New Tennessee standards fail to incorporate geography

The Tennessean

October 7, 2016  |  Unit 1: Geography: Its Nature and Perspectives

Synopsis

The State Board of Education of Tennessee has revised their social studies standards in their schools, resulting in a lack of education in geography. Now, the only mandatory class to teach geography throughout the K-12 education system is the third grade, which does not get focused on much due to math and reading. This will cause a problem because jobs in geospatial technology are increasing in importance, due to the modern day reliance on GPS. GPS is used in navigation and any place-based smartphone applications, such as social media apps, and is being implemented in self-driving cars. Without the early education in geography, many students will fail to find jobs in the growing field of geography.

Analysis

This article relates directly to the class of AP Human Geography as well as the use of geography in the real world. According to the article, the geospatial industry is a multi-billion dollar one, and is growing at about 25 percent per year. Without an early exposure to geography, many students will lack the necessary skills to become successful in this line of work. Among these skills is the need to use and understand GPS. In this day and age, GPS has become more important due to its implication in modern day technology such as self-driving cars. Geography is also needed to be taught due to the need to understand GIScience. This article relates to what is being learned in class because it describes why education in geography is important, which is what is being taught in class.