tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7872819010848426693.post4729932377739654452..comments2024-03-28T02:46:03.227-04:00Comments on The Historical Society: American Geography and the Missouri RiverRandallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16755286304057000048noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7872819010848426693.post-5946106126657672222011-07-01T06:55:39.147-04:002011-07-01T06:55:39.147-04:00I have also found that having students do a bit of...I have also found that having students do a bit of map work is appreciated by them. Sometimes the maps provide a bit of a break from the text-based homework which forms the majority of the requirements for the class. Students like feeling that they have a handle on information that they know they should be aware of and haven't learned before. <br />Your approach of using a few of the rivers to focus on seems very useful. I may be able to do something like this with one of the major rivers in Europe or with the Rio Grande or Nile, for instance. That totally changes the tone of the class--nothing seems quite a real/prosaic as a river.Lisa Clark Dillerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00155783885263417225noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7872819010848426693.post-21801727169475895122011-06-30T14:29:41.970-04:002011-06-30T14:29:41.970-04:00Indeed. I also emphasize these basics, and how tro...Indeed. I also emphasize these basics, and how troubling it would be to never know which is further north/south, east/west between the Colorado and Missouri Rivers, say.<br /><br />Given the importance of the West as a region to my work-but also a region that moves, from the Finger Lakes to the Western Reserve, and onward, these markers are essential in my teaching.Adam Arensonhttp://adamarenson.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7872819010848426693.post-44510270049904814012011-06-30T09:57:32.148-04:002011-06-30T09:57:32.148-04:00So glad you posted this. I was fortunate to have ...So glad you posted this. I was fortunate to have a family member who was a high school geography teacher, and who made sure that from an early age I had some sense of the physical shape of the world and how important that has been for political and social history. I will make sure that my history students -- if I ever get to teach the survey -- will have the opportunity to develop a similar understanding.<br /><br />It's absolutely essential to situate historical events not just in their time and social context, but in their place. And the same is true, I would argue, for intellectual history. Ideas hold sway not just some times, but somewhere. The connection between the epistemic and the geographic is one of my favorite things to think about.LDhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09742066809468902814noreply@blogger.com