The Five Themes of Geography During the 1980's the United States showed unacceptably low test scores on simple Geographic tests. The point Committee on Geographic Education could only attribute these results to Geographic Illiteracy, not only on the part of the students, but more importantly on the educators themselves. By 1984 it had become inexplicably clear that immediate action must take place to counteract this ongoing problem in our educational institutions (Journal of Geography 89). In response, the Joint Committee on Geographic Education produced a landmark publication entitled "Guidelines for Geographic Education". This document contained a scope and