Florida Geographers Support Social Studies Testing!

March 30, 2001

Mr. Charlie Crist
Commissioner of Education
Florida Department of Education
Plaza 0-8 The Capitol
Tallahassee, FL 32399-0400

Dear Commissioner Crist:

As a recent past president of the National Council for Geographic Education and as a present coordinator of the Florida Geographic Alliance, I have had the opportunity to meet with education leaders in Florida regarding the teaching of geography in our public schools. These meetings have included your predecessors Commissioners Brogan and Gallagher, Bill Mumford, President of the Florida Superintendent’s Association and DOE personnel Tom Baird, Barbara Elzie and Bob Lumsden. In each case it was agreed that Florida should include more geography in the curriculum.

The Florida Geographic Alliance was created to help do this. The Alliance is funded by a two million dollar endowment set up by the National Geographic Society , the FSU Foundation and the State of Florida grant matching program. Our goals are to place more geography in the curriculum (not necessarily as separate courses), to train teachers in what geography is and how to teach it, the development of new materials and workshops (free to the districts) on how to utilize technology in the teaching of geography. We cover Florida, the United States and the world. Everyone who has seen our program has given us very high marks.

Less than 300,000 of our middle and high school students receive any training in geography. This is at a time when leading media have decried our “geographic illiteracy”. Geography can be a major contributor to the development of a strong citizenship curriculum recently called for by the Florida Legislature and the Florida DOE. Every major problem facing our society today has a geographic aspect to it, be it population growth, transportation, pollution problems, crime prevention, health care, etc., and, geography is politically neutral, eminently important, but ideologically neutral. International, or global issues are geographic. Floridians need to know why our state is strategically located to help, and benefit from the development of Central and South America, as well as why other continents represent problems and prospects for Florida and the United States.

The major threat that has my attention at the present time is the possibility that the social studies in general, and specifically geography, are not a part of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. As a result, and with the perceived threat many schools feel from being graded, the social studies, including geography, are not only not being taught, but are being dropped from the curriculum because the State has implied, from the absence of social studies from FCAT, that this information is not necessary. Please do not let this unintended consequence become reality. It will hurt our students, our economy and our standing in the state and nation.

Thank you for your attention to this matter. I will be happy to discuss this matter in any forum, with any individual or committee.

Yours for a stronger and logical curriculum,

Edward A. Fernald, State Geographer &
Professor Emeritus Florida State University