Walking and Talking Geography

While reading this article, the first thing that stood out to me that was mentioned was "First-through-third graders are not ready developmentally to learn how to identify species of animals living in a rain forest or to color code Earth’s five oceans and seven continents. These activities—dealing with distant things and abstract concepts—are more appropriate for later elementary grades. David Sobel, author of Mapmaking with Children: Sense of Place Education for the Elementary Years, maintains that activities dealing with abstractions do not honor young learners’ relationships with the local environment. Rather than helping children establish connections with their immediate surroundings, such activities can alienate young students from their local environment by sending the message: Important things are far away and disconnected from you; nearby things, the local community and environment, are unimportant (Gary Fertig and Rick Silverman)." This part stood out to me because I could really connect to it. I think when teachers think of geography they think that teaching children about the world outside of their local world is more important when in fact it is not. By teaching geography to students using their communities and neighborhoods they are able to appreciate their surroundings and also see that geography is everywhere, even where they live. Even when I learned geography, I was always taught about geography in other places but I never got to explore my community in a geological perspective. I think by teaching about the local communities students will be able to make that connection easier.