The syllabus of geography at elementary stage should be such which awaken geographical interest in the child. The children may learn geographical terminology but this terminology should be based as ‘home geography’.
At nursery and kindergarten levels stories having geographical meaning in them may form the basis of study of geography.
The syllabus is framed in such a way that the students know their country with reference to human life and general conditions.
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The text-books should tell in very simple language stories of people who live under different conditions in different parts of the world. The stories should also tell something about the geography of the country and whom it looks like.
At elementary stage home geography should form the basis of curriculum. The terms such as valley, islands, bay, mountains etc. may be taught at a later stage. While teaching terminology at the elementary stage all efforts are made to clear their meaning by citing examples from neighborhood.
Use of pictures at this stage in desirable. Use of globe as an illustrative aid be exploited at the primary level. At primary level the syllabus should be such that through globe students may learn the names and situations of continents and oceans. Maps may also be used in primary schools. At this stage the children may be asked to draw a map of the school, the village or the locality.
Any geography syllabus will remain incomplete if it does not include the description of life of people on the globe. The syllabus be based on things of everyday use and children be encouraged to learn about children of different nations.
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Writing about the syllabus of geography at elementary stage an eminent writer has rightly remarked, “starting from ‘home geography’, surveying the whole world as a unit and looking up to the villages as their neighbors the children should learn all the broad geographical features of their country with special reference to their own state.”
Many teachers are puzzled to know how to frame a syllabus for a primary school if the work is largely determined by children’s’ interests and pays little attention to subjects as entities. Yet for these very reasons a syllabus is all the more necessary.
As far as geographical work is concerned, the solution lies in recognizing that what really matters is not the memorizing of bookish facts, but the gaining of the useful background ideas and acquiring of ‘tool-knowledge’. For this suitable topics may be mentioned as examples but the topics actually studied by children of a given age will vary from year to year.