Soooo Geography is the 'worst taught subject' and 'boring' surely not?!

geography was by far my favourite subject, which is why I did a degree in it. Got to go on some great field trips, including one to Majorca, which was basically sunbathing whilst pretending to study rocks and whatever.

DS1 thinks its OK, they have had a couple of day trips to beach & mountains to reinforce the work, but we do live in an area with an interesting geog! In yr 7 they studied the local area then gradually widened it to study the whole country. Hes yr 9 now, not sure what hes doing THB. Personally, I enjoyed parts of the subject a lot (weather, geology) but hated having to learn the industries of the Ruhr valley. We had a v boring teacher who read out a script which we had to write down verbatim -EVERY LESSON. Enough to turn anyone off, I'm sure teachers don't do that these days.

I too am a secondary Geography teacher. I am finding that our subject is losing a lot of pupils because of the vocational courses on offer within the school. I am frequently asked 'How many GCSEs is Geography worth?' more often that 'What does GCSE Geography include?' iyswim. Unfortunately the likes of ICT, Health and social care, business studies etc that are worth x number of GCSEs take away a lot of our pupils!

As a department we do a good job (imo) of keeping lessons 'relevant' and entertaining, however there is very little we can do to attract those pupils who simply choose the subject worth more GCSEs

Many moons ago, I chose not to opt for Geography when the teacher said we were all more stupid than his labrador puppy - never forgave the insult.
Now following GCSE course supporting SN pupils - it's great! Some pupils shocked how much harder it is compared with Geog in Yrs7,8 and 9....

I loved geography in school, particularly all the physical geography stuff.

I know a surprising amount about the cotton belt in America at one point!

My kids love it too.

DD at 10 has done all sorts of things about volcanos and earth quakes and subduction zones.

ds (7) is doing all about the weather, and delights in giving us a 5 day forecast. the hours fly by chez Bishop

I did a term of that with my Y7s, candy, and they were virtually begging me to move on.

It's not like it was for those of us who are 40+. Back in the day, when there was one channel or the other to watch, our evening pastime was to go through the Readers' Digest Atlas and play Name the Capital. Totally different for the Playstation Generation. The best I can do with my own kids is to do a Facebook Traveller IQ.

Can you tell me why Geography doesn't teach children where places are any more? I would have thought that first basic geography is that and by the end of year 7 all 12 yo should be roughly able to fill in a map of the world. Has it been officially abandoned?

At my secondary school all the teachers in the geography dept were, well, a little odd.

The lessons were boring as hell, sheep farming, hills and rivers were topics we discussed. Yawn.

I didn't think it was considered soft - it definitely qualifies as an academic A-level.

However, last year I saw a survey which said that Geography was the subject most likely to deliver an A grade.

That meant that if you were looking for a fourth subject to study (ie not directly supporting your UCAS application), then Geography would be a pretty good choice.

well i was surprised that it was considered a soft a level

My DS2 is too, Fizzbuzz.

DS1 is doing his GCSE this year and is expected to get A*. I had great fun with him in the spring driving around various rivers to do his coursework (holding back the urge to help!).

He went to Iceland in the summer, so there goes the notion that there are no interesting fieldtrips - I was totally jealous.

My own school's fieldtrips this year are to Nepal and Australia. Alas, with having a family of my own, and only teaching KS3, I am not partaking.

Ds is choosing it for one of his options next year

Just to add...I do actually know which countries are in the EU (therefore would be immediately aware if there was a Wikipedia error), and projecting the Wikipedia page is simply a compact way of sharing. I could, of course, have typed it all up into a Powerpoint, but I actually want my girls to know how to look for information for themselves. It's one of the skills I want them to develop.

Also, the Europa site is totally pants for KS3 geography. Maybe fine if you are writing a university thesis, but not really something that is suitable for schools.

Good jab at private school teacher though

Wikipedia is fab! And pretty reliable too. I do check major things with additional sources, but it is very useful for factoids. I love it.

I mean, what was wrong with just looking up the EU's own central site and seeing who the new members are?

wikipedia?

Did you mention that it isn't always (ahem) terribly reliable? I'm worried you might have a class of children thinking Moldovia, Ruritania and Lilliput have joined the EU...

DS1 enjoys geography. He's in yr 9.

I've met his teacher on a few occasions, and he is full of enthusiasm and seems to plan interesting lessons.

I enjoyed geography at school, but did CSE instead of O Level (did O levels in every other subject). I wouldn't have enjoyed doing the O level syllabus, but I did get a Grade 1 in the CSE.

Think I've just proved I'm old, lol.

I teach Geography, in addition to Science, so I am one of the non-specialist teachers that are one of the problems with the subject.

In my defence, I do feel that I know what I am teaching, and do a lot of research for each lesson. I am also fairly enthusiastic about my lessons. I did up to Higher Geography, and loved all aspects of it.

I was intrigued when I heard on the news this morning about the call for more money to be invested in Geography, and wondered what this really meant. If it's to do with resources then I see the issue that they are constantly out of date. We have reasonably recent textbooks, but when they mention population, GDP etc, the info is often not correct. I was teaching a lesson on the EU this week, and they of course made no mention of countries which joined in the last few years. Fortunately, Wikipedia set us straight, and I was able to project this onto the board.

One of the criticisms that I have come across of the Geography Curriculum (especially at KS4) is that it is overlapping too much with Science HSW, and between the two there is too much on global warming etc., to the point that it is all too depressing. I don't teach KS4 Geography, but on reflection, an awful lot of what we teach has a very negative slant.

geography...better than sex

peapod lolololol

oh dear my internet went a bit dodgy...

Blimey, Peapod, you must have likeld Geography!