John Adams, the 2nd president of the U.S. and one of the first proponents of independence, knew the importance of geography. I recently finished the biography John Adams by David McCullough. While he didn’t leave his home state of Massachusetts from the time her was born in Braintree until he was an adult, Adams’ travels for the country helped change history. He was not only a delegate to the Continental Congress and signer of the Declaration of Independence; he spent years in Europe on diplomatic missions. During his time away from his family while serving the country, he wrote many letters to family and friends, while also keeping a diary.

While in Philadelphia during the tense years at the beginning of the Revolutionary War, Adams made a strong statement about the importance of geography.

A large wall map at the State House inspired a letter given over entirely to geography (The Map of the British Empire in America with the French and Spanish Settlements Adjacent Thereto, by Henry Popple, measured nearly eight by eighty feet, and was so detailed it even marked Braintree, spelled “Brantry.”) As a branch of knowledge, geography was “absolutely necessary to every person of public character,” and to every child, Adams declared. “Really there ought not to be a state, city, a promontory, a river, a harbor, an inlet or a mountain in all of America, but what should be intimately known to every youth who has any pretensions to liberal education.”

It was Adams who insisted on the formation of a navy, based in part on his analysis of the geography of the colonies and their access from Europe by Britain, France, and Spain. His travels within the colonies and overseas opened his eyes to the differences of cultures by geography, which he noted often. However, distances then took much longer to traverse – 6 weeks to cross the Atlantic, for example. Adams seemed to truly appreciate the differences of places and enjoyed the outdoors.

Now, with distances compressed and the education system in this country with other priorities, we are seeing a generation of perhaps the least geography-aware in history. Study after study shows the general lack of geographic knowledge in the U.S. Does it matter if people know where Iraq is? What about North Dakota? How about the linkages between natural resources such as oil and place? Religion and countries? Our ignorance hurts us when dealing with not only the rest of the world, but within our own borders.

While we could not expect people to have the level of knowledge suggested by Adams, it is reasonable to expect that at least those “of public character” know the basics. While it’s unclear our current public characters as a whole appreciate geography, the emerging generation is a real concern. With the compression of distance and the ability of information to travel essentially instantly, local issues and global issues begin to meld. Geography needs to get back into the schools in a more prominent way, and be taught showing connections to people’s lives.

As John Adams said, “Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people.”