Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1919-08-15
PICTURES FOR THE SCHOOLS
National Geographic Society is Doing
Some Splendid Work.

National Geographic Society is Doing
Some Splendid Work.
Announcement Of a new department,
of the work Of the National Geograph-
ic society, whereby its immense re-
servoir of geographic photographs will
become available to public schools. is
made in a bulletin issued from Its
Washington headquarters.
IF 90 United States senators were
keenly concerned about exact details
Of the peace treaty; some 100000
teachers who teach geography are just
as anxious to see the new maps that
must come in the wake Of the signing
of that epochal document" the bull
letin says
But why worry about maps?
Maps are necessary, but before they
can glow with fire and meaning the
things that grow and live and move
inside the boundaries they indicate
must be impressed upon a child's
mind.
If the schools had to 60 without
maps for a year, and had pictures in
stead, perhaps the children would be
the gamers. Anyway, maps or no
maps, The Society has arranged to take
20, 900, 900 American school children
enough to fill four magnificent cities
the size Of our great New York-on a
sight seeing picture tour Of the world.
"a picture gives the inkling Of what
a volcano is like, and avoids such
amusing, and yet pathetic. answers to
examinations as 'Vesuvius Is noun
tain which continually emits saliva or
'boulevards are churches in Paris
thronged with gayly dressed people or
an isthmus is bottle with a narrow
neck
Recent work in geography has made
tremendous strides in this respect.
Adults will remember the definitions
they had to learn, and some OF us were
kept in sunny afternoons because we
could not make them stick in our
minds. For example. an island is a
body Of land completely surrounded
by water or ponds and lakes are
bodies of water that occupy depress-
ions in the land Whatever depressions
in the land might be 1t was beyond us
to fathom, but woe be to us if we could
not tell that lakes occupied them.
LAS we read over and over the pages
of our book. few Of US ever got the
picture Of the Rocky Mountains with
their lofty ranges, the wonders Of the
Yellowstone, the spectacle OF Niagara
Falls pouring out it's rainbow spray.
IF students OF one Of our best known
universities would write, as they did
in a test recently, that Japan Is a coun-
try Of 75O square miles. and Alaska is
southwest of the North Pole, and knew
not the country Of Buenos Aires, the
largest city Of the southern hemts-
phere; what hope is there Of teaching
grade pupils anything Of their new
world neighbors, the Czechs, the Poles,
or the Jugo Slavs?
What indeed. but pictures Of the
people. the trees, the plants and the
animals of those places? The interests
of boys and girls center in the world
about them. They are full Of curiosity
about those punches Of yellow and
green bananas at the corner grocery.
The t,,oly yStar caons O FOR cry from tn q
map Of Central America and study
OF the surface, climate, population.
products and capital cities listed In the
Biographies; yet pictures make the
magic connection. With them the
children go on journey to Costa Rico,
visit the banana plantations. see how
the fruit grows, and meet the black
boys and men who gather the luscious
food.
Washington, D. c., is not hasy alb
straction where something called the
government exercises threefold
function, Legislative, executive, judi
cial,' but city Of beautiful parks. wide
streets, and-here's the touchstone
again-a White House. a Capitol. a
Washington Monument, which are
bound to elicit the question, what are
they for
Because the National Geographic
Society is not a commercial firm. and
must pay no profit to any corporation
or individual, it has been able to place
the entire resources Of its organization
with it's 100000 members, at the SER
vice Of the public schools in supplying
geographic pictures at nominal cost.
The wealth Of it's pictures gathered
from every nook and corner Of the
world, thus are being made available,
with the cooperation Of school officials.
to public schools all over the coun-
try There literally Is a picture for
every phase Of geography teaching, for
every topic, for every geographic word
I'm preparation for this new phase Of
carrying out it's purpose, the increase
and diffusion Of geographic knowledge,
it has established q new department,
known as the school service, Of which
Miss Jessie L. Burial is chief"