Posted on 09/02/2010 2:37:28 PM PDT by BruceDeitrickPrice
I confess--I had never heard the phrase "the Queen of the Sciences" until a few months ago. Even when I read it, it made no sense. They seemed to be talking about geography. What was all this???
Apparently, the wise and scholarly had much more respect for geography a thousand years ago than we do now. Once you start thinking about this decline--from Queen to corpse--you gain new insight into how radical (in the worst sense) our Education Establishment is.
These people never saw a fact they didn't want to drop overboard in a deep part of the ocean.
So I started thinking about WHY? What were all the reasons? I came up with four and wrote the linked article. I think you'll find it interesting. But the bigger picture is that we've got to reverse this whole destructive process. The brain wants information. Kids need facts.
Geography is a litmus test for schools. If a school is teaching a reasonable amount of geography, you know it's a good school. If not, then not. Geography is the point man (if a Queen can be so designated) for all foundational knowledge. That's what we need to start teaching again.
Facts are fun. Knowledge is power. With these two guiding principles, good schools result almost automatically.
Public schools have a hundred gimmicks to hide how ignorant their kids are. Critical thinking! Projects and portfolios! Common Core Standards! Constructivism! Creativity Curriculum! It's a long list. Sound and fury not signifying much. Tell you what. Let's put a bunch of ninth graders in front of a map. I submit we could measure their entire educational progress by just this simple request: Please point to Japan... Spain....Alaska...Panama.
If half the class couldn't do all four, then the principal would be reassigned to teaching first grade. We would see such a frenzy of improvement.
Article title: "Four Reason Why Educators Hate Geography"
http://www.rantrave.com/Rant/Four-Reasons-Why-Educators-Hate-Geography.aspx
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Again, a person's race doesn’t make them poor. t is what they do with the opportunities around them whether it be using natural resources or using their brains to lift themselves UP.
That is one of the reasons I am Homeschooling my youngest in Social Studies (also English but for another reason). In 7th grade the Junior High start out studying about ancient civilizations and end with the Roman empire - the study just ends. No fall of Rome, no Middle Ages, no Renaissance, no Reformation, , no Elizabethan England, and no Sun King. They sort of pick up the Age of Exploration, Enlightenment, and so forth with American History in 8th grade, but it is with a American centric viewpoint. The school takes 2 years for American History - 1/2 year in 8th, a full year in 9th and a 1/2 year in 10th). The World History is nothing like the World History I took in Junior High. In addition you may never return to World History as it is only a semester elective in High School (you could take another Human Geography course for example instead of Western Civilizations).
The school takes a full semester plus on Geography in 7th grade (the map coloring etc). I am having my daughter place locations on blank maps but no further. I have found several very interesting geography games that I am going to have her play to reinforce her location sense. She will know how to look up locations by coordinates and establish coordinates for locations. That should be sufficient. I am having my daughter write lots of essays about history and human geography. She is probably doing 9th-10th grade work. I am integrating the Social Studies and English curriculum for 7th grade (for example her readings are from derivative books of the Iliad and Odyssey and I am going to have her read Oedipus Rex, Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar etc.
I did not mean it as a slam. I am serious. I know a whole lot more about the geography of the Middle East than I do about South America for example. The same can be said for Vietnam and Korea. I care a whole lot more about what is happening in Afghanistan and Iraq than Ecuador, Paraguay, or Uruguay.
Really? See I wasn't referring to race at all. Africa is poor because they have absolutely no culture of respect for individual rights and liberties. The color of their skin is irrelevant.
It's the color of their hearts and souls that's keeping them in poverty.
I thought Obama’s father’s race was given as “African” on his bogus birth certifcate.
mark
The government schools stink. Sadly, it’s not new.
So...where are the parents? My kids learned basic geography through 99 cent world map placemats from Wal*Mart. When they got a bit older, we played the geography game after meals with them being allowed to use their placemats. Add to that an inflatable globe — a beach ball with a world map printed on it — and their curiosity naturally took over.
Do the parents not pay attention to earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, wars, or even The Olympics? Don’t parents share family stories about grandparents, or great grandparents, uncles/aunts, etc. who fought in foreign wars? Do they not pray for missionaries in foreign lands?
Seriously, this isn’t just a school problem, it’s a problem with the home and family as well.
“I am disappointed in Dr. Sowell”
Gee, um, don’t you think you should make yourself aware of what Dr. Sowell has written on the subject before you say something like that?
BTW, the Sahara has little or nothing to do with his arguments.
A father heard his son or one of his friends mention the tigers in the jungles of Africa.
He told them there were no tigers in Africa.
One of the kids: Where did they all go?
I have always been amazed at how many people in NYC don't know their directions. They know uptown and downtown, instead of north and south. This has to be taught early in order to become second nature.
I was once trying to find out from someone if you walk north or south from the Queens train to get to a certain place, and she kept saying things like "Get off in the rear of the train" and "Walk in the direction the train just came from till you get to Junction Boulevard." I finally realized she didn't know north from south. Without uptown and downtown as in Manhattan, she didn't know how to describe it.
Or you ask someone, "Is it on the north or the south side of the street?" Blank.
:’) We really need to have a pool table though.
Spring training?
One aspect of Geography is the discussion of borders-—borders are meaningless in the brave new world we are fast approaching, a world without borders.
A new curriculum could be PanGea - and a new course could be called “The borderless corporation - bringing consumers together”
Of course, all of them have home schooled at least a year ...
At least that is my fervent hope. 8~)
>>What is so disheartening to me — and it’s nothing new — is how so few people know something as simple to learn as the cardinal points.
That is only going to get worse as people become slaves to the GPS, never having used a paper map for route generation.
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