White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1931-10-08
The Modern School

The Modern School
(Note: The articles in this series are
syndicated through the Washington
Education Association)
HUMAN GEOGRAPHY
BY Jeannette Donaldson
State Supervisor Of Elementary Edu-
cation, Olympia
Do you remember the day when the
content OF a geography lesson as
taught in the elementary school con-
sisted Of places, names, and lists Of
products2 The picture reminds one Of
a bunch of grapes with the grapes all
picked off. In the old days the lessons
were about river systems, boundary
lines, ranges Of mountains, seas and
myriad dots Of cities How like skele-
tons the rivers and their tributaries
looked How like shadows or stlhou-
cites Of themselves were the noun
tains, the cities and the countriesl
Pupils In those days recited concern
ing river, ut rises In the north-cen-
trail part of Minnesota, flows south and
empties into the Gulf Of Mexico. Pu-
pills were not led to see, in their minds
eye, the uses man had made of this
river and the productive country
through which the river flowed. They
did not visualize the varied life in the
urban and rural sections along the
course of this river nor speculate upon
why thriving cities grew just where
they did.
These children may have traced the
course of the river in minute detail,
but they did not see the members of
the human family building homes, Sc
curing food and clothing, rearing their
families, planning their recreation and
doing all in accordance with the natur-
al conditions of soil, climate, and re-
sources peculiar to the region.
Today, in addition to the textbook,
we get our lessons in geography from
the landscape, the heavily forested hills,
the busy mills, the Oil derricks, the
thousands of sheep feeding as one, the
current publications, the train that
passes through the community, the
grocery store with row upon row of
labelled goods, the articles used in
school and out, wearing apparel, the
irrigation bitches, the barometer and
the daily weather reports. Today the
pupil will learn what factors make a
commercial city, how markets are OBJ
tanned and in what particular products
his own country depends upon other
countries. While gaining such infor-
nation he acquires wide knowledge
of place geography, too.
Hundreds of older people are justly
appreciative of the geography which
acquainted them with the location of
neighboring states, counties, cities, riv-
ers, and mountain systems. These peo-
pie look askance at member of the
younger generation who does not know
whether Popocatepetl is "a city or a
mountain or whether Titicaca is pro-
duct of the desert or mountain lake.
Accurate knowledge of map facts is
to them matter of prime Importance.
But even more educative is the meat
OF human living, the ever-changing
response of the human family while
working out it's salvation under condi-
lions imposed by nature.
In the past train passing through
a town was, in the eyes of a thirteen
year-old youth, only long line Of
cars in motion, an engine at one end
and a caboose at the other Today,
for the boy who is studying the hui
man aspects of geography, the train
is more than likely to ne special
means of caring for a special produc.
while it is being carried from one
family of humans to another. He may
recognize it as fast silk train. This
summons meaningful train OF
thought At one end are myriad, pains
taking hands, through whose labor the
raw material was produced. The mind
is keenly aware of a Japanese land
scape, mulberry plants, feeding worms
workers in the fields, suitable soils and
climate. At the other end is a factory
OF busy workers, perhaps in New Jer-
sey, converting the silken thread into
beautiful fabric for use by the human
race. Students of human geography
may search for reasons why we in the
United States use three fourths of the
worlds silk and produce only enough
for good-sized family. They may
even speculate on the future OF syn
thetic silk and it's effect upon the
world silk industry.
Through human geography the pu-
Pill becomes a closer and more intelli-
gent observer of human activity about
him, more interesting conversation
alist, more understanding and more
sympathetic co-worker with neighbors
near and far. He learns that mankind
is closely linked in it's struggle for sue
cess and happiness, that all peoples are
one IN that they must meet the prob
lem of l1ti1izinu fovoroh1o oo,di+;o,,~