8th Grader knowledge of geography
Jan 5th, 2007, 05:38 PM
#21
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Oops, hit post too soon. I think, in addition to travel, that having friends from many ethnicities helps quite a bit.
Also, in my kids' elementary school, there is a big, colorful map of the U.S.A. painted on the blacktop, with all of the state boundaries and postal abbreviations. They used to play a game called "State Tag". I forget now how it worked, but at the time I thought it was a great idea to help learn about U.S. Geography.
Also, in my kids' elementary school, there is a big, colorful map of the U.S.A. painted on the blacktop, with all of the state boundaries and postal abbreviations. They used to play a game called "State Tag". I forget now how it worked, but at the time I thought it was a great idea to help learn about U.S. Geography.
Jan 5th, 2007, 05:40 PM
#22
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I'm not a big fan of the NCGA laws Barbara mentions, but I am a firm believer that school based education is merely a start. Parents bear an equal, if not greater responsibility for teaching their children. Be it through life experiences like travel, active participation in the child's classroom, reading, word games, etc.
It should be remembered as well that 8th graders dating back to time immemorial are well known for forgetting just about everything they've ever learned. How many of us have watched our articulate elem school kids turn into monosyllable adolescents?
FYI - NCGA is my renaming of the NCLB to mean "no child gets ahead", as in teaching the tests, and teaching to the lowest common denominator. So many schools have taken away electives and enrichment programs just because of NCLB it's a shame. my 2c
It should be remembered as well that 8th graders dating back to time immemorial are well known for forgetting just about everything they've ever learned. How many of us have watched our articulate elem school kids turn into monosyllable adolescents?
FYI - NCGA is my renaming of the NCLB to mean "no child gets ahead", as in teaching the tests, and teaching to the lowest common denominator. So many schools have taken away electives and enrichment programs just because of NCLB it's a shame. my 2c
Jan 5th, 2007, 05:42 PM
#23
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my son was required to take world geography/history as a sophomore in high school. I don't think they learned any geography except all 50 state capitals (I had already made him learn that at about age 10) and they stopped history around 1400!
Jan 5th, 2007, 06:22 PM
#24
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A society does end up getting what they value. This knowledge is not valued, as it is considered rote knowledge you don't "need" to know.
What is considered more important has been mentioned. But the depth of most any subject is just skimmed now, IMHO.
It has to be fast bites, and the recall is short for most because there is no context to connect it with and to.
It's not just public, private or who teaches, it's also the total amount of knowledge.
But Geography and History have taken the worst splats overall, nearly everywhere.
Reading for pleasure, as travel, gives lots of context for place and time etc. Oh for less of the electronic visual and more of plain old reading.
What is much worse than not knowing geography, is the lack of critical thinking knowledge that develops from the practice of being applied. And from what I hear, that's not just in the USA either.
What is considered more important has been mentioned. But the depth of most any subject is just skimmed now, IMHO.
It has to be fast bites, and the recall is short for most because there is no context to connect it with and to.
It's not just public, private or who teaches, it's also the total amount of knowledge.
But Geography and History have taken the worst splats overall, nearly everywhere.
Reading for pleasure, as travel, gives lots of context for place and time etc. Oh for less of the electronic visual and more of plain old reading.
What is much worse than not knowing geography, is the lack of critical thinking knowledge that develops from the practice of being applied. And from what I hear, that's not just in the USA either.
Jan 5th, 2007, 07:29 PM
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Listen to this. I just went and asked my 16/ almost 17 year old the Grand Teton NP was in. He nailed it, and we did go there 3 1/2 years ago. Then I asked my 57 year old DH. He answed Montana. LOL, there is hope for the younger generation's geographical knowledge.
I alway did better than DH with the Geo questions, because of my dad spending time showing me globes and road atlas.
I alway did better than DH with the Geo questions, because of my dad spending time showing me globes and road atlas.
Jan 5th, 2007, 07:30 PM
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The answer is we are simply not teaching our kids enough. Somewhere along the line someone decided either that our kids are stupid and/or that it's easier not to teach them very much.
I attended PS 135 (New York City public elementary school with well over 1000 students) - which was in a middle class area and had a very limited number of kids with learning problems or who did not have English as their first language.
But we did have 35+ kids per class and there was one teacher per class. No aides, no assistants, no tutors, no special programs.
And in the fifth grade we each had to do a social studies project (make an in-depth presentation with map including population, industries, system of government, major rivers, mountains etc) on a country we picked - so the whole class was exposed to fairly detailed knowledge of at least 30 countries. I remember that I had to do Argentina and wrote for info from the mission to the UN as well as books from the library, National Geographic, etc.
Is this no longer done? We were all able to do it without any trouble - and obvsiouly were not all Einsteins? Why aren;t children doing this now (with reduced class sizes, teachers aides, tutors, computer resources etc)?
