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naomikritzerThe week before last, Molly brought home a map of Europe. For a classroom assignment, she'd traced a classroom map (in a Montessori classroom, the map you trace is called a control map; it's part of a set that also includes a puzzle map), colored in the countries, and labeled them. She hadn't quite finished it; the countries of eastern Europe were unlabeled, except for Russia and Poland. Which is why it took a few minutes (and Ed looking over my shoulder and pointing this out) to realize why it looked so strange.
Molly had traced a Cold War map. "Russia" was actually the USSR: Lithuania, Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia, Moldova, and Estonia were all missing. Czechoslovakia was carefully outlined (but unlabeled), as was Yugoslavia (all of the former Yugoslavia, not just that last little bit that was still called Yugoslavia until 2003). She'd also drawn East and West Germany, though apparently while labeling countries (using a more up-to-date map) she'd realized something was very wrong here, and she'd tried to turn East Germany into extra Poland.
I was appalled, and poked through the classroom stash of maps the next time I was in the classroom. The Asia maps were missing, so I couldn't check them for accuracy -- it turned out the teacher had loaned them to the classroom next door, which didn't have ANY maps. I pulled out the Africa map and checked to see whether it has Congo, or Zