Bobby Hawthorne
Academics Director
Now that the U.S. and its allies have kicked the sand fleas out of Iraq again, young Americans must ask themselves, "Where is Iraq?"
Most of them don’t know.
According to a survey of geographic literacy conducted recently by the National Geographic Society, only 12 percent to 14 percent of Americans ages 18-24 could find Iraq, Iran, Israel or Afghanistan on a map, which isn’t nearly as depressing as the fact that one in 10 couldn’t locate the United States on a world map. Somehow, nine in 10 could pinpoint California on a map of the United States, but then there’s no war in California except between state officials and Texas oil and gas executives.
Sweden scored the highest on the test, followed by Germany, Italy and France, which is yet another reason to boycott truffles, Bleu d’Auvergne and Muscat dBeaulieu. The U.S. and Mexico scored lowest.
Similar results for civics and history aren’t any better, except that U.S. students barely edged their French counterparts on American civics. Both knew that bombs fall (a) when planes release them; (b) when the President says so; (c) no matter what our major allies or the United Nations say; (d) all of the above. Correct answer: D.
A survey conducted in 1994 by the federally funded National Assessment of Educational Progress found that 57 percent of high school seniors were "below basic in the knowledge of history," which is as low as possible to score.
And last May, the U.S. Department of Education reported that more than half of American 12th graders lack even a basic knowledge of U.S. history. In other words, seniors believed the Cold War was fought between Bill and Hillary Clinton. I’m not sure if this is an improvement from ‘94.
I am certain of one thing: next year, the UIL will expand the achievement gap by providing smart kids another reason to act and feel superior to their peers, who think bicameral is a dromedary with two humps.
Here’s how: the social studies contest that we’ve piloted for four years now will become a full-fledged UIL academic contest with points counting and students advancing from district to region to state. Let’s examine the history of this pilot so far:
. 2000: Millennium ends. Computers crash worldwide, creating chaos and destruction, not the best time to pilot the UIL economics contest even though it was an excellent contest. Sadly, not that many people signed up because economics is a half-credit course taught during the senior year, which makes team-building almost impossible. Besides, we had all that chaos and destruction.
. 2001: UIL continues economics pilot with similar results, minus the chaos and destruction.
. 2002: Responding to the 9/11 attacks, UIL pilots social studies contest that focuses on (geography) Afghanistan and the countries that surround it -- Fajitastand,(the "d" is silent), Ooozbekistan and Steveurkistan among others -- as well as (government) the executive branch of the U.S. presidency before it all became part of the Department of Homeland Security.
. 2003: UIL continues pilot, with government and geography sections focusing on Texas. I can’t think of a joke there that won’t get me fired.
In February, a blue-ribbon, elite, totally righteous Social Studies Advisory Committee examined all facets of the contest, reviewed teacher input and answered an essential question: what now? Committee members included Bronwen Choate, Graham High School; Alan Hildebrandt, Georgetown HS; Lori Strader, Burkburnett ISD; Pete Evans, R. L. Turner HS (Carrollton); Delma Yzaguirre, Calallen HS (Corpus Christi); and Dr. Cinthia Salinas, UT-Austin.
Among the committee’s decisions:
* The test will consist of elements similar to the Literary Criticism and the Current Issues and Events contests. Like Lit Crit, it will be based on selected readings. For example, next year’s theme might be "The Middle Ages," and the primary reading selection might be William Manchester’s A World Lit Only By Fire. Committee members noted the contest will be studentdriven rather than coach/teacher driven. That is, a student equipped with the reading selections, a study packet conflict pattern, during editorial and headline writing, LD finals, prose and poetry finals, computer science and mathematics.
* Like CI&E, it will contain multiple choice questions and an essay. Fifteen of the questions will deal with the major reading selection (two points each), 10 with documents (three points each), 10 with terms and concepts (one point each), and 10 with general knowledge (one point each).
* The essay will be worth a maximum of 20 points. Like in CI&E, the top eight competitors in the objective scoring will advance to the finals and have their essays scored against a rubric that emphasizes effective incorporation of information and ideas provided in the reading materials.
* Students may advance as either individuals or members of a team, or both.
* As in all UIL academic endeavors, the purpose of this contest is to go beyond the regular classroom, to require students to read widely and deeply in specific Social studies contest similar to current events, literary criticism competition from the UIL and a computer terminal connected to the Internet can prepare for the contest with a minimum of assistance from social studies teachers, many of whom have their minds, hands and whistles on Stage Orange alert already.
* Since document-based questions are all the rage these days, we decided to toss in a few of them also. Thus, students will be required to master selected secondary documents such as a map of the world, circa 1200, or an atlas of the Crusades or the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
* Finally, students will answer questions relating to a list of concepts and terms that will be compiled by the contest director and provided in a study packet. It will be equivalent to Lit Crit’s Handbook to Literature.
* Students will have 90 minutes to take the contest, which will be scheduled in the third block of the UIL areas of the social studies and to synthesize, analyze and apply that knowledge. I could use a lot of other fancy hyphenated edu-speak phrases here but they’re trite.
Besides, you get the point. This contest may not be easy (especially if you can’t find California on a map of the United States) but it will be challenging, even fun for brain-based, results-oriented, driver-friendly students. Okay, test yourself: how many fact errors of history, geography, economics or government did you find in this column? Here they are:
1. A dromedary has one hump.
2. Muscat dBeaulieu is a California wine, a favorite, I hear, among former Enron officials.
3. The Millennium actually ended in 2001.
4. Fajitastand is located in Central America -- not Central Asia. And remember, the "d" is silent.