Danny Edelson is Vice-President of Education for National Geographic.

November 5, 2008

Dear Senator Obama,

Like so many Americans, I am filled with hope this morning. One of the
many reasons is your belief in the importance of taking the
interconnectedness of Americans–to each other, to the other peoples of
the world, and to the environment–into account when you make decisions.

So many of the challenges we face in today’s world are the result of
our failure to recognize this interconnectedness when we make decisions
as individuals or as a nation. The growth of Anti-American sentiment
abroad in recent decades, this year’s global food shortages,
human-induced global warming, and the international credit crunch of
the last quarter are all examples of how our interconnectedness
magnifies the impact of decisions that individuals, businesses, and
governments make.

From what you have said on the campaign trail, I am confident that your
administration will set a new standard for taking this
interconnectedness into account in decision-making. But I hope that you
will not stop there. I hope that you will make sure that learning about
this interconnectedness and how to account for it in decision-making
will be part of the education that every student in America receives.

The U.S. has done a dismal job of educating our young people about the
world and the complex interdependencies that link us to each other and
to the natural resources and ecosystems that sustain us.

Why has this happened? Because the U.S. has abandoned geographic
education in favor of other priorities. Of course, for most of us, the
phrase “geographic education” evokes an image of map-coloring and
memorization of country locations, an image that has nothing to do with
understanding interconnectedness.

The reality is that the image of geographic education we formed in our
school days could not be farther from the reality of modern geography.
The essence of modern geography is, in fact, interconnectedness.

Modern geography is the study of systems on Earth and how they
interact. These include social systems like countries and markets,
cultural systems like religions and languages, ecological systems like
food webs and habitats, and physical systems like oceans and the
atmosphere. Other disciplines study these systems as well, but what
makes geography uniquely important is that it focuses on how these
systems connect places to each other, so that geographic education
teaches us how causes in one place lead to effects in others.

Modern geography teaches us how each individual’s decisions about
energy use could contribute to a chain of causality that, through the
intermediate effect of climate change, could lead to a precipitous rise
in sea-levels and the loss of hundreds of millions of homes around the
world over the course of a century.

Geography also teaches us how the decision to convert agricultural land
in Illinois to the production of ethanol could contribute to food
shortages in Africa and Southeast Asia within a year. Maybe most
important, it teaches us how differences in the placement of public
transport, grocery stores, and banks can make the difference between a
residential area of alienated and isolated residents and a community
with a sense of shared responsibility.

Geographic education can take place in lots of settings. It is not
limited to courses with the word “geography” in the title. Geographic
learning should be an important component of courses in history,
civics, economics, culture, earth science, environmental science, and
ecology. However, all of these subjects have suffered from inattention
in recent years as well, as our educational system has focused on an
increasingly narrow range of academic subjects.

For my entire professional career–first as a professor of education now
as National Geographic’s point person for education– I have pursued the
mission of educating America’s young people about their world. During
that time, geographic education has never even registered on the
national educational reform agenda.

For the first time in my career, I see the possibility that an
administration will take up the cause of geographic education. I see
that possibility because I can see so clearly how creating a
geographically literate populace will help you to achieve the economic
stability, peaceful foreign relations, and environmental sustainability
that you envision for our country.

Mr. President-Elect, no one could ever doubt your commitment to
education. I share your belief in the importance of high-quality
education for all, both for individual advancement and national
economic competitiveness. I hope your administration will also
recognize the value of high-quality geographic education as a critical
strategy to support the implementation and maintenance of the economic,
environmental, and foreign policy reforms we will need for our
long-term well-being.

Sincerely yours,
Danny Edelson

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