Gilbert Grosvenor, editor of "National Geographic," is interviewed about the importance of geography for Americans. He claims our lack of geographic knowledge impedes our ability to act and compete in the world market as a world power and points out that geographic ignorance extends to people employed at high levels of government. (MD)

These geography standards are subtitled "What Every Young American Should Know and Be Able To Do In Geography", and constitute a set of voluntary benchmarks that every school and school district may use as guidelines for developing their own curricula. The standards for grades K-4, 5-8, and 9-12 specify the essential subject matter,…

Geography was virtually absent from the secondary school curriculum from the mid-1950s well into the 1980s--despite America's rediscovery of the earth in the 1970s. The 1984 instructional "Guidelines for Geographic Education" stress five interrelated themes (location, place, relationships within places, movement, and regions), forming a sound…

This paper presents a view of the acknowledged lack of geographic knowledge exhibited by U.S. students. This view is grounded in the definition of geography that is developed through five themes: location, place, relationship within places, movement, and regions. According to this view, only a very small, usually trivial, part of geography…

This resource book is intended to aid parents of children aged 2 to 5 years in teaching geography. The book offers ideas about how to encourage and give direction to enable young children to develop the vocabulary, awareness, and curiosity necessary to lay the foundation for the study of geography. Suggested activities are included and are…

This booklet offers a succinct and comprehensive structure for making geography an integral part of student experience across the grade levels. Emphasis is placed on the knowledge and understanding of geography principles. The scope and sequence presented in the booklet shows that, as a result of national standards, geographic education is moving…

This booklet is designed to help teachers in geography instruction, dealing with "where" things are located, "why" they are located there, and "what" difference their location makes. The first three chapters describe a spatial perspective, examine two different kinds of maps, and examine how geography deals with three strands of meaning at the…

Afghanistan and its people are not well known or understood by the United States, yet many U.S. people now consider the U.S. and Afghanistan to be at war. How is it possible to know the enemy? This book offers a complete, but not exhaustive source of information about Afghanistan, the land and its people. The book is intended as a guide for anyone…

This annual meeting site guide is the fourth to be published by the National Council for Geographic Education as part of the "Pathways in Geography" series. The chapters illustrate some of the interactions between people and place that have helped shape the Santa Barbara (California) region over the centuries. The book includes an…

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 is the most recent reauthorization of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) and was signed into law in January 2002 by President George W. Bush. This educator's guide was commissioned by the Geography Education National Implementation Project (GENIP) to help geography educators…

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is the most recent authorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 and was signed into law in January 2002 by President George W. Bush. Of key interest is the progress of the last two decades, which lead to the law's inclusion of geography as a "core academic subject" and the…

This guide lists six model content standards for geography education in Colorado elementary schools. Standards cited in the guide are: (1) students know how to use and construct maps, globes, and other geographic tools to locate and derive information about people, places, and environments; (2) students know the physical and human characteristics…

This brief booklet provides a shorthand key to the national geography standards and related geography themes. The themes represent an instructional approach to give focus to a lesson. The standards comprise the geographic subject matter, skills, and perspectives of geography K-12. The five themes flow through the 18 geography standards and can be…

Intended as a teacher handbook, this volume takes a comparative look at the development of geography, both as a science in its own right and as an educational area of study, in Europe and the United States. The book is a description of the development of educational systems in very different political arenas. Reaching from early Greek educational…

This activity-centered approach to teaching geography to elementary students is based on children's literature. Methodologies for teaching the themes of geography involving children's books and stories are given. The book is organized into five chapters: (1) "Geographic Literacy in Curriculum" gives instructions for using the book and provides…