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Show High School Geography Course Is Declared Vital in Modern Education DR. GILBERT GROSVENOR, National Geographic Society. The failure to teach geography in high schools is one of the anomalies of American public school education. Geography is a basic subject. It enters into history, science, literature; litera-ture; and even the languages. It is a cultural subject of abiding interest and lifelong intellectual fascination. It is a vocational adjunct to many kinds of business and the professions. A knowledge of geography is essential to understanding the news, and better teaching of geography would stimulate intelligent reading of newspapers. A direct service to schools the National Geographic society now renders ren-ders is the issuance of weekly sets of bulletins to some 20,000 school teachers for use among about 750,000 pupils. These bulletins, which constitute con-stitute a gift to American education, supplement geography texts with up-to-date, interesting, informative, illustrated bulletins on geography. They add to the zest of the study; they enliven it by making contact between the day's news and geographic facts; they take the subject out of the laboratory lab-oratory and make it a part of life. The National Geographic society, with its membership of nearly one million, has broader facilities for popularizing the use of maps than any other single agency in the world. In the last several years the society has distributed a total of nearly 11,000,000 large maps, printed in six colors, and sent to members along with their National Geographic Magazine. Our student roster that is, our membership reaches to every community com-munity of the United States of 50 or more white persons, and to 152 nations, na-tions, colonies and mandatories; to every country, in fact, which has a postal Bystem. Some of our members have to be reached by reindeer sleds, mule-back and camel caravans, in coolies' packets and by queer water craft. The National Geographic society, Mr. Grosvenor said, is a university of geography in a large sense. It is conducting an elective course a great class in geography. Its course is patronized by millions of pupils of all ages. |