The Class Definition For the Term “Geography”

08Jan11

One of the first things that every teacher needs to do is to establish (at a very early point in the class) a definition of the course’s title and that also means to define the scope and limitations of the subject matter to be presented.  For me to come up with a class definition, I first wanted to evaluate the definition found in the text-book which was, World Geography Today, (1962 Edition authored by Saul Israel, Norma H. Roemer, and Loyal Durand Jr. and published by Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc. of New York, New York) and it’s definition was defined on page 1 as the study of, “man’s adaptation to all sorts of conditions, natural and man-made which barrows information and principles from many other subjects [which I interrupted to mean the mother of all other subjects!].” and then there is a three and a half page explanation dealing with external and internal factors that affect the planet.  This is important because the definition attempts to imply that such forces (as well as information) is just too vast, technical, and definitive to be included in the text itself so what is presented must be considered merely a “survey of”.

 The Merriam Webster dictionary defined the term “geography) as found today as: “1: a science that deals with the description, distribution, and interaction of the diverse physical, biological, and cultural features of the earth’s surface; 2: the geographic features of an area; 3: a treatise on geography; and 4: a delineation or systematic arrangement of constituent elements: configuration <the philosophers … have tried to construct geographies of human reason — Times Literary Supplement> b: makeup 1 <her emotional geography>

Examples of GEOGRAPHY

1. Studying the geography of the western United States

2. <The geography of the region matches ancient descriptions of the location of the lost city>

Origin of GEOGRAPHY: Latin geographia, from Greek geōgraphia, from geōgraphein to describe the earth’s surface, from geō- + graphein to write — more at carve

First Known Use: 15th century

Related to the term GEOGRAPHY:

Synonyms: chorography, geomorphology, landscape, terrain, topography

Related Words: scenery; ground, land, landform, terrane, terrene

 Another definition for term “world” as also found today is defined as a “common name for the sum of human civilization living, specifically [through] human experiences, history, or ‘the human condition’ in general, worldwide, i.e. anywhere on Earth.”  With the now added inclusion, “ In a philosophical context, it may refer to the Universe, [and] and everything that constitutes reality.” According to en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World, which is found on the web under definition of world in the google search box.

 The Lundgroanian definition from these and other sources for the term “geography” became: “anything that deals with, or is influenced by people, places, and/or things; and it is an all-encompassing meaning, “the mother of all other sciences”.  The term “earth” was defined, as “a planet with specific features and a planet is also a body with certain physical features that includes the earth. A solar system is a larger component of the same thing and likewise so is a galaxy.  In fact the Universe (or a universe) is considered to be a united unit made up of all of units of each of its subparts.  Conversely, each of the smallest units, which make our planet and everything else in the universe, may be considered to be a ‘world’ of their own as long as they follow the same principles outlined above”.  This was a concept when I first started teaching wasn’t considered a part of the term by authoritative sources, but we expanded our definition at that time to include these ideas.

 The Lundgroaninan definition for “world” in the early 1960’s went far beyond traditional concepts of the time.  But that was also the time of change and modification in education, and history has proven us correct in our interpretation.  Two things happened to redefine the term “world”:  One was the fact that we learned that the definition of man, which separated the species of humans from all other species was wrong or it had to include primates because as well because we found that they could make tools, communicate, learned to adapt and provided social interactions with others and their environment just as we did   And second was that we stepped off of this planet to observe many other phenomena, which made the term geography too specific in nature.

 Thus the Lundgroanian definition for the “Survey Of World Geography” class, as presented to the students in the various schools that I served became simply, “the study of people places and/or things and includes everything in the known universe that we know, or everything we know about today.”

 The formal definitions for the term geography as presented to the students included the following: A) THE GENERAL DEFINITION OF GEOGRAPHY IS THAT IT IS THE STUDY OF MAN IN RELATIONSHIP TO HIS ENVIORNMNET OR SURROUNDINGS; B) THE DICTIONARY DEFINITION OF GEOGRAPHY IS BROKEN DOWN INTO TWO WORDS; 1) GEO (GREEK) MEANING THE EARTH, 2) GRAPHY MEANING a) A METHOD OF GRAPHIC REPRESENTATION, OR b) A DESCRIPTIVE SCIENCE OF A SPECIFIC OBJECT OR FIELD, AND GRAPHIC) GREEK) MEANING a) WRITTEN, PRINTED, DRAWN, OR ENGRAVED AND b) SOMETHING VIVIDLY OUTLINED OR SET FORTH; C)  GEOGRAPHY MAY BE DESCRIBED AS; MINDMAPPING, OR TO CREATE OR RECORD FOR FUTURE USE INFORMATION ABOUT ONE’S KNOWN SURROUNDINGS (NAMES, PLACES, AND/OR THINGS; and D) THEREFORE, THE LUNDGROONIAN DEFINITION FOR THE TERM GEOGRAPHY IS ‘THE STUDY OF PEOPLE, PLACES, AND/OR THINGS’”.

THE TITLE OF THE CLASS COMES FROM TWO ADDITIONAL TERMS: 1) SURVEY WHICH MEANS TO PICK OR CHOOSE A SMALL GROUP OR SEGMENT WHICH IS REPRESENTATIVE OF THE TOTAL, AND 2) WORLD WHICH MEANS A BODY OF SOME SORT WHICH IS UNTO ITSELF OR SELF CONTAINED IN SOME WAY

AS A RESULT THE TITLE FOR THE COURSE IS ‘A SURVEY OF WORLD GEOGRAPHY’ WHICH MEANS THAT WE WILL BE TAKING SELECTED PARTS OF EVERYTHING TO STUDY AS A REPRESENTATIVE OF THE WHOLE WORLD BECAUSE THERE ISN’T ENOUGH TO COVER EVERYTHING.

 A final and working definition that was established for the class for the term Geography from the above material was that it, “appears to be a study (a systematic approach) using science (a measurable and recordable process which can be duplicated) that deals with the earth’s surface—or everything else on the specific surface of a specific globe–which includes Climate, Continents, Large areas, Regons, Countries, Land, Locations, Places, People, Industries, Products, Things, Cultures, and Customs.  It has Physical, Biological (living), Economic, Political, and Demographic Characteristics (implications) which also rely upon the complexities of the Interrelationships among all of these items and how the effect ‘me’ plus the fact that the above must include the right to say that there occasionally may have to have a little Lundgrooonian twist added (additional explanations and interactions) to everything covered above.”

 Needless, this was a lot to present and took more than one class meeting to accomplish and reinforce.  Many of the terms needed to be defined and referred to in later presentations to help the students grasp the definition.  This, in part, was done by discussing what the term, “big”, meant and its opposite counterpart, “small”, meant.  It is also interesting that even today we have not been able to identify the biggest object or find the smallest particle yet.

Filed under: education   |  Leave a Comment