The article attracts attention to the problem of the inefficiency of the extant classroombased style of teaching at schools. As a means to solve this problem, the author suggests that teaching local specifics might be efficient. He gives a short review of the main stages of introducing community related materials in geography classes and in teaching some disciplines close to geography. Experience of teaching an extracurricular course called «Saransk: nature, population, economy» are analyzed in more detail.