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

Ooooo I adored geography at school, had a great teacher who clearly adored the subject ( i think it is telling that the geography department was made up of him and 2 of his ex pupils!)
Am getting all nostalgic thinking about it!
Loved the field trips, on our upper vi one to the lake district he bought all 11 of us a drink in the pub, probably not quite kosher but lovely gesture! He was the one teacher I had every year from 11-18!
I think i might write to him saying how much i loved his lessons... or would that be a bit sad?

Ooooo I adored geography at school, had a great teacher who clearly adored the subject ( i think it is telling that the geography department was made up of him and 2 of his ex pupils!)
Am getting all nostalgic thinking about it!
Loved the field trips, on our upper vi one to the lake district he bought all 11 of us a drink in the pub, probably not quite kosher but lovely gesture! He was the one teacher I had every year from 11-18!
I think i might write to him saying how much i loved his lessons... or would that be a bit sad?

Ooooo I adored geography at school, had a great teacher who clearly adored the subject ( i think it is telling that the geography department was made up of him and 2 of his ex pupils!)
Am getting all nostalgic thinking about it!
Loved the field trips, on our upper vi one to the lake district he bought all 11 of us a drink in the pub, probably not quite kosher but lovely gesture! He was the one teacher I had every year from 11-18!
I think i might write to him saying how much i loved his lessons... or would that be a bit sad?

Ooooo I adored geography at school, had a great teacher who clearly adored the subject ( i think it is telling that the geography department was made up of him and 2 of his ex pupils!)
Am getting all nostalgic thinking about it!
Loved the field trips, on our upper vi one to the lake district he bought all 11 of us a drink in the pub, probably not quite kosher but lovely gesture! He was the one teacher I had every year from 11-18!
I think i might write to him saying how much i loved his lessons... or would that be a bit sad?

Ooooo I adored geography at school, had a great teacher who clearly adored the subject ( i think it is telling that the geography department was made up of him and 2 of his ex pupils!)
Am getting all nostalgic thinking about it!
Loved the field trips, on our upper vi one to the lake district he bought all 11 of us a drink in the pub, probably not quite kosher but lovely gesture! He was the one teacher I had every year from 11-18!
I think i might write to him saying how much i loved his lessons... or would that be a bit sad?

Ooooo I adored geography at school, had a great teacher who clearly adored the subject ( i think it is telling that the geography department was made up of him and 2 of his ex pupils!)
Am getting all nostalgic thinking about it!
Loved the field trips, on our upper vi one to the lake district he bought all 11 of us a drink in the pub, probably not quite kosher but lovely gesture! He was the one teacher I had every year from 11-18!
I think i might write to him saying how much i loved his lessons... or would that be a bit sad?

Ooooo I adored geography at school, had a great teacher who clearly adored the subject ( i think it is telling that the geography department was made up of him and 2 of his ex pupils!)
Am getting all nostalgic thinking about it!
Loved the field trips, on our upper vi one to the lake district he bought all 11 of us a drink in the pub, probably not quite kosher but lovely gesture! He was the one teacher I had every year from 11-18!
I think i might write to him saying how much i loved his lessons... or would that be a bit sad?

oh 14 year old says he likes geography. studying tropical rainforests atm

soil samples and statistics -

bobsmum - DH and I met in a field on a wet, windy day while measuring slope angles. The field was in Norfolk, where there aren't really any hills to measure, and we were wussy human geographers not keen on being in the bad weather so it bonded us for life

Eek - I'm getting academic itch again...stop it! Really can't afford to be a student again!

As an aside, Geography lectures got me and dh together - we got chatting after being introduced through friends and ery quickly it turned out we'd had the same lecturer even though I'd been at Glasgow uni and he'd been in Wales! The same lecturer based an entire 3 part lecture series on a tramp from dh's uni town, so I told dh-to-be at the time who told me the tramp had died . Lecturer was gutted. It was a really bizarre thing to have in common!

