"Geography" lessons

came with "history" lessons and "nature study" lessons at school. They came alongside things like "spelling", "dictation", "grammar", "composition" and poetry. There was "mental", "arithmetic" and "geometry" too as well as "PE" (physical education) and "Art and Craft".

I  found most of school pretty dull. Having been told something once I was not very interested in having to do it again. I could spell all the words at the beginning of the week. Why couldn't I have some new, more difficult words?  I knew my times tables and how to add fractions too.

And yes, geography. I knew something about geography. It was partly because of that little toy train I was given at age three. At first it went everywhere but then my paternal grandfather told me trains could not go in the water. They had to use a bridge. We went and looked at the bridge and at the other bridges. We looked at how the bridges moved so the ships could go to the wharf. He told me about ships. Learning about ships meant learning about maps and then about so much more. 

It was from Grandpa and the Senior Cat I learned to find where I lived on the map, where my grandparents lived and, when that flimsy air letter came, where his cousin in the very north of Scotland lived.  Grandpa showed me how the world moved. How night became day and day became night and why it was cold in Scotland when it was hot here and how it was cold here when it was hot there - or as hot as it ever got.  I wanted to know what a desert was and why it didn't rain there. I also discovered what a street directory was and made a nuisance of myself wanting to know how you got from one place to another. There was a lot I did not know but I think I went to school reasonably well informed for a four year old child.

It now seems that all this is considered too difficult. Children won't be taught about some of these things. What they will be taught about other things is not what I was taught and they will also be taught differently. 

The Senior Cat's cousin taught geography for many years. He rose through the ranks and became more disillusioned. He thought students could learn more when he left schools twenty or so years ago. I have yet to talk to him about the "new" syllabus which has been sent out to schools but others are already saying it has been "dumbed down" in an attempt to fit in "all the other things" students "need to know". They won't be taught about continents or the difference between "climate" and "weather" but "global warming" is there. I am not sure how you can teach one without the others but the "experts" seem to think it is possible. They won't be taught about the rest of the world, just our northern "neighbours". 

Perhaps it won't matter if people stop travelling because of concerns about fossil fuels but I am glad I had Grandpa to tell me about the world. It taught me a lot.