More Than Meets the Eye?: Pedagogic Implications of a Visually Effective Geographic Metaphor

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Abstract
We are teaching the television generation in our college classrooms and if we can't beat' em, we should certainly join' em. Visual images can, indeed, be effective teaching tools in geography. Three uses of a “classic” concealed image of Jesus Christ in a melting snowfield are discussed. First, the image serves as an example of the geographer's search for spatial regularities. On a more interpretative level, the concealed image becomes a metaphor for the quasi-religious quest for scientific truth. If we aren't careful, this quest can devolve into Ideological explanation. Finally, the mysterious origin of the Jesus image is akin to an urban legend. Its origin may be used to illustrate the fallibility of scientific citation as can the image entitled “My Wife and My Mother-in-Law” incorrectly cited by the geographer William Kirk. Whether the Jesus image was a natural event or a product of human creation is an object lesson in the pitfalls of imputed intentionality.

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