And we had to learn all the states and their capitals in the 4th grade.
The world is becoming more complicated - not less - which means kids need to learn more and learn it sooner. We know that the average human uses only a small part of their mental capability. Why can;t we do better? And why aren't parents demanding that their children (and their schools/teachers) do better?
And yes, geography is only the tip of the iceberg. How many graduate then need remedial reading in college? How many can't do enough math to make change? How many can't speak a single sentence in a langauge other than their own?
Unfortnately - we're failing many of our children miserably - by not requiring of them what they're going to need to live successful informed lives.
I attended PS 135 (New York City public elementary school with well over 1000 students) - which was in a middle class area and had a very limited number of kids with learning problems or who did not have English as their first language.
But we did have 35+ kids per class and there was one teacher per class. No aides, no assistants, no tutors, no special programs.
And in the fifth grade we each had to do a social studies project (make an in-depth presentation with map including population, industries, system of government, major rivers, mountains etc) on a country we picked - so the whole class was exposed to fairly detailed knowledge of at least 30 countries. I remember that I had to do Argentina and wrote for info from the mission to the UN as well as books from the library, National Geographic, etc.
Is this no longer done? We were all able to do it without any trouble - and obvsiouly were not all Einsteins? Why aren;t children doing this now (with reduced class sizes, teachers aides, tutors, computer resources etc)?
And we had to learn all the states and their capitals in the 4th grade.
The world is becoming more complicated - not less - which means kids need to learn more and learn it sooner. We know that the average human uses only a small part of their mental capability. Why can;t we do better? And why aren't parents demanding that their children (and their schools/teachers) do better?
And yes, geography is only the tip of the iceberg. How many graduate then need remedial reading in college? How many can't do enough math to make change? How many can't speak a single sentence in a langauge other than their own?
Unfortnately - we're failing many of our children miserably - by not requiring of them what they're going to need to live successful informed lives.
Jan 5th, 2007, 08:39 PM
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This is just the tip of the iceburg, what really gets me is the lack of math skills!
Heaven forbid if you give a clerk change with your dollar bills "after" they have already typed in the register how much cash you gave them, unless the computer tells them how much to give you back they cannot figure it out at all.
I just told my husband about the question on the TV show 1 VS 100 tonight.
The question was how many 6 packs would it take you to have 99 bottles of beer.
Your choice of answers were a)over 15, b)exactly 15, or c)under 15.
The lady had to ask the mob for "help" because she couldn't figure it out, then she got help, picked the correct question and on top of that 20 people in the mob got it WRONG!
Heaven forbid if you give a clerk change with your dollar bills "after" they have already typed in the register how much cash you gave them, unless the computer tells them how much to give you back they cannot figure it out at all.
I just told my husband about the question on the TV show 1 VS 100 tonight.
The question was how many 6 packs would it take you to have 99 bottles of beer.
Your choice of answers were a)over 15, b)exactly 15, or c)under 15.
The lady had to ask the mob for "help" because she couldn't figure it out, then she got help, picked the correct question and on top of that 20 people in the mob got it WRONG!
Jan 5th, 2007, 09:14 PM
#29
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I am Australian and live in a rural area - I was astonished to discover from a 10 year old student that he had done well in his Geography Test - even though he had misspelt each answer. When I queried this he told me the teacher had said as long as he knew the correct name of each place the spelling did not matter -
Jan 5th, 2007, 09:23 PM
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Schools are definitely not perfect, but I think that opens a door for many things. If there are concerns, speak up. Volunteer. Be a mentor. Whether you have children or not, the schools can use any help they can get. I have been tutoring and volunteering in our schools for 11 years and have seen how it can impact the kids.
Jan 5th, 2007, 10:45 PM
#32
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Oh, and I remember when mine were Duke Scholars for getting some SAT threshold score as seventh graders (1000 or 1050).
I'll never forget returning from the recognition ceremony at Baylor and speaking with a DISD 7th grade teacher (in a tire store the same afternnoon)who told me her entire day involved trying to keep the childen in their seats as they had/have no self control.
Education in that environment was/is impossible.
M
I'll never forget returning from the recognition ceremony at Baylor and speaking with a DISD 7th grade teacher (in a tire store the same afternnoon)who told me her entire day involved trying to keep the childen in their seats as they had/have no self control.
Education in that environment was/is impossible.
M
Jan 5th, 2007, 11:40 PM
#33
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My son was bummed out in the 7th grade because he was absent (sick) the day they did the class competition for the G. Bee. He probably would have done well, I think, because we always did geography games in the car as we traveled. When the kids were young we did states and capitals, along with looking for license plates. Later we moved on to naming rivers, mountain ranges, cities and countries on other continents, etc.
