses of study printed for many cities in which the amount of ground 

 to be "covered" in a week or month is simply colossal. 



Even more the tendency of the country to believe that geography needs 

 but little attention is indicated by the scant amount of space devoted to the 

 subject in educational periodicals. With the exception of a few extremely 

 progressive papers, geography receives but little attention in the periodicals 

 most used by teachers. An occasional brief note may be included, while 

 other subjects like English, history, art, nature-3tudv or manual training have 

 several pages regularly devoted to them. This is not as it should be, for 

 geography is one of the four time-honored and proven fundamental subjects 

 in the education of any man or women. As such it deserves an adequate 

 amount of attention bv publishers, editors, superintendents and supervisors. 

 If these several classes of leaders would indicate their belief in geography by 

 devoting attention to its educational aspects geography teaching in schools 

 would improve as in no other way. If no incentive is given to the average 

 teacher to pay more than passing attention to geographv, the subject will 

 get but little more time or effort than the minimum prescribed by the 

 course of study. This Journal believes that the great problem in geography- 

 teaching is elementary school geography. The larger number of the pupils 

 in the country study geography in the elementary school or not at all. The 

 material here is most difficult to handle, is less well ordered and more in- 

 volved. It is in this field that teachers need the most help. The problem 

 is large enough and sufficiently important to be worthy of all the attention it 

 can receive. Let us hope that a new era mav soon dawn and that geog- 

 raphy teaching may receive the attention from all workers due to so important 

 a subject." 



