(2) If the first requirement placed upon the study of geography is a knowledge of the facts about the peoples and nations of today, a second is acquainting students with standard sources from which such facts may be gleaned. The text book is normally the main source of the facts studied in the class, but that is not enough. We shall miss our duty if we do not teach pupils where these and additional facts, frequently revised, may be found. The course in geography should train the pupils to use the atlas, the encyclopedia, the gazetteer, the Statistical Abstract, the census reports, the Statesman's Year Book, and perhaps the World Almanac. If these sources are consulted in the regular routine of study, their use grows into a habit, and it is a good habit.

(3) The constant use of maps, the careful study of maps, and the occasional making of maps is an integral part of a course in geography. One of the very most valuable assets which any one may derive from geography study is a collection of clear mental pictures of the maps of the world and its principal countries; mental map pictures which we may call up at will. If geography does not give us those pictures it has failed at one of its critical points.

Geography teachers, if you have not a collection of wall maps for your class room, give your principal no peace until you get them. As well try to teach literature without books as geography without wall maps. There is one greater sin than not having wall maps; that is not using them when you have them. Out of this map-study grows a knowledge of locational geography. At present locational geography is a vulnerable spot in the high school student's mental equipment. Yet there is probably no one phase of geography which is so useful as map knowledge,-knowing where places are. That our fathers and mothers had to learn 300 capes and bays, is scarcely a reason why their grandchildren should not learn any. Every geography teacher should have a list of countries, cities, rivers, seas, mountains and other geographical features which she deems of real importance, and she should then see that no pupil escapes from her custody until he knows where those places are and at least one good reason why every item in the list deserves a place there. The Springfield, Illinois, schools have adopted such a list for the grades. Professor D. C. Ridgley of the Normal University of Illinois is working on such a list. The Springfield list was published in the June, 1914, Journal of Geography.

(4) So much for the knowledge of facts, of sources, and of maps. A fourth purpose must be to impart a knowledge of and an appreciation of geographical causes or influences. This is the substance of rational geography. It has appeared so constantly of late in the literature of geographical pedagogy that I need say little more about it. The causal idea is recognized as the keynote of modern scientific geography, but its emphasis belongs more to the advanced than in the elementary stages of the study. Woven into the

very warp and woof of good teaching will be this causal relation which pervades geography; yet it is also well to remember that geographical causes always work in conjunction with many other causes. The location and growth of New York or Minneapolis are due partly, not wholly, to geographical influences. Pupils should know that geographical influences are real, and that they often determine men's decisions in locating factories or railways or towns, but that after all, men, not geographical influences, are the active forces. Indians and Eskimos do not react to geographical suggestions as Anglo-Saxons do.

IN WHAT YEAR SHALL GEOGRAPHY BE TAUGHT?

If we were to lay out a course of study in geography for a large high school, upon what lines should it be built? In what year of the high school should it be placed? At present it is most often taught in the first year. Next most frequently, in the second year and less often in the third or fourth year. The Committee of Ten favored placing physiography of an advanced type in the fourth year, because the study is best handled after pupils have learned something of the other sciences. We should like to place most of our studies late in the course, but that is impossible. As a practical plan, geography must be offered in the first or second years, but it would be a fine thing if in the big schools a class might also be offered in the senior year, taught by a teacher trained in geography, in history and in economics, one who could effectively handle the study as a blended physical and social science.

THE COURSE IN HIGH SCHOOL GEOGRAPHY

In this country we are already committed to a type of geography which is a combination of physical and applied geography. Geographers are practically agreed that the first half year of the course must teach the essentials of physical geography. They are not a unit, however, regarding the most appropriate phase of applied geography for the second half year. Of the two most recent text books, one has adopted regional geography of the world for the second half-year's work; the other devotes its latter chapters to such topics as: Inland Waters as Related to Navigation, Irrigation, Power and Water Supply; Mountains and Plateaus and their Relations to Life; Plains and their Relations to Life; Coast Lines and Harbors; The Industries of the United States; Distribution of Population and Cities. A still different arrangement consists in using a textbook in physical geography the first semester and a textbook in commercial geography the second.

While not strongly favoring one of these plans above another, I am conscious of a preference in the matter. It may be only a temporary preference but it has been growing upon me. My leaning is toward a course which combines some things from each of the plans just mentioned. I cannot get away from the conviction that the high school pupil ought to have an opportunity to study, in a more mature way than he can do in the grades, the poli

tico-economic geography of the nations which today dominate the world's affairs. In a sense this is regional geography, but the regions to be studied are nations, rather than physical or climatic provinces. The physical or climatic province is possibly a more logical, more scientific, unit but it is not much used outside of school books. In the world of men and affairs Russia, for example is a single geographical unit, Germany another, and France another. Everybody thinks of them as units quite irrespective of the climatic or physiographic provinces which they may include or which may include them. Everywhere in real life, the political divisions are the ones that count in our thinking, our reading and our loyalty. Virginia includes parts of several physiographic provinces-the Coastal Plain, the Piedmont, the Blue Ridge, the Great Valley, and the Allegheny Plateau, yet to the Virginian, the thing that counts is Virginia, his state. The Canadian or the Mexican boundary line and most of our state lines are more significant boundaries than are the boundaries of the Coastal Plain or of the Great Basin or of any other physiographic or climatic provinces. In regional geography, the study of the political divisions of the world is at the present time my preference. This does not preclude the recognition and the study of natural divisions quite irrespective of political boundaries. He who prefers a different plan has the same right to his preference.

