All throughout school, we were always learning something that our teachers considered geography. The biggest bulk of geography that I learned in school was the map. I first started to learn geography in second grade when they taught us the states song and we began to memorize them along with their location. From the point on, geography was always present in social studies class, but it was nothing like the way we are learning geography in this class. The study of geography in public schools went nothing further than maps and map quizzes. Every continent and even the capitals of each state, we were tested on everything.
Before this class, I never realized how many ways geography can be studied and how many things can impact it. It is very interesting to me that so much of geography can be related and affected by culture. I feel like those two things are something I never would have connected before this class. I feel like there were so many stones left unturned when we were taught geography throughout public school, that most of us left thinking geography was nothing more but maps and locations. This thought was sparked at the beginning of lecture today. The question was why do people in Quebec speak French? A question I feel is so simple to answer if you are taught about geography in its entirety along with its connection with culture. I knew the answer to this question, not because it was a topic for discussion in any of my history classes, but because I finally made the connection myself after years of history classes making no effort to share those connections between geography, culture and history.
Allison Dutcher 