# The New Student's Reference Work/Geography, Teaching of

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Geography, Teaching of. Geography is the study of the earth's surface as the
home of man. It differs from physiography in this: that while physiography deals with the question how the earth came to be what it is, geography devotes itself to the effects of surface features upon mankind. The chief characteristic of the study is the relativity of man to his home, and not, as often assumed, a mere description of the earth's surface. Neither is the study of man alone any nearer approach to geography but, if anything, a wider departure. Not the home alone, nor man himself, but man in his home,—that is the function of geography proper. To Karl Ritter, the first great teacher of the subject, is due the credit of the present view of the true field of geography. The best-adapted definition of Ritter's somewhat involved one is, possibly, that of E. C. K. Gonner of University College, Liverpool: Geography may be described as the meaning to man of the earth and its features as they are.
Such being the scope of the subject, it is possible for its study to begin in the first grade. The outline of a course of study in geography, given by F. W. Parker in his treatise on How to Study Geography, is suggestive for all the grades, but that part of it which deals with the work of the first grade deserves distinctive mention. It aims to help the child to find himself, to realize his environment and the relations, so far as he may be capable of observing them, that exist between himself and his home. So taught, it must follow that the child will recognize the meaning which relate the Eskimo to the tundra, the Tibetan to the plateau, the Kirghiz to the steppe, the Negrito to the forest and the Troglodyte to his cave. Studied in the way indicated, strange people will not necessarily seem “freaks,” nor other parts of the earth “out of his world." His larger knowledge must increase his humanity, and enhance his appreciation of the earth.
In the first three years of school there is scarcely any need of a separate “study" called geography, such work as that just mentioned being incidental to a study of primitive life, nature-study and other subjects.
But in the fourth or, at latest, in the fifth year of school, geography should find a separate place in the program of studies. The first large subject should be home-geography, in which one takes up systematically the study of the home environment. Most of the principal ideas used in geography can be gotten by careful observation of one's home-surroundings. In this way later geography can be founded on a concrete basis.
The worth of later geography depends very much upon the prominence given to the causal idea. The work is dead, if this idea is omitted and the effort is directed chiefly to location. Here is found the chief difference between the old geography and the new; the former was descriptive and static, the latter is causal and dynamic. If one conceives of the whole earth as a developing body and of the various industries as developing in each country under the influence of causes, the study will prove thoroughly interesting and energizing. And that is what modern school geography endeavors to do.
As aids to geography-teaching, a magnet, a compass, a dipping needle, a dial, a weather-vane, a rain-gauge, a thermometer, a barometer, stencils, colored crayon and small papier-maché globes will be found useful from the first, although good work can be done without many of these. For advanced work there are numerous more complex pieces of apparatus that are of value.
If there is one thing needing emphasis in geography teaching, it is more laboratory work, more of the fields, more of the world about us and less of books. Study of the home, therefore, is not to be considered as finished after a few months of work upon it in the fourth or fifth year of school.
Geography logically begins with nature study, and develops through an extension of community environment to continental and world environment. It includes such a variety of surface, meteorological, climatic, biological, industrial, commercial, social and political problems, that local material need never be wanting; neither need concrete illustrations in great variety be lacking as the vision of the pupil is extending beyond his own neighborhood.
The making of models representing groups of people in typical settings of the regions which they inhabit will always prove interesting and instructive. A lesson in modeling groups to represent The Seven Little Sisters will not fail to satisfy the teacher of the advantage of such work.
The sources of information on this subject other than the regular texts are authenticated cuttings from newspapers, articles in magazines, bits of personal experiences and books of travel, of which there are now hundreds written in a most delightful manner. Such books as Nansen's Farthest North, Abruzzi's The Ascent of Mt. St. Elias, Hedin's The Roof of the World and Borchgrevink's Story of the Farthest South are of especial worth, bringing to the class reliable matter rendered doubly interesting by the intensely personal flavor of the recital. It is to be doubted whether there is a better set of books in any single series for geographical work than Reclus' The Earth and its Inhabitants. The voluminous publications by our state and national government are also of great value.
For the teacher The Statesman's Year-Book, Redway's The New Basis of Geography, The International Geography, edited by H. R.
Mill, and Adams' Commercial Geography are almost indispensable. It should go without saying, of course, that every class-room for the scientific teaching of geography should be supplied with a globe, up-to-date maps, atlases, gazetteers and current geographical magazines.
* COPYRIGHT 1912, F. E. COMPTON & CO.
* HUMAN HABITATIONS
* 1—Eskimo Circular Snow Hut. 2—Gipsy Hut, Croatia, Hungary. 3—Hut in Brazil. 4—Pioneer Log Cabin. 5—Home in Sumatra. 6—Congo Hut, made of leaves. 7—Indian Tepees. 8—Porto Rican Hut. 9—Floating Village, Congo, Africa. 10—Southern Mansion, United States.
* COPYRIGHT 1912, F. E. COMPTON & CO.
* DWELLINGS OF DIFFERENT COUNTRIES AND PEOPLES
* 11—Mexican Adobe Hut. 12—Pueblo Indian Dwelling. 13—Hut in the Friendly Islands, Oceanica. 14—Icelandic Hut. 15—Borneo Dwelling. 16—Modern American Dwelling. 17—Fijian Hut. 18—Modern Business Building, Sky Scraper. 19—Kaffir Hut, South Africa.