Ray, Aside from teaching? Companies like McDonald's hire geographers to help locate outlets for maximum profitability. The military uses geographers to both teach and prictice military intelligence. Natural resource companies hire geographers to help find deposits. The State Department and the CIA should be using geographers to develop policies and strategies. I don't know if they do.

Back to teaching. Geography has been shunted aside in US schools. A few maps remain in history books. In Norway, by comparison, geograpahy is taught all the way through grade school and high school. Geography is helpful in understanding the world because it covers demographics, history, physical geography, transportation, etc.. Anything that can be mapped. A course like "The Geography of Central America" for instance, covers everything from the desired elevation of coffee trees to the location and land uses of indiginous populations to where the oil companies are setting up their rigs. All of which might be useful for anyone trying to comprehend the news.