Geography is defined as an integrated study of people, places, and environments. It is both physical and human geography. Geography focuses on where issues (the spatial perspective) as well as on the interaction between humans and their environment (the ecological perspective). Geography is more than identifying locations or knowing about world regions. It is a unique disipline concerned with space and place, nature and society.
The five themes of geography (Guidelines for Geographic Education 1984) helped teachers by providing a framework for instruction. Geography for Life emphasizes what students should know and be able to do, not what or how teachers should teach. This student-centered approach is consistent with most national and state education initiatives today. It helps to forge a link between cirriculum and assessment.
Content in important, but Geography for Life focuses on developing the life-long skill of thinking like a geographer. It suggests ways students can use a spatial and ecological perspective to draw conclustions, solve problems, and make decisions. The skills of geography describe a process of inquiry that gives students a framework they can use "for life" when confronted with issues related to their world. The skills include asking geographic questions, acquiring information related to such questions, and organizing and analyzing the date in spatial ways in order to answer the questions.
Geography integrates the physical and human dimensions of our world in an ecological perspective. It offers students oppurtunities to understand how the environment affects humans and how humans effect the environment. Concern with human-environment interaction is familiar to geography teachers but Geography for Life places grateer importance on physical systems and processes. It is essential to understand how they function and operate in order to understand the connections between societies and the environment.
Geography and history have always been linked in social studies. Unfortunately many teachers have not known about or ignored the rich contribution geography can make to understanding past events. Geography for Life provides teachers explicit suggestions on how to make the connection clear and meaningful to the students.
Geography for Life contains other inovations. As you explore the document, look for other new ideas, particularly in the area of traditional geographic skills such as mapping and learning place locations.