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Did you ever wonder why?Charles F. GritznerPublished online: 25 Sep 2007.

To cite this article: Charles F. Gritzner (1982) Did you ever wonder why?, Journal of Geography, 81:4, 155-156, DOI:10.1080/00221348208980873

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p A m A @ j j A CHARLES F. GRITZNER

Did you ever wonder why?

At the close of a recent term, a student came to me and said, "I didn't really like the course. We had to think too much, instead of learn." Think too much instead of learn? In reviewing the class evaluations, I noted that a number of the students shared the feeling. They did not want to think; they wanted to "learn" (translated to mean follow the textbook page by page and mem- orize its contents). Additionally, some students resented my pointing to factual or conceptual flaws in the textbook. Are not all textbook authors Great Men of flawless intellectual repute? By what right does their own instructor question the printed word? Fortunately, such students and classes (this one having been introductory) are the exception rather than the rule.

Although we have no problem in teaching the good stu- dents, how do we stimulate the others? How do we encourage our students to think and to realize that an ability to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information will remain with them long after memorized "learning" is lost? Carl1 Tucker, writing in the Saturday Review (15 March 1980), succinctly distinguished fact f r o n learning: "Disembodied facts are fool's gold. They are so easy to mistake for true learning" (p. 54).

Einstein once stated that imagination was more important than knowledge. If we, as teachers, can successfully fire our students' imaginations, provide them with the tools of learning, and instill in them a zest for challenging information (including that which we ourselves convey), our job will be well done. The task is not as difficult as it might seem at the outset. For ex- ample, did you ever wonder why

. . . In the United States fences are usually built t o keep people out, whereas in the countries behind the Iron Curtain and in other totalitarian states fences or walls are built to keep people in?

. . . As official policy, the United States refuses to recog- nize, or formally communicate with, those countries with which we sever diplomatic relations because of conflicting view- points?

. . . In an increasingly hungry world in which population growth will place ever-increasing demands on relatively fixed agricultural resources, American agricultural policy is in sham- bles and the farmer is treated as a "second class citizen"? Is not this nation's agricultural potential our "ace card" in future global bargaining?

. . . Since the end of World War II, communism has gained control of some one-third of the world's population and one- fourth of the world's land area, while capitalism and democratic government have made few inroads during the same period?

. . . An average of 34,000 trucks per week carry produce from the Sunbelt to the nation's urban-industrial heartland, yet the majority of them return empty?

. . . The Soviet Union has experienced a critical agricultural short-fall for the fourth consecutive year, yet the government continues a bureaucratic policy of collective and state-con- trolled farms, even though the 4 percent of the Soviet cropland that is privately controlled produces nearly one-third of all crop value?

. . . Motor vehicles of foreign manufacture now claim ap- proximately one-third of the American market?

. . .Americans have never adopted a national beverage and somehow have managed to ruin most of those that we have accepted from other cultures? (Even most impoverished Third World countries produce a much finer beer than our own do-

mestic brands; other than in Louisiana, our coffee is a disgrace; the British blanch at the very thought of what we do to tea; and only recently have California wines, which are of comparable quality to most imports, begun to grow in popularity.)

, . . Many textbooks written for the elementary- and sec- ondary-level markets have several editions, each of which is tailored to a particular regionai, religious, or other market whim?

. . . Much of our policy relating to Latin America and the Caribbean continues to be based on paternalism and thinly guised imperialism cloaked in several forms? How long can we successfully maintain a hemispheric relationship in which our actions antagonize neighbors rather than develop strong bonds of mutual cooperation, friendship, and respect? (How did we rationalize away the principles and intent of the Monroe Doc- trine during the recent conflict in the South Atlantic between the British and the Argentines?)

. . . This country seems unable to develop and maintain an energy policy that would ensure a degree of self-sufficiency in the future and, in so doing, protect the national interest during periods of conflict or a recurrence of the cost and availability nightmare experienced during the late 1970s?

. . . We continue to be the world's leading merchant of armaments, while maintaining that we are the global champions of peace?

. . . Our government often is caught "flat-footed" by de- velopments such as the revolution in Iran, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, conflicts in Central and South America, and a host of other events unforeseen by American intelligence-when many were predicted well in advance by former Peace Corps volunteers, graduate students and faculty members working abroad, or other individuals with a firm feeling for the pulse of foreign countries and cultures? (Could the fault rest at least in part with the American policy of rotating ambassadors and other official representatives before they have been in a country long enough to acquire an understanding of its dynamics?)

. . . Under the impending threat of a nuclear attack, our government believes that the population of our major urban centers can be evacuated into the surrounding countryside be- fore the strike? (I wonder how many Washington decision-mak- ers have driven any of our urban freeways during a normal rush hour!)

. . . The United States is often the "whipping boy" for Third World problems whereas, in reality, many of the problems that thwart development in these countries result from their own political, social, and economic instability?

. , . So much urban growth is taking prime agricultural land from production, yet only recently have some states begun to pass legislation that restricts such encroachment and the irrep- arable loss of farmland?

We delay or terminate developmental projects in order to protect such endangered species as the California condor, furbish lousewort, snail darter, and Houston toad, while ap- plauding attempts to eradicate other life forms such as insects and microbes that damage crops, cause disease, or are in some other way a nuisance to us?

