Geography Makes a Comeback

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Byline: Jamie Sotonoff Daily Herald Staff Writer

A few years ago, when she taught school in Nebraska, Sharon Graff asked her fifth-grade class what country they lived in.

"They said Nebraskaland. I'm not kidding," said Graff, now a teacher at Dooley School in Schaumburg.

In a National Geographic Society Gallop poll seven years ago, one in four adults couldn't identify the Pacific Ocean on a map.

"The problem was, geography wasn't being taught in schools anymore," said National Geographic Society spokesperson Ellen Siskind.

Since then, schools nationwide, including those in Schaumburg Township Elementary District 54, have placed an …