Back when I was in college, c. 1970, I took an excellent course in geography. There was no hint of political ideology. Of course, things have changed a lot since then. The left’s long march through our institutions has hit the field of geography, just as it has everything else.
In today’s Martin Center article, Robert Thornett laments this state of affairs and argues that colleges and universities should restore geography as a serious, non-politicized discipline.
He writes:
Offering courses in world regional geography and specific regions is, today, often treated as an afterthought by geography departments.But the discipline’s contemporary focus on GIS technologies, climate fanaticism, and woke agendas — and, perhaps most of all, its overspecialization and lack of common sense about what students need — have left regional geography by the wayside. Offering courses in world regional geography and specific regions is, today, often treated as an afterthought by geography departments. That study should be the top priority.
One reason why young Americans are so easily brainwashed to believe leftist notions about the world is that they know so little about the world’s regions.
Thornett adds, “Geography is a field of explorers and visionaries. It helps reveal the bigger picture and teaches people to think big. Michael Jordan majored in geography, as did Prince William, the future king of England. Mother Teresa left her native Macedonia and taught high-school geography for two decades in Calcutta, India. A lack of understanding of world regional geography leaves students without a larger context in which to understand global events. This limits their ability to exercise agency wisely to effect change.”
This is one more of the many, many instances where our higher education system has let us down.