Teaching geography as a system of inquiry to elementary and secondary students in the Alberta school system is justified in this paper, based upon the three related assumptions that geography has a structure that contributes significantly to social knowledge; has in the past often been misinterpreted; and could be an interesting part of the social studies from the student's point of view. The structure of geography is an interrelated system of values, concepts, and skills which become meaningful and useful to learners only when applied to the analysis of geographic problems. Misinterpretation of geography by curriculum makers in Alberta has probably occurred because a majority of departments stress the physical domain and fail to communicate the true nature of their subject to non-geographers, and because geographical concepts have changed over the years. The basic research traditions of geography, consisting of the physical, cultural, regional, spatial, and political, can, if properly taught, stimulate analytical and decision-making interests in students. It is concluded that the geographical method of inquiry must be taught because of the probability that such instruction will produce in students some of the analytical skills of the social scientist and will educate people to observe their environment analytically, thereby seeing the totality of a place in some comprehensible form. (SJM)