Global Studies, as stated in the school’s Program Planning Guide, is aimed at “understand[ing] the complexities of our 21st century world through multiple lenses.” An impressive goal, but, in my opinion, one that the program does not accomplish.
Beyond LM, insufficient history, world relations, and geography curriculums in school are a prevalent problem. In 2019, a survey by The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and the National Geographic society, administered to over 2,000 adults in the US, tested knowledge about geography, foreign policy, and world geographics. Most of the participants got a little bit over half of the questions correct and only six percent got at least eighty percent of the questions correct.
LM, on the other hand, has actively attempted to address this collective lack of global knowledge with its own student body by creating a two-year program, consisting of Global Studies 1 and Global Studies 2. These two courses collectively span from 900 BCE to modern day. Teachers are expected to teach over a thousand years of history in 55 minute sets over the course of two years. To put that into perspective, American history, in comparison, usually has the entirety of middle school and the last two years of high school dedicated to it.. With such a short period of time dedicated to Global Studies, there is also bound to be omissions of important topics.
Additionally, there is a severe lack of time dedicated to geography throughout the course of a student’s schooling. How can students understand the significance of certain historical events without key information relating to geopolitical tensions? Various events of incredible significance, impacting even modern time conflicts, are only partially understood. For example, in 2003, Russia and China signed a treaty. How is a student, unaware of the fact that these two countries share a border, going to understand the significance and reasoning behind this treaty? How are they going to understand the impact on other neighboring countries if they are unaware of their location? Geography is incredibly important to a student’s understanding of the subject matter and current events. It is incredibly problematic that most students have a sizable gap ascertaining countries’ locations.
The condensed format of the class due to the sheer size of required content means that it is reduced to rote memorization, focused on teaching to the test and rarely contextualizing any further than basic theory. Rote memorization is not necessarily a bad thing—it’s an effective way to simplify and teach a topic to students. The issue is that students are often left lacking an understanding of the finer details. Most students reduce the topic down to a brief definition with a few fun facts. Take the Aztec Empire for example, most students would most likely, simply, describe it as “a powerful empire destroyed by conquistadors.” They’d remember some basic vocab such as “Chinampa” (an agricultural system consisting of a series of lakes) and the significance of hot chocolate within their society. Would most students be able to analyze the complexities of colonialism (the conquistadors) outside of a simple story of exploration and greed? Probably not. There are more layers to the story.
The current Global Studies program suffers from over-condensation, leading to various issues with instruction methodologies, and a lack of instruction in geographical knowledge. The issues with the program are representative of a greater trend with the general treatment of social studies within the nation. A trend of devaluing the worth of geography and history compared to other subjects. In order to combat these issues and provide its students with the tools necessary to comprehend their world and tumultuous geopolitical tensions, LM should redesign its Global Studies curriculum based on student and teacher feedback. History and geography are a vital part of every students’ education.
