Geography, the Study of the Earth What

Geography, The Study of the Earth

What are the most important things you have learned in geography this semester and how does a knowledge of geography have survival value for American citizens?"

Many people might think geography is a boring and unimportant subject -- they are wrong. The first role of Geography is the study of our earth, countries, landmasses, water, minerals and natural resources. Geography is a science that opens the world to be studied. There is a branch of this science called Cultural and Human Geography. This deals with people and their environment - from cities to transportation to religion to food. Another branch is agricultural Geography which studies the crops and domesticated animals of the planet needed to provide food to sustain the various populations. All of these together form the syllabus of Geography taught in many schools today and it what makes Geography relevant, interesting and important.

Most people know Germany, France and Italy are in Europe but what about other countries in the news? There are so many hot spots in the world today it is imperative we know where those countries are, and as much about them as possible. For instance, some hot spots in the world are Bosnia, Israel, Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, Iran, and Iraq. These countries are in the news almost every day. Geography educates us to where countries are located, who the neighbors are, what their natural resources are, the climate and even the culture.

These countries affect our everyday life. If oil is cut back because a country doesn't agree with our politics, or a country needs our help to ward off an invasion, it affects us. Back in the 1960's many people have never heard of a little country called Viet Nam and had no idea where it was or why it was important to the U.S. They soon learned that it was considered vital to the political leaders during that time period.

America is a world power. Our interests are world wide through trade and political agreements. It is important that schools teach the new geography so students learn about all of these interests. The best thing a country can do for its people is to educate them. This is for the now and for the future of our country and that is why geography is so important. Without geography we wouldn't know how to look at a map, or find a particular country, or know that Washington State is on the pacific coast while Washington D.C. is on the east coast.