Graphicacy Through Landscape Models

Abstract

Graphicacy is now recognised as the strong and distinctive contribution of geography to the school curriculum. This is reaffirmed in a recent leaflet published by the Geographical Association (1981) as a response to the current debate about the school curriculum and distributed to all LEAs in England and Wales for circulation to head teachers. Here it is pointed out that only in geography are pupils taught systematically to read and use maps and the understanding and communication of spatial information through maps is a crucially important contribution of geography to the curriculum. A new handbook on geographical work in primary and middle schools (Mills, 1981) also emphasises the importance of graphicacy and development of map skills in younger children.