Geography lessons

[Ponderingwindow]

I’ve seen multiple mentions of not knowing geography in the last 24 hours and it has made me curious about something.

it is a right of passage where I live to pass a timed test where you have to label every single country on a map from memory. The age this happens has varied over the decades, but I did it and my child did it. It is similar to a timed test over the multiplication tables.

Typically, you get to try every week until you pass, then you get to stop taking it. I couldn’t repeat the task today, but it did leave me with a pretty good sense of the world layout.

im just curious if people do this in other countries?

When I studied geography, it was largely land geography (of the UK) and some meteorology.

Not learning countries. But I do do that for fun on Sporcle - there’s a 15 minute quiz and I try to do it in 12.

In the late 80s, GCSE geography involved the Volta dam and Glasgow urban renewal. I don't remember rote learning countries, flags and currencies.

No. Would this be an Indian or Asian thing?
The fact you couldn’t do it now shows how pointless it is.

Wow I love the idea of this. I did A Level Geo but I might fail such a test. Going to do this with my kids over next half term I think.

I’ve never come across that. I was educated in England, the Netherlands, France and US! My DC havn’t either (currently secondary age in England).

I do have a reasonable idea of where most places are though. I have a globe on the coffee table in the living room and check the location of countries when they come up on the news.

Both DC studied Geography at uni and one also did an MA but neither can name countries, rivers, mountain ranges etc. that’s not what geography is about these days.

I have a general idea from being a map nerd and having travelled a lot for work (and I love a geography quiz) but I would struggle with central and southern Africa and parts of Asia. In fact when I looked at a map last night I was surprised to see that Armenia has a border with Iran; I thought there was another country in between.

I didn't choose geography as a subject so only had a few months of volcanos and tectonic plates and global demographics in what was 1st and 2nd year of secondary.
But I know Iran's neighbours.

Yes in Canada we did this. Teacher would also go to a map and point to countries and you would have to identify them on the map.

Educated mainly 70s and did the Ruhr coalfields at o level - beyond boring to me at that age! Earlier can recall cloud formations, maybe they were in the exam as well.

My kids educated 90s/00s and they definitely didn’t look at world maps - plus all chose history instead at options stage, whereas my era seemed to do both.

I love maps and globes, but some countries elude me - however much I check/see where they are it is a surprise every time - perhaps it’s a bit of a skill/early learning like times tables, which I recall to this day.

I definitely look on a map and globe for holidays, and read about places, but I guess that’s as I find it all interesting and part of any trip, including if I go somewhere new in the U.K. though I will be aware of where it is normally.

However, I wouldn’t for example research Manchester much, as I’m already aware where it is, more or less know what’s there etc. So maybe as the world is now smaller to us than when I was a child, we can check videos etc from where we are going, people tell us what it is like - then visiting abroad to different places feels more like me driving to Manchester to youngsters with instant access to places online that I never had - you may feel you know enough already - obviously this would just be due to perception and I’m thinking that perception is misplaced so just musing why rather than offering an actual reason - you’d always do well to gain some further background knowledge imo before going abroad, but how this can be advised/understood I don’t know.

I did geography at school but a lot of it was more like economics. We had Scottish studies which was about new towns, European studies about industries in Europe and world studies about African famines.
We also did weather which I was particularly hopeless at.

I hated it as it wasn't the kind of geography I wanted to do.

This isn't a feature of the geography curriculum in England but having seen multiple comments over the weekend along the lines of 'we're going on holiday / moving to Dubai and I didn't realise how close it was to Iran' I think it should probably make a comeback.

You may not care but FWIW and in case English isn't your first language, in the sense of a ritual which marks progress in someone's life it's 'rite' of passage. 'Right of passage' is a maritime term concerning access to territorial waters.

Too late to edit but I've read my post back and I realise it might sound patronising. I'm genuinely sorry if it does. I'd always rather be told about a muddled homophone like that by a stranger on the internet than use it in real life with someone I know but I realise not everyone thinks like me. Sincere apologies for any offence.

Geography is about far more than where countries are so it's not possible to teach anywhere near everything at school. Plus a lot of countries won't be the same as when a lot of us were at school (Baltics, former USSR etc).

But there's no reason for anyone to be so ignorant of such matters given that anyone who can go online can look at google maps and often streetview. I spend ages looking at countries, borders, mountains and even go touring down streets in random countries.

If you're surprised that Dubai is near Iran or Cyprus is just across the water from Syria then you only have yourself to blame - you could find out instantly if you wanted to - the poster who is/was planning to move to Dubai but didn't know where it was in the world was particularly astonishing.

My daughter said in geography class "Paris is the capital of France" only to be shouted down by 2 others girls that no, "France is the capital of Paris"

These were 15 year olds 🙄

That's certainly not what I did in Geography lessons, I think it sounds like a great idea though.
As others have said, it was mainly learning about cloud shapes and stuff!
Nothing about countries. As an adult with access to the internet nowadays though I know a lot more about the names of countries and where they are in the world thanks to games on Jetpunk and Sporcle like "name all the countries of the world" and Globle where you guess what the country of the day is - which tells you whether you're "hot or cold" in relation to your guess. That gives you a knowledge of where different countries are.
Seriously think everybody should play games like that! Or look at a map.
Watching planes and tracking them on Flight radar24 is another great way to learn, surprising what countries you fly over to get to some holiday destination places/countries.

Nope.

OP, if the lack of knowledge of geography you’re referring to involved people with no idea where Dubai was in relation to Iran, I think that’s a self-selecting group who are unusually insular and poorly educated. Just like a lot of people who holiday in the Canaries probably couldn’t tell you which African country they’re closest to.

Ooh see now you've got me thinking (we should turn this into an educational game lol)
Can I name the African countries nearest to the Canaries without looking at a map?
I'll have a go
Morocco and the Gambia I'd say were close?
Although Morocco maybe a bit further "up" towards Europe

No, and it sounds like a colossal waste of time now when everyone has a map available.
Tests of memory are a bit pointless.

I've flown to/from Japan a few times, used to be over Russia/China but nowadays outward journey circles past Russia and the return journey tends to go over Canada and back that way. Also have done stop overs in various places, including the ME. I tend to have the map on the screen the whole time as I like seeing where we are, so I've actually learned a lot from that. I also always follow adult DC's flights on flight radar, they joke that I'm stalking them!

So while I couldn't name every country if I was given a blank map, I have a fair idea where they all are. It isn't something we were taught in school. Geography was very much related to the UK if I remember rightly (was a long time ago!).

No, you're right -- they're closest to Morocco.