Making unacceptable social studies standards even worse!

We’ve written a lot about the unfortunate attempt to foist some “not-ready-for-prime-time” social studies standards on Kentucky’s public schools (Click here to see some of the blogs), and the drama is now entering its final stages.

Sadly, however, I don’t think people are listening.

A public comment period on the standards ended on March 31, 2019 and I know comments were made by more than BIPPS during that period.

Nominally, the department of education now can make changes to the proposal in response to those comments.

The next formal step is for the Kentucky Board of Education to take up what is known as a Statement of Consideration regarding the regulation, 704 KAR 8:060 in response to those public comments. That vote is scheduled to happen on Wednesday, April 10, 2019 during the board’s meeting in Ashland, Kentucky.

In preparation for that Wednesday meeting, the department of education has posted two versions of the standards revision, one with strike-throughs showing the latest changes and another, clean version of what would be the final standards.

Looking quickly through the strike-through version indicates that virtually nothing except the date on the cover of the document has been changed from the earlier version that the board approved back in February.

However, there is one, very curious change. On Page 15 of the revised standards, the wording for the definition of “Geography” has been changed to something highly unusual. Here is the new version with the replaced wording for the struck-through language in bold typeface:

Imagine that. Aside from providing a grammatically tortured and confusing sentence, some of our Kentucky educators want to turn the classical understanding of geography as primarily being a study of the physical planet on its ear. If they have their way, human sociology will supplant the importance of understanding things in our physical world like the North Pole, South Pole, Equator and so forth (By the way, none of those three basic and important geographic terms nor many others are to be found anywhere in this increasingly disappointing document)!And, it looks like the state board is going to rubber stamp this on Wednesday.

So, it comes down to the final wire – the standards (actually the regulation adopting them by reference) has to be reviewed by two legislative committees. Those hearings will probably come in May or June. And, this is where you need to really get involved.

If you think our kids deserve to learn about people like Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Wright Brothers, Franklin Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, the Vietnam War, and a massive host of other things NEVER MENTIONED in the proposed standards, you need to let your legislators hear about that now.

Because if these standards slip through, there is no way to be sure any future Kentucky children will ever learn about any of those people let alone some of the most important basic concepts in geography, history and a lot of other areas of social studies, either.

Just for fun, I looked up some examples of the definition of “Geography” found in the Web. Here are some of those:

From the English Oxford Living Dictionaries:

“The study of the physical features of the earth and its atmosphere, and of human activity as it affects and is affected by these, including the distribution of populations and resources and political and economic activities.”

From the Cambridge Dictionary:

“The study of the features and systems of the earth’s surface, including continents, mountains, seas, weather, and plant life, and of the ways in which countries and people organize life within an area.”

From the Encyclopedia Britannica:

“The study of the diverse environments, places, and spaces of Earth’s surface and their interactions. It seeks to answer the questions of why things are as they are, where they are.”

From the National Geographic Society:

“Geography is the study of places and the relationships between people and their environments. Geographers explore both the physical properties of Earth’s surface and the human societies spread across it. They also examine how human culture interacts with the natural environment and the way that locations and places can have an impact on people. Geography seeks to understand where things are found, why they are there, and how they develop and change over time.”

Note in all of these that the first focus is on the physical planet, not human interaction with it, though human interaction is also included.

By dramatically changing the focus, the Kentucky teachers who created the revision to the social studies standards turn the subject of geography directly backwards. This leads to a major deemphasis of important material such as insuring our kids will know there is indeed a North and South Pole on the planet. In essence, the subject of geography is going be morphed mostly into sociology. That’s not what our kids need.