DETAILS OF THE COURSE

Had I Aladdin's lamp and its power to summon up the Genii, this is, in general plan, the sort of course I think I should command him to prepare for a class in geography in the city high school (I reserve the privilege of changing my mind, however). It should provide for a map-study review of the essentials of the locational geography of the world. It should devote from 1/3 to 2/5 of its time to those parts of physical geography which time has shown to be of real interest and of practical value. Geography is by common consent not the study of the physical and untenanted earth nor is it the study of contemporary history; it is the study of the physical earth inhabited by people. The text book should contain problems calling for thought, questions for testing, and questions for review. The great majority of teachers who use our high school texts are not trained in geography; many of them have never studied it beyond its elementary phases, and they need all of the help the book can give them. I never knew a teacher who felt insulted because the author placed questions in the book. Reviewers sometimes say they are an insult to the teacher. The experienced teacher need not use them unless she wishes. They do her no harm and they do help the other teachers. There should be some sort of practical exercise or laboratory exercise, in every chapter if possible. There should be a section devoted to the Industrial Geography of the United States and the final two-fifths of the book should treat of the countries, the nations of the world, working under the limitations imposed by their physical environment, and actuated at least in the present age, mainly by economic motives.

Geography, then, in its modern sense ought to consist of (a) a study of the essentials of physical geography and the physical conditions and resources of those parts of the globe which the leading nations occupy; (b) the geographical study of mankind acting as organized political groups or nations; (c) the interaction of the people and their environment—the nations working for political and economic advancement, but mainly concerned with the development of industries and commerce.

TOPICS IN PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY THAT DESERVE EMPHASIS

For the sake of definiteness, it is undoubtedly better to study the main principles of physical geography in the first semester. Pupils need to understand:

(1) The simpler planetary relations of the earth including dimensions, movements and their consequences, gravity, magnetism and the distribution of land and water on the earth.

(2) They need to understand in an elementary way the character and composition of the earth's crust-the two main origins of its rocks and the mineral resources contained within these rocks. They ought to know something of the underground processes by which iron, coal, copper, gold, salt and petroleum have been concentrated in places and thereby have become of value

to man.

(3) They should know how weathering is accomplished, how soil is made, transported, enriched, and depleted, including the work of bacteria. Along with this must go a brief consideration of the great industry of agriculture.

(4) They should learn of the movements and functions of the underground water, vastly more important to man than any other resource in the earth's crust except the soil itself, and the two so interlocked in function that each is useless without the other.

(5) They need to know how the earth's surface is eternally modified by forces acting within and without. The forces which modify the earth from within-forces burdened with the discouraging names of Diastrophism and Vulcanism, need only brief treatment. The eroding, transporting and depositing agents, wind, water, and ice, need, fuller consideration. Growing out of this topic naturally comes the study of rivers and valleys in their varied relations to man; their relation to transportation, to water power, to agriculture, to location of cities, etc. In the study of rivers concreteness should be sought: study, not rivers in general, but specific, typical rivers: for example: The Nile and Egypt

The Ganges and India

The Yangtse and China

The Amazon and Brazil

The St. Lawrence and Canada

The Volga and Russia

The Danube and Austria-Hungary.

So closely are these rivers related to the very life of these lands, that their study is geography in the best sense.

(6) Then must come some knowledge of the great land forms that have resulted from the operation of these geologic and physiographic forces: The mountains, the plateaus, the plains, with the emphasis strongly placed, not upon the physiographic but upon the ontographic side.

(7) The atmosphere and climate are entitled to a fifth or a fourth of the time of one semester, some teachers would say even more.

(8) The oceans merit less time than either the lands or the atmosphere. The tides can not be adequately taught in the high school and it is doubtful if any attempt at their explanation is really justified except by tradition. Ocean currents are deserving of attention chiefly in connection with climate and for the purpose of correcting some of the false ideas that are frequently taught in the elementary school.

(9) The distribution of plants, animals and races over the earth has always seemed to me to be perfunctorily taught and of no great value.

It is my conviction that in nearly every topic, physical and applied geography should go hand in hand. For example, weathering, soil, and agriculture go together; or stream erosion, valleys and life in valleys; all of which are so closely related that they ought to be considered together. While the principles of physical geography form the groundwork of the first semester's study, constant application of these principles to man's life on the earth is also demanded.

CONSIDERATION OF METHOD OF TEACHING

But what of the method of teaching high school geography?

Some years ago when we were teaching only the physical aspect of the subject we classed geography with physics, chemistry and biology and regarded it as a laboratory science. Laboratory manuals were published and in a considerable number of large cities, school buildings were equipped with geographical laboratories. In the relatively few schools which had teachers prepared to carry on formal laboratory work, a reasonable degree of success was attained. But the movement did not gain headway and seems to have lost ground with the growth of the demand for humanized geography. Laboratory work in college geography is, on the other hand, increasing in its effectiveness. Friends of physical geography have always held that it is essentially a field study and that the laboratory is a very unsatisfactory substitute for the field. Geikie has said that one hour of instruction in the field is worth 20 hours of listening to lectures. His ratio of 20 to 1 is pretty high but the general principle no one can deny.

We all recognize how hard it is to do field work with city classes. There are a dozen genuine difficulties, yet field work can be done and is done. Not long ago John Mellish, a farmer boy in Cottage Grove, Wisconsin, wanted to study astronomy. He had had little schooling, had no