Similarly another geography professor who got dh into his uni in Wales, did my Viva exam and remembered dh - v weird!

ds really enjoys geography Lucycat. He's had a mixed bag of teachers for it so I think it's the subject he likes.

lucycat - you sound fab. Please can I send my (not-yet-born!) DS to your school so he ends up a geographer like his mum, dad and two uncles (yep, whatever genes it takes to make geographers, both my parents and my DH's parents had them so we're hoping we have them too!)

DS has just phoned to say he got an A in his Geography mock, and came top in his group. He LOVES Geography (for today at least!!)

I had to drop physical geography at uni because I didn't have either physics or chemistry to support it, so only got as far as 2nd year; 3rd and 4th were human geography. But my uni did offer a basic Geology first year option in the Arts faculty which was great. I wish we'd done more geology at school - that was fascinating. But it was glaciers and corrie formation in every exam!

bobsmum - my lectures were brilliant - yep, had quite a few feminist geographers in my dept and also had a lecturer who gave a series of lectures on why Islamic fundamentalism was going to be the equivalent of the 'cold war' in the early 21st century. This was 6 years before 9/11 and he died before that happened, and I always think about how right he was and how he was way ahead of everyone else in that regard. I also did a great paper on HIV/AIDS which encompassed such topics as gay politics in the US, access to medicines in sub-Saharan Africa and the problem of promoting the use of condoms in countries where the Catholic Church held sway. I had a couple of random lectures on e.g. stone age farming and I was never really a physical geographer, but overall not only was it fascinating at the time but it has given me a great appreciation of current affairs and global issues which can only be a good thing for kids today.

lucycat....no idea but I suspect not, unless he retires.

I really wish that these types of subjects were taught by teachers with a passion for what they were teaching. Passion comes thro to teens I find, and they respond more willingly.

Plus, if the teacher puts in a lot of effort to make the subject interesting and fun, that also pays off.

All I remember from my schooling, was sheets on the subject handed out, old knackered book with doodling all over the pages, and a teacher with the most dull voice in the world who seemed to speak in one tone only, and that tone was one that would send most to sleep!

hurrah for you trying to make the subject you love appeal

HQueen - I'm glad you enjoyed Geography too - it was all I wanted to do at uni, until I rad the coursework and realised that I could combine it with Film studies. My cultural lecturers were begging me to stay on and do ,y Phd cos they were just getting into film and geography too.

We watched some really odd stuff in our lectures! Feminist Geography anyone? Fab stuff!

I did a geography degree. It made me really sad today to read that a lot of kids aren't being taught by specialists - it's no wonder they don't know what a great subject it is if a lot of the teachers aren't even geographers. It has a really bad image problem - people at university always used to joke that i spent my time coluring in maps and that I was going to spend my life planning mini-roundabouts - but it is a wonderful subject. I actually thought this morning about retraining as a geography teacher just so I could do my bit to help rectify the situation

In this day and age, what more relevant subject is there for kids to study than a subject that covers environmental change, poverty, disease, immigration etc.? It's not just the subject matter though - I have learnt so many skills that are relevant to my career. It is actually a really rigorous academic subject, and geographers end up in a huge variety of careers. And we're all very cool people too - no spoddy fleeces and compasses amongst my geography friends

Oh this story depresses me but a big hurrah to teachers like you Lucycat!

I'm 30 weeks pg with our first baby, and both DH (another geographer) and I are going to be really upset if he doesn't love geography! We're trying to do our best to avoid this - just bought a world map for his nursery wall and also buying him this!!

DS1 took it for GCSE, DS2 taking it for AS - but doesn't like river systems. I took it for A Level (also got an A) and think it is a really interesting subject. What subjects are "popular" then and is there a market in academic subjects where some will fail and disappear and others succeed?

I loved Geography at school - - did S gRade, then Higher then SYS, carried on loving it so did it for 4 years at uni!

I ditched the human geography of school though and did cultural geography - managed to get an A for one essay on how Muriel's WEdding and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert were indicative of Australia's search for national identity

If I ever do my PGCE then it'll be Geography teaching.

ds is refusing point blank to discuss geography. Stroppy 14 yo with Aspergers!
But I don't care if he fails it. He'll get 10 other GCSE's and wants to do science A levels anyhow.