Such articles are important, especially if they offer some hope for enhancing the situation. The positive news in this post is Schultz and a colleague's effort to tie geospatial technology to science in a new course for non-majors. I'm excited to learn more about that.
In the mean time, we need to start telling new stories about geography. We need stories that can help distance geography (pun intended) from the state capitals comment above and what was once called the "capes and bays" visions of the discipline. So, what stories do we tell?
We can all tell the John Snow cholera story. But we need more like it. We need simple to tell, simple to understand stories that define what our discipline is, how it works and why it matters in memorable, bite-sized pieces. I'm sorry if this sounds a bit like marketing, but in all honesty, geography needs marketing.
I am a geographer with two degrees in the subject. I only know that one story. What are the other stories should we be telling? What stories do you tell to explain what geography is? Should they be part of our communal storytelling? Please share them in the comments.
- HT to @josephkerski
Santella did a great job researching the topic and double checked sources which few reporters do these days. Bottom line: geography literacy is only part of the program. Lack of spatial abilities and awareness is prominent as well. So why can't this change? Because a concerted effort has never been undertaken, nor properly funded, to get spatial thinking into the curriculum. States and capitals don't have to be learned by rote memory, but implementing spatial skills into the curriculum does. Cognitive research overwhelmingly points to spatial cognition as an important facet to many disciplines. So why not educate our future leaders and equip them with the best skills and experiences to succeed in later life? You an ask the politicians and so-called education "experts" on Capital Hill, but then they don't knot the capital of Nigeria either...
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