Before maps arrived in American homes, their social life was regulated by institutional agendas set by government agencies as well as voluntary associations. But, as this chapter shows, the path that led small, ambulatory maps into the domestic lives of ordinary citizens most frequently was created and maintained by the nation’s emerging school system. After the Revolution, an educational consumer demand, spurred by the introduction of the monitorial teaching method and homework assignments in primary and secondary education, was responsible for turning plain, conventional maps into formative experiences of lasting cognitive and social consequence. Examining the synergetic relationship between “mappery,” a form of cartographic instruction, and the emerging pedagogic theory of “object teaching,” the final chapter delineates how educators established maps as a powerful social media, linking schools and homes, elementary education and adult learning, cognitive theories and communal socialization, including the creation of a map-based national imagination.
Study on the Teaching Method of Ancient Chinese in the specialty of elementary education
