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Colleagues,
Kudos to Dr. Alderman on his excellent opinion piece (perspective) on the misguided revisions of the State Social Studies standards, which appeared in yesterday's Knoxville News-Sentinel. If you missed it or don't subscribe, you can read it online here:
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2013/jul/20/derek-alderman-dont-dilute-geography-standards/
If you are contacting folks about this issue per Kurt's request, and want to include a copy of Derek's column, feel free to use the attached pdf I made for that purpose.
Sincerely,
Sally
UTK Geography Department –
This is a gentle reminder that we need you to contact the Tennessee State Board of Education as soon as possible if you care about maintaining any semblance of a robust geography curriculum in our K-12 schools. The BoE will be voting on the final draft state Social Studies standards on Friday, July 26.
Over the past few days I have heard from some heavy hitters in the geography community that they are communicating their opposition to the standards to the State Board of Education and Education Commissioner Huffman. These include the Association of American Geographers, the Coalition of Geospatial Organizations, and the Cumberland Chapter of the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association. However, individual and local voices are just as important!
Background information, who to contact and how to contact them is at www.tngeographicalliance.org
I invite you to join me in Nashville next week to witness the Board of Education in action.
On Thursday, July 25th the Board of Education will have their “workshop” which precedes their voting meeting the next day. During the workshop, Dr. Jared Myracle will present his recommendations concerning the new Social Studies standards. This event will take place from noon CDT until 4:15pm CDT. Myracle’s presentation is scheduled for 1:50pm but they could be running ahead or behind. I will be there at noon. This event takes place at the Tennessee School Boards Association, 525 Brick Church Park Drive, Nashville, TN 37207.
On Friday, July 26th, the Board will meet to vote on a long list of items, including the Social Studies standards. There is not a timed agenda for this one. I plan to be there when the meeting starts at 9:00am CDT. This event will take place in Room 12 of the Legislative Plaza in Nashville. Agendas for both meetings can be found at www.tngeographicalliance.org
As always, thank you for your support of the Tennessee Geographic Alliance and geography education.
Kurt Butefish
Coordinator
Tennessee Geographic Alliance