Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Beyondthepressureofthecompetition,it'sgeographythatweldsthemtogether.“People
here understand what I'm talking about,” one boy tells me happily. “They're people I can
have geographical conversations with!” In this crowd, you don't have to roll your eyes at
Momwhenshementionsthegeographybeeinfrontofyourfriends—it'sokaytobeamap-
head. Here, geography can even be an icebreaker. I overhear one of tomorrow's finalists,
Nicholas Farnsworth, meeting Roey Hadar, who represents New Jersey.
“Ah,you'refromNewJersey!Newarkisitslargestcity.Population273,000,lastIsaw.”
“High Point in Sussex County is 1,803 feet,” Roey replies. This sounds like the begin-
ning of a beautiful friendship.
William Johnston, representing Mississippi, is a sixth-grader with a wide grin and a rite-
of-passage bowl cut. “He invents countries where they play this imaginary game called
plonk,” his mother tells me. “He spends months making up islands.” I make a mental note
to introduce him to Benjamin. Until this weekend, William's never really fit in with other
kids. At his school, students can pass out birthday party invitations in class only if every-
one has been invited. “Well, that's the only time he ever got invited to a birthday party,”
she sighs. “He's just . . . different. But here he's gotten some recognition, and it has been
great
.”
Likehisfellowcompetitors,Williamisadetail-conscious kid,thekindwho,evenattwo
or three years old, needed to have all his Match-box cars lined up just so. “Little things up-
set him,” says his mom. “When Pluto was declared not a planet, he was just devastated.”
This is an important clue, I think, into the mind of a map-mad child. When I was young,
maps represented stability to me in a turbulent world. No matter how traumatized I felt by
I knew still looked the same in an atlas. To this day, I'm thrown for a loop when maps
change; I'll expect it to be front-page news when Palau declares independence or Calcutta
decidestostartspellingitsname“Kolkata.”Inallmyoldgeographytrivia topics,itwasan
article of faith that the highest wind speed ever recorded on the planet was 231 miles per
hour, during a freak April storm on New Hampshire's Mount Washington in 1934. I was
recently shocked to learn that
the old record had been shattered
by twenty miles per hour
during an Australian cyclone in 1996. Appallingly, the reading sat unseen in a computer
log for fourteen years before scientists realized they had a new record on their hands! In
my view, that cyclone should have been breaking news on CNN. How is it that the funda-
mental parameters of the universe are changing and no one cares but me?
*
To young eyes, maps do more than offer a vision of permanence. They also reduce the
messyworldtosomethingthatkidscanunderstand—even,inaway,possess.Forcenturies,
maps have been used as a symbol of human mastery over the world. When I visited Rome
a few years ago, I was transfixed by the intricate frescoes of Italian and papal provinces in
the Vatican's Gallery of Maps. Each tree in every forest was separately drawn in receding
