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The National Geographic Magazine 



the future study should be related to 

 this, partly to illuminate the subject 

 and partly to maintain the interest. 

 As new topics are presented there 

 should be a causal sequence ; and this 

 seems to me to be one more funda- 

 mentally important principle in geog- 

 raphy teaching. Instead of teaching 

 unrelated facts there should always, 

 where possible (and there is nearly al- 

 ways a possibility), be an attempt to 

 show relation between cause and effect. 

 If wheat in the Red River Valley is the 

 topic, the reason why wheat is grown 

 there should be shown; if the size of 

 New York city is stated, it should be 

 shown why it is so large; if the desert 

 of Sahara is being described, there 

 should be a reason apparent; if the 

 marked colonial development of the 

 British Empire is stated, reasons should 

 be presented, etc. Here, again, the 

 method proposed provides for interest 

 and also makes certain a clearer under- 

 standing. Facts thus learned will be 

 remembered and memory will not alone 

 be exercised; for if the chain of thought 

 is logical, as it must be if properly pre- 

 sented, a habit of logical thinking will 

 be trained. 



In geograph}' there are several bases 

 for a causal sequence, though by far 

 the greater majority of facts which the 

 children learn rest upon either the his- 

 torical or the physiographic basis. It 

 follows, therefore, that some attention 

 must be given both to history and to 

 physiography, not in either case fvjr 

 their own sake alone, but merely in so 

 far as they are needed to understand the 

 facts which general geography includes. 

 I believe it to be as great a mistake to 

 include too much physiography or me- 

 teorology as to include too much history 

 or biology. Pure history or biology 

 are, by common consent, excluded; and 

 pure physiography, which is a branch 

 of geology, should likewise be excluded; 

 but for the purposes of general geog- 

 raphy each of these subjects, and as 



many others as are necessary, may be 

 drawn upon to the full extent that they 

 may be needed to serve as a broad cause 

 for a part of a geographic sequence — 

 that is, in so far as they have a direct 

 bearing on an interpretation of the re- 

 lation of man to the earth, the}' may be 

 introduced into general geography. 



Of the several bases for causal se- 

 quence not one has so much importance 

 as physiography. In the past this as- 

 pect has been greatly overlooked. At 

 the present we are perhaps carrying it 

 a little too far — at least many believe 

 so — and for my part I agree with them; 

 but that physiograph}' is f undamentally 

 important to a rational scientific study 

 of geography, in which cause and effect 

 are considered, no one whose opinion is 

 worth hearing can now question. If 

 we wish to understand the position and 

 importance of San Francisco, Chicago, 

 New York, Boston, Montreal, the Brit- 

 ish Isles, etc. , we must know the physi- 

 ographic facts. The application of 

 physiography is well-nigh universal. 

 Its introduction, therefore, makes the 

 study of geography rational and scien- 

 tific, and, if not carried too far, it 

 makes the study interesting, because 

 it shows how, from certain causes, im- 

 portant results necessarily follow. If 

 merely introduced and not applied, as 

 it is in some of the texts, it not only 

 loses its value, but it is positively dan- 

 gerous, because it deadens interest and 

 repels students. A reaction against 

 physiography has alread}' set in among 

 teachers because of this fact. 



TEXT-BOOKS IN GEOGRAPHY STUDY 



It would easily be possible to follow 

 this subject much further, and to enter 

 into many details not here referred to. 

 But this is not the place for that. Else- 

 where, in a series of text-books, I have, 

 in association with another, endeavored 

 to work out in detail a system of geog- 

 raphy for the schools, in which the 



