CRUISING through the COD on a recent Saturday night I got a little disoriented. There's so much there, and so little to guide us, it's as if down is up and north is south.
That may not be far from the truth. At a university that provides so little in the way of geography education, it's not hard to picture students drifting aimlessly through their academic careers, badly in need of a compass to guide them. In fact, there's not a single class listed in the undergraduate record with geography as the major emphasis. We have courses in anthropology, history, international relations and Portuguese in translation, but not geography.
Yet geographical ineptitude is a serious detriment to the University, because it allows a significant gap in students' intellectual attainment. It is impossible to understand international events, or even to trust that they're happening at all, without knowing something of their locations. The world is not an abstract concept; it is a physical reality where India exists at one point and Morocco in another. History will teach you about a place's past, and anthropology might give you insight into its culture, but neither will give you an appreciation of what it means for it to occupy a place on the map. Now perhaps the University assumes that at an institution as prestigious as itself, our nation's best and brightest have that figured out. But I doubt it. When I informed my best friend I would be attending college in the Blue Ridge, he asked me if I would be on the ocean. (He attends Yale.)
Meanwhile, studies such as the Programme for International Student Assessment and Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study have consistently shown American students at or near the bottom of achievement levels in math, science and reading comprehension among industrialized nations. In Washington, politicians horrified at the prospect of American jobs being outsourced to savvier foreigners have rushed through legislation such as No Child Left Behind, hoping to catch up before it's too late. Whether or not the increased emphasis on math and science has paid off remains to be seen; what is clear is that somehow, geography got left behind. Perhaps it was for the best -- Japanese students may be outperforming ours across the board, but that will hardly be a threat when we no longer know where Japan is. Out of sight, out of mind, right?
For half of us that's exactly the case. In a 2006 National Geographic study on geography literacy among people ages 18 to 24, 49 percent could correctly identify Japan on a map of Asia. Only 12 percent could do the same for Afghanistan and less than four in 10 were successful with Iraq. And boding well for future diplomatic relations, just over a third realized that the United Kingdom lies off the coast of western Europe. I wonder how many of them knew that "United Kingdom" is the correct term for a union that includes England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
At the University, Human Geography is one of only two Advanced Placement programs not awarded credit. Quite simply, there's no corresponding course for it. And officials within the College tell me neither history nor anthropology consider geography enough of a focus to include it in their respective departments. Searching the entire COD produces only two classes with the word "geography" in the title, both of them 500-levels in the Education School. This must be quite shocking to our future educators, who find themselves learning how to teach a subject that they themselves never learned. And just imagine how your kids will feel, sitting through their fourth-grade social studies class circa 2025.
At its most basic level, geography provides the physical setting for concepts that are otherwise intangible. If you can't identify Brazil on a map, and see the expanse of the Amazon, you can't appreciate the dangers of deforestation. Closer to home, it doesn't make sense that there's no direct route from Charlottesville to Chicago, unless you realize that the Appalachians, low as they are, still present enough of a problem that the interstates skirt around them. And if you can't physically point to Iraq and see the Middle East, and understand that it lies at the heart of Islam, then the war might as well exist in your imagination.
The University has a great opportunity to do what high school didn't: to provide for its students a substantive understanding of the larger world. First-years already have a writing requirement. Why not a mandatory geography course as well?
Over the centuries we have mapped and charted this planet, but much of it remains to be explored. For too many, the world exists only as an idea, ungraspableand illusory. A Second Age of Discovery is badly needed if we have any chance of ever knowing where "the Iraq and the Asian countries" are. It's not a question of limited access to maps, Miss Teen South Carolina. To know the world, it takes an active interest. I think we can do better..
Alex Lane's column appears Fridays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at alane@cavalierdaily.com.
Read More
WILLIAMS: Donald Trump will be a threat to student loan forgiveness
By Ryan Williams | 16 hours agoTo be sure, this is not a problem of the University’s making. Nevertheless, understanding the uncertainty of financial accessibility in education, the University must step up to the plate.
PATEL: Personal development courses support students beyond the gradebook
By Heer Patel | 5 days agoThe University must rethink its approach to education beyond traditional major-specific requirements and mandate personal development courses.
EDITORIAL: Commercialization threatens U.Va.’s educational mission
By Editorial Board | 6 days agoAfter all, measuring the University’s worth in terms of accrued capital, operational efficiency and numerical rankings molds this space into just another cookie-cutter institution.
