There are certain kinds of information that youngsters need in order to function adequately as competent members of society. One of those areas is geography. Recent studies, even of college students, show that a surprising number of high school and college students have a remarkably poor understanding of geography-even a reasonable understanding of where major cities and countries are located in relation to one another.

Where to begin? Start early with a basic investment of at least four maps that can be hung in your child's room: a map of the world, the USA, your own state, and one of your local region. Check with your local library if you have any difficulty locating the maps you need.

If you are willing to go even one step further, invest in relief maps. These are particularly helpful when youngsters hear, for example, information such as "The Mississippi River basin drains two/thirds of the United States." By noting the location of the Rocky Mountains on the western third of the continent and the contours of the eastern slopes of the United States, the child can readily see why this fact is true. On such maps it is also obvious why populations are concentrated more in some areas of the country than others and why parts of the country lend themselves more to farming and ranching than industrialization, as well as the importance of ports and river ways, and so on.

Once the maps are mounted, identify the four major points of the compass-north, east, south, and west Make large, clear labels for these and put them on the maps. (A note-the top of a map is always north.)

Virtually a day doesn't pan that some event of consequence isn't reported from some place on the globe. These countries and cities can be marked with little flags.

With many families separated because of jobs and other factors, a map can be used to show San Francisco where Aunt Susan fives, or Tallahassee where Uncle Jim fives, or Washington, DC, where Grandma lives, or Boston where Cousin Ed works. An effort should be made to give the child a sense of key spots that can serve as "anchors"-for example, "Connecticut? That's the state next to Massachusetts where Cousin Ed works."

Next to the bathroom, the kitchen is the most commonly used room in the house. Don't overlook placing a large map on one wall. As news of consequence about problems in specific parts of the world turmoil, earthquakes, floods, monsoons, famine, oil-arise, their locations can be flagged for everyone's benefit.

Every home should have an Atlas of fairly recent date-one that, like a dictionary, isn't stored on a shelf collecting dust but is used for frequent reference. An atlas makes a noteworthy birthday or holiday gift. In addition to the locations of countries and cities, a tremendous amount of other important information is given-products, resources, populations, languages spoken, and so on.

If your child really gets turned on to maps, introduce the concept of "scale. " Every map has a scale that shows how many inches equal a mile. The smaller the map, the more miles will be squeezed into an inch. Get out a ruler when figuring distance and ask your child to determine the approximate number of miles from one place to another. This activity can take on added meaning if the family is planning a trip, and the number of miles involved is important. (If you really want to get your child involved and interested, tell him how many miles to the gallon your car uses in highway travel. See if he can figure out the number of gallons of gas that will be needed for the trip. He can then multiply that figure by the price of a gallon of gas to estimate the cost of the trip.)