anyegr

hetismij2 wrote: "Having bought the map make sure you understand the scale of it!"

Oh, yes. I found that out the hard way when I did my trip to the Hebrides in 2008. It's not that the places I'd picked were too far away, though. Quite the opposite, actually. I could have gone through the entire chain of islands, Barra - South Uist - North Uist - Harris - Lewis, in two or three days, instead of the eleven I'd booked.

AJPeabody

The map illeiterates are likely to be numerically illiterate also. The idea of a map scale becomes incomprhensible. However, once such an uneducated person attempts to become a traveler (not a tourist), self-education must take place.

And we are here to help. And jeer.

AJPeabody

And misspell.

nytraveler

Is geography not taught in elementary school any longer? I distinctly remember having to do a detailed project in 5th grade. Each kid picked the name of a country out of a hat (granted fewer countries then) and we had a month to put together a presentation on that country. I got Argentina and immediately wrote to the UN embassy for info - and got a ton of things in return. Between that, our encyclopedia and the school library I was able to put together a reasonable map of the country with a bunch of cattle on the Pampas, major cities, other products, language, capital, population - all of the basics. And since we had to present them the entire class got some sort of info on 30 different countries.

And think how much easier that would be toayy with the kids being able to copy a map and populate with all sorts of info from the internet. The world is getting smaller every day and it seems knowing something about other countries is really vital.

StCirq

IMO, the amount of information available today is proportionally inverse to people's knowledge of the world (well, I should say Amricans' knowledge of the world). The more geographical information we can get our hands on, the less we seem to know.

But back to the topic of scale. When my kids were young, they were my navigators. I gave them maps and showed them the route we were going to take and had them lead me along it. I remember my daughter when she was about 6 sitting with a map in the back seat of a rental car in France saying "We're about an inch past Bergerac." Next step: look at the "ruler" at the bottom of the map and see how far "an inch" is. It isn't rocket science.

hetismij2

This advice is not exclusive to visitors to Europe - lots Europeans go to America and end up covering massive distances in a day because they don't realise how far apart things are.


I love maps and was always my dad's navigator. Even now I am the navigator, despite the in-built sat-nav. I love finding small roads to explore, which will still get us from a to b in a reasonable time. I am numerically illiterate though .

DH, who is really good with numbers, maths etc is hopeless at map reading. If I am to drive I usually plot the route out beforehand, and try to memorise it as best I can, because it will save arguments later.

thursdaysd

I grew up in England, and was taught to navigate by my father, using half-inch to the mile maps. He wanted to know that in a mile there would be a crossroads with a pub one corner and a post office on the other. Even though we were going straight.

When I moved to the US (North Carolina) I couldn't understand why I couldn't find any "proper" maps. It finally occurred to me that maybe there were fewer roads. (Or at least more highways.) I was also a little horrified to find that my step-children weren't being taught anything I recognized as serious geography.

bettyk

Yes, maps are a great start. With a map, you can also see how to SPELL the names of the cities you want to visit.

I'm afraid that is my big pet peeve. If you want to see a city that bad, at least learn how to spell it first!!

uhoh_busted

Right around the year 2000, I found a gift for my husband for his birthday. He is REALLY hard to buy for, so I was very excited. It was a globe. I can't tell you how much use we have gotten from that globe. It also has turned into an amazing focus of interest when young friends bring their grade school aged children to visit. Wish I could have gotten a commission on all the globes people have bought as a result of this exposure.

But whether you get a map of the world, or a globe, or a world atlas, it is wonderful to be able to know geographically where your friends are, or where that hurricane hit, or why this flight is longer than that flight.

michele_d

I went to Catholic school from grades 1-8. We were not taught geography, US or world. I guess the nuns figured we only needed to know where heaven and hell were. Forget even learning anything about Europe or the rest of the world for that fact.

Maybe that is why travel is so intriguing for me. I devour guidebooks ahead of time just to learn about new and exciting places I have only heard a little about. I love looking at maps and making sure I haven't missed some place I did not know about (which was about 99% of Europe before our first trip).

bettyk

I had a wonderful geography teacher, Mr. Cheeseman. He made learning fun and interesting. It was from him that I developed my love of the UK. It was the first place I ever visited in Europe back in 1977.

jaja

Gee, I'm so old we had to learn all the countries in the world and the capitals (different countries from today, of course)along with major exports, etc.

Regarding spelling, sometimes that is a matter of a particular mapmaker's opinion. Have a friend going to what he refers to (on no doubt good authority) as Enniscrone and my travel atlas calls it Innishcrone. Kinvarra/Kinvara is another example. Sometimes we do the best we know.

rosetravels

Could not agree more. I'm a visual person and don't feel like I understand a place unless I've thoroughly studied the map. I don't own a GPS (although I do use google maps on my iPhone sometimes) but I own a lot of maps and a compass.

For travel planning: our first family trip to Europe was to Ireland. I bought a big map, checked out a guidebook from the library, spread it out on the dining room table and put a little dot of blue tape on every place that sounded amazing. Our route practically wrote itself once I stepped back and saw where the blue dots were.

fourfortravel

Our two children (11 and 15) received only state geography instruction at the elementary level, and we have a very good school system with all relevant resources available, plus a large foreign service student population, so one would think geography would be featured. What passes for "world geography" curriculum are units on Ancient Egypt, Ancient China, and Ancient Rome. It's rather pitiful. So, it's up to us to make sure they can read maps (land maps, road maps, subway maps); and we have them navigate whenever possible when at home or on travel.

AJPeabody

So let's see if I got this straight. American schools no longer educate the students in geography, mathematics, history, foreign languages, or science. I wonder what they do teach, besides multiculturism, the Bible, and football.

Who knew that Sam Cooke was a prophet?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZq9-uC4_4k

bilboburgler

I think we are suffering the difference between generation X and Y. The older generation wants to understand how something works so they can use it other situations, the younger generation wants to know the answer.

You can see this when people ask "is there an App for this?" means I cannot think through the process and resolve the issue but I need an answer to a question.

I guess there is a proposal on the table we need to vote on. When next asked "is this crazy" are we all prepared to answer "work it out!"?