Читать книгу Geography For Dummies - Jerry T. Mitchell - Страница 22

To get you accustomed to thinking geographically, this volume makes use of unifying concepts that will help you to understand the breadth and structure of the discipline. But what are these unifying concepts? Yogi Berra once supposedly ordered a pizza pie and was asked if he wanted it cut into four slices or eight. He opted for four and explained, “I don’t think I can eat eight.” Whether or not the story is true, a pizza pie is a pizza pie, no matter how you slice it up. The same is true of geography. In a manner of speaking, it’s a very big pizza pie. Over the years, geographers have devised different ways to cut it up in order to help people like you grasp its breadth and content. If you are a school teacher, you may have heard of the Five Themes of Geography or maybe even the Four Traditions. As I said, there have been many attempts to do this!

The “geography pizza slices” I’m going to introduce you to are The Six Essential Elements. They were developed by several professional geography organizations as part of the (United States) National Geography Standards, which describe in detail “what a geographically informed person knows and understands.” The National Geography Standards were written with the advice and input of professionals who specialize in diverse aspects of geography and, accordingly, represent a broad consensus of its scope and structure. Specifically, therefore, I have chosen The Six Essential Elements, which are:

 The world in spatial terms

 Places and regions

 Physical systems

 Human systems

 Environment and society

 Uses of geography

These may sound somewhat imposing, but rest assured, they refer to simple concepts that you encounter in your everyday life. Indeed, you are already familiar with each of them, though perhaps not by their formal titles. I can prove it to you.