Who knows what this is, I asked, holding up my own outline.
“A map.”
A map of what?
“The United States?”
It’s a map of one of the states. Does anyone know which state?
No answer.
It’s where you live and go to school.
“Park Ridge.”
And what state is Park Ridge in?
“New Jersey.”
You’re used to seeing it on a map of the U.S. You know it’s on the east coast, below New York and next to Pennsylvania. This is what it looks like by itself. But what are all of these different places in New Jersey, I asked, pointing to the counties. What are they called?
“Towns?” said Lucia.
No, but close.
“Cities?” said Liam.
No, but they start with the letter “C.”
“Continents?” said Evan, understandably confused after Governor Chris Christie had traveled by state helicopter all the way from another county to watch his son's baseball game.
No, continents are much bigger than cities, I said, and there are only seven continents. These are called counties. Does anyone know what county Park Ridge is in?
No one knew, so I told them.
Now, look for “Bergen” on your map. When you find it, color it in.
“What color?”
Any color you want.
“Can I color it rainbow?” asked Chris.
Sure.
We pressed on.
“My grandma lives in Burlington,” said Sammy.
“My aunt lives in Mercer,” said Sara.
O.K., find those counties on the map and use different colors for them.
I go to Cape May in September, I said. See if you can locate “Cape May” on the map. Look for it down at the bottom.
“I go to Long Beach Island on vacation,” said Amanda.
Find “Ocean” County on the map, and color that in.
Thus concluded the geography lesson, the children having found and filled in five state counties in different colors (plus Chris’s rainbow-hued Bergen).
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