Geography for Life: The Geography National Standards 1994 present what each American student should know and be able to do in geography by grades 4, 8, and 12. The eighteen standards are organized under six "essential elements." They represent the essentials and fundamental ideas of geography.

The outcome of Geography for Life is a geographically informed person who sees meaning in the arrangement of things across the Earth's surface; who appreciates the relationships between people, places, and environments; who uses geographic skills; and who applies geographic perspectives to life situations.

The World in Spatial Terms
Geography studies the relationships between people, places and environments by mapping information about them into a spatial context. The geographically informed person knows and understands:

1. How to use maps and other geographic representations, tools, and technologies to acquire, process, and report information.
2. How to use mental maps (a person's internalized picture of a part of Earth's surface) to organize information about people places, and environments.
3. How to analyze the spatial organization of people places, and environments on Earth's surface.

Places and Regions
The identities and lives of individuals and peoples are rooted in particular places and in those human constructs called regions. The geographically informed person knows and understands:

4. The physical and human characteristics of places.
5. That people create regions to interpret Earth's complexity.
6. How culture and experience influence people's perceptions of places and regions.

Physical Systems
Physical processes shape Earth's surface and interact with plant and animal life to create, sustain, and modify the ecosystems. The geographically informed person knows and understands:

7. The physical processes that shape the patterns of Earth's surface.
8. The characteristics and distribution of ecosystems on Earth's surface.

Human Systems
People are central to geography in that human activities help shape Earth's surface, human settlements and structures are part of Earth's surface, and humans compete for control of Earth's surface. The geographically informed person knows and understands:

9. The characteristics, distribution and migration of human populations.
10. The characteristics, distribution and complexity of Earth's cultural mosaics.
11. The patterns and networks of economic interdependence.
12. The processes, patterns, and functions of human settlement.
13. How the forces of cooperation and conflict among people influence the division and control of Earth's surface.

Environment and Society
The physical environment is modified by human activities largely as a consequence of the ways in which human societies value and use Earth's natural resources and human activities are also influenced by Earth's physical features and processes. The geographically informed person knows and understands:

14. How human actions modify the physical environment.
15. How physical systems affect human systems.
16. The changes that occur in the meaning, use, distribution, and importance of resources.

The Uses of Geography
Knowing geography enables people to understand the relationships between people, places, and environments over time. The geographically informed person knows and understands:

17. How to apply geography to interpret the past.
18. How to apply geography to interpret the present and plan for the future.

The following collection related to the implementation of Geography for Life appeared in the publication Ubique. Ubique is the newsletter of the American Geographical Society which also publishes Focus and the scholarly journal Geographical Review. For more information about this organization contact them at 120 Wall Street, Suite 100, New York, New York 10005-3904 or via e-mail at amgeosoc@earthlink.net

The articles are available in HTML or PDF format. Portable Document Format (PDF) is the de facto standard for electronic distribution of documents. These compact, cross-platform files retain the formatting, colors, fonts, and images exactly as they were created and can be viewed by anyone with a FREE Acrobat Reader.

• World Class Standards: Geography for the Schools of the United States by JAMES F. MARRAN, Geography Education Standards Project
  
• Geography for Life Vision and Implementation by SARAH W. BEDNARZ and ROBERT S. BEDNARZ, Texas A&M University 
  
• Geography for Life Progress in Context by ROGER M. DOWNS, Pennsylvania State University 
  
• Sizing Up The National Geography Standards A Teacher's Perspective by FRED WALK, Normal Community High School, Normal, Illinois
  
• Geography Teacher Training in Light of the National Geography Standards by DONALD ZEIGLER, Old Dominion University
  
• Linking the National and State Geography Standards by MARIANNE KENNEY, Colorado Department of Education
  
• The Course of Educational Reform: Politics as Usual by PETER REES, University of Delaware
  
• State Standards and the Faring of Geography by SARAH WITHAM BEDNARZ, Texas A&M University
  
• The National Geography Content Standards: Capitalizing on the Goodness of Fit by JOSEPH P. STOLTMAN, Western Michigan University