My DH loves geography and is good at it, so we would have a hard time thinking up questions that would challenge him. We would have to ask him to name six famous rivers in Europe and the major cities on each one and other such questions. I also came up with: If you were to fly from Copenhagen to New Delhi, name each country you would fly over. We were never sure if his answers were correct, of course!
He was on Jeopardy and missed a geography question: What is the third longest river in Africa? That is one fact that neither of us will ever forget.
I have had some fun with geography games on the internet. I liked the one where you had to drag the state (in the U.S.) or country (in Europe) into position. Your kids might enjoy some of those. I'm afraid that teaching our children geography is going to have to be one of OUR jobs, and maybe history too, since often U.S. history today is a list of all the mistakes our founding fathers and mothers made.
My DH loves geography and is good at it, so we would have a hard time thinking up questions that would challenge him. We would have to ask him to name six famous rivers in Europe and the major cities on each one and other such questions. I also came up with: If you were to fly from Copenhagen to New Delhi, name each country you would fly over. We were never sure if his answers were correct, of course!
He was on Jeopardy and missed a geography question: What is the third longest river in Africa? That is one fact that neither of us will ever forget.
I have had some fun with geography games on the internet. I liked the one where you had to drag the state (in the U.S.) or country (in Europe) into position. Your kids might enjoy some of those. I'm afraid that teaching our children geography is going to have to be one of OUR jobs, and maybe history too, since often U.S. history today is a list of all the mistakes our founding fathers and mothers made.
Jan 6th, 2007, 04:38 AM
#34
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When X-mas shopping I saw the coolest toy at Target...I am a geography junkie and always have some kind of map up, etc. But anyway, it was on the "leap frog, learning" toy aisle and it was a globe with a wand and you touch any country and it tells you the capitol or facts or you can play games where it asks you to find places etc. I must have stood there for 20 minutes playing different games and considered it for myself LOL...it was the best tool I'd seen yet for learning geography...
Jan 6th, 2007, 04:07 PM
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I'm concerned - but it's up to the parents to see their kids get a good education. My beau paid for his daughters to get a quality education - but most people don;t have - or in many places need - that option.
They need to take more of an interest (or - if they don;t want to be bothered - don;t have children).
They need to take more of an interest (or - if they don;t want to be bothered - don;t have children).
Jan 6th, 2007, 04:20 PM
#36
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Why blame the schools? Even though I agree with many of the statements here about school and priorities, geography's a pretty easy thing for parents to teach their kids at home.
One of my favorite things when I was little was my map of the US puzzle, the kind where each state is one piece. We also used to play "the map game"-my dad would give us a location and we'd have to find it on the map (this could be a US map, map of Europe, Africa, whatever). They also used to involve us in vacation planning by giving us maps and having us plan different routes there. We loved this kind of stuff, and we all grew up knowing our geography.
One of my favorite things when I was little was my map of the US puzzle, the kind where each state is one piece. We also used to play "the map game"-my dad would give us a location and we'd have to find it on the map (this could be a US map, map of Europe, Africa, whatever). They also used to involve us in vacation planning by giving us maps and having us plan different routes there. We loved this kind of stuff, and we all grew up knowing our geography.
Jan 6th, 2007, 04:41 PM
#37
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A fun game at home. Quite easy, have a piece of paper and pencil for each person. Whoever list all 50 states first wins a prize. Just one simple way to get children involved. And one can then move onto harder questions. But it can be fun and involve a lot of laughter. Teaching children various things does not have to be all about being serious..make it fun!
Jan 6th, 2007, 04:46 PM
#38
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I loved geography. In about the fourth or fifth grade, you could give me a plain piece of paper and I'd draw the US, plus all the state lines within in. Then I could add a star in the approximate location of each state capital and label them. (Of course there were only 48 states, so I guess it would be a little harder now) LOL.
But I really don't think the average adult is any better at most of this stuff than the average 8th grader. I'm appalled when friends say things to me about geography.
But I really don't think the average adult is any better at most of this stuff than the average 8th grader. I'm appalled when friends say things to me about geography.
Jan 7th, 2007, 05:23 AM
#40
"That is too bad, but maybe the school/district can use this to realize where they need to improve. You might want to speak to the principal regarding it."
I is NOT the fault of the principal or the teachers. As stated in several posts above, it is the No Chid Left Behind law that is ruining good teaching practices. So, contact your wonderful President and legislators. Teachers are very frustrated at being told to "teach to the test" rather than really teaching!
I is NOT the fault of the principal or the teachers. As stated in several posts above, it is the No Chid Left Behind law that is ruining good teaching practices. So, contact your wonderful President and legislators. Teachers are very frustrated at being told to "teach to the test" rather than really teaching!
