the personality of geography

Who, and what, we are is shaped by where we live. All aspects of culture hinge on upon this concept. The geographic study of Place and its component parts of place, location, human interaction, regions and movement offer the structure by which the students in class explore this idea. Our first unit deals with the idea of personal identity as defined by a sense of place and home. Place, with the small p, is defined as the relationship between the physical characteristics of an area and the people who live there. It is the personality of the geography. Each student selected a country that he or she considers home. This country will serve as a geographic reference point throughout the year. Home, for 4-F students, was Japan, the United States, Canada, Singapore, Thailand, Germany, England, Ireland and Italy. The children were quite eloquent in describing why they picked these counties, what made them special making sure that the personality of each area was clearly understood.

Why It Is Home

USA: "My home is in Charlottesville, Virginia. I call it home because I’ve lived there eight years, so I really feel most comfortable there, and that is the place my heart is. My friends are there and so I have someone to play with. My stuff is there, my family’s there and my life is there. I know every street and all my neighbors. I know the people. I love Virginia!" Melina

GERMANY: "The place I call home is Germany because I miss it the most. I miss it the most because most of my relatives live there. I also feel very comfortable there because I go there every Christmas. I love it in Germany because I go there a lot mostly on holidays Easter, Christmas and something like Halloween although not everyone dresses up. Only grownups and some kids in sort of like a parade! Germany is also very special to me because it is my Mom and Dad's nationality." Isabel

The Personality of the Place

JAPAN: "The personality of place I call home is beautiful and full of trees like pine wood trees, cherry blossom trees and maple trees. There are also flowers like blossoms, dandelions and roses. There’s a mountain called Mt. Fuji. Mountain Fuji is really beautiful especially when the sun sets." Ken

"The personality of the place I call home has the right temperature. The temperature sometimes gets cold and I like that. It sometimes gets hot and I like that. It barely gets too hot or too cold. This is a pretty and very rich country. All the buildings are pretty. These people are mostly bankers. My mother is Japanese and my father is Trinidadian. There are a lot of girls and boys that go to a special place to make them look like trendy guys. These trendy guys have platform shoes that are about two and a half inches high. These people want to look like trendy people. I think because they want to show off and be like gangsters. In Japan, we speak Japanese. There are three kinds of ways to write in Japan. The easiest way is called hiragana and the second easiest way is called katakana and the hardest is called kanji. Kanji has about ten thousand words in it. In Japan, people are really good at soccer because they pass a lot. So, I think you can see why Japan is special to me." Seaun

"The personality of the place I call home is busy, noisy and cool. When I think about the animals, I feel special because Japan’s animals are somewhat rare and very beautiful. In winter my mom lets me drink hot chocolate if it's really cold and, if we're lucky, get to see snow fall down onto the smooth road. My house is a sturdy brick house with two floors. I really like it when I come home from school and smell freshly cooked dinner. I live by the city, when I want to go out and play, sometimes, it’s really hard because there are always cars whizzing by on the road. At night, when I’m in bed, I look out the window sometimes and if the night is really dark, the moon casts an eerie glow in the sky. So, you can see why Japan is special to me." 

USA: "The personality of the place I call home’s climate is always perfect. There’s always good hard snow in the winters and great conditions for swimming in summer. Down our driveway, all there are oak trees and everyone has a small "forest" behind their backyard. Then, there are the animals. The deer come creeping into our yard, feasting on our little apple tree. We don’t care about it at all. The little nest of rabbits in the middle of our yard stirs with life. The beautiful bird’s, gees, and robins are always flying over our house. We also have beautiful high stepping stallions. In the place where I ride horse, we get to cut the cows from the heard, well, at least watch. In summer, everyone wears tank tops, short sleeves, and short pants. But in winter, we make snowforts in our snowsuits and have a snowball war. We go back to our house, put our clothes on the furnace, watch TV and drink hot chocolate. This is why Connecticut is great." Hannah

Ireland: "Many animals also live there. There are cows, sheep, and goats everywhere. Sometimes you must stop the car so that they can pass. It is fun to watch. The Irish are famous for their horses. They look different from what most people are used to because they have very large hooves and they are very tall. There are also foxes, woodcocks -a type of bird, ducks and geese. Along the shoreline of the beach there are normally lots of jellyfish. One animal Ireland does not have is a snake. A myth says that St. Patrick drove them away, but in reality it is because when Ireland broke away from the main continent of Europe it was still all ice. They also do not have gophers. Probably, because of the same reason. I love West Cork because of the wildlife, plants, people, and because I feel it’s home." Brianne

Teacher Resource: Teaching the Five Themes of Geography. Dill, Bonnie. Frank Schaffer Publications. 1994

Last updated June 24, 2003
Maintained, and written by, Bridgette Fincher