It might be appropriate to ask ourselves some other ques- tions too. Did you ever wonder why

. , . Geographic education thrives in Canada, throughout most of western Europe, in the Soviet Union, and even in China, yet languishes in the United States?

JULY-AUGUST 1982 155

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. . . Although the National Council for Geographic Educa- tion has been in the business of promoting geographic educa- tion since 1915, no more than a small fraction of 1 percent of all elementary and secondary teachers are aware of our exis- tence, only 1,407 individuals hold Council membership (in au- tumn 1981), and fewer than one-third of the individual Council members are from the precollege level of instruction?

. . . So few individuals who formerly held positions of lead- ership in the National Council continue to maintain an enthu- siastic and active involvement in Council affairs?

. . . There are so few courses in the geography of explo- ration, even though exploration constitutes the foundation of geographic inquiry?

. . . So many popular books and articles are written by scholars in other fields and so few by geographers? Given this rather inexplicable reality, how can we expect the lay public t o understand and support our endeavors? Do not geographers have as much relevant and interesting information to convey as do our colleagues in such disciplines as anthropology, sociol- ogy, economics, psychology, or history (each of which is rep- resented by a number of scholars who write for public con- su m pt i o n) ?

The next time a student comes to me with the complaint that he or she had to “think too much instead of learn,” I will be prepared to cite the difference between fool’s gold and the real thing.

HaD)uA v v E. WILLARD MILLER

Map catalogs and bibliographies

The map is one of the earliest inventions of man to portray his surroundings. The best and easiest way to locate physical and human phenomena is to represent them on a map. From ancient times to the present, the value of the map as a storage place of spatial information has thus been recognized, not only by schol- ars, but by the average citizen. Vast map collections are now available as basic sources of information for teachers and re- searchers. The following provide brief information on a number of map bibliographic sources.

The Bibliography of Cartography. Prepared by the Geography and Map Division of the Library of Congress. Boston, Mass.: G. K. Hall and Co., 1973. 5 volumes plus First Supplement 1980.

This bibliographic source was begun by Philip Lee Phillips before his appointment in 1897 as the first Chief of the Library of Congress’ newly established Division of Maps and Charts. For many years the map librarian and his staff continued to add entries to the bibliography. Because the bibliography was not published, work was sporadic until in the early 1950s when ef- forts were renewed to set up a systematic program to analyze professional journals and prepare entries for it. During subse- quent years, some 275 geographical, cartographical, and related journals have been regularly surveyed, as have the weekly cat- alog card galleys on which are described monographs added to the collections of the Library of Congress.

The five-volume bibliography plus the supplement list the maps and atlases in the Library of Congress collection. The listings are by author and by subject. There are well over 100,000 card entries in this bibliography, which covers some 500 years of mapmaking. Over 600 headings provide an area and subject guide. This is one of the basic reference sources to maps. For those interested in spatial analysis it provides a source of fun- damental data.

Dictionary Catalog of the Map Division. Prepared by Astor, Len- ox and Tilden Foundations, New York Public Library. Boston, Mass.: G. K. Hall and Co., 1971. 10 volumes.

This catalog of approximately 165,000 cards lists maps and other cartographic publications ranging from early American

and European rarities to modern maps from all parts of the world. Represented in the catalog are the 300,000 sheet maps of the Map Division. The catalog lists maps by both American publishers and foreign publishers. Navigation charts of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey before 1900 are also listed. In addition, the catalog contains entries for manuscript maps, early printed maps in rare books, and the Phelps Stokes American Historical Views. The 6,000 atlases, from the seventeenth cen- tury to the present, include works of Mercator, Blaeu, Jansson, and other cartographers. Besides the maps and atlases listed, there are nearly 11,000 volumes relating to the history of maps and techniques of mapmaking, periodical articles, and bibliog- raphies.

Bibliographic Guide to Maps and Atlases: 1981. Boston, Mass.: G. K. Hall and Co., 1981. 633 pp.

The annual Bibliographic Guide to Maps and Atlases lists selective publications catalogued during the past year by the Research Libraries of the New York Public Library and the Li- brary of Congress. Included in this guide are individual sheet maps and set maps; geographic and thematic atlases including world, regional, and city atlases; globes; books about maps, the history and study of mapmaking, techniques of mapmaking, and computer cartography; and cartobibliographies. Journal arti- cles, catalogued by the New York Public Library, and selected articles and chapters on maps in non-map sources are also list- ed. This annual guide provides a wealth of information on re- cently published maps and atlases throughout the world. It serves as an authoritative reference source for geographers at all levels.

Index to Maps in Books and Periodicals. Prepared by the Map Department, American Geographical Society. Boston, Mass.: G. K. Hall and Co., 1968. 1Ovolumes plus First Supplement 1971, Second Supplement 1976.

The initial ten-volume publication of Index to Maps in Books and Periodicals by the American Geographical Society provides a unique index to maps. These volumes include 164,000 cards from the Society’s catalog. The supplements covering the pe- riods 1968-1971 and 1972-1975 add about 30,000 more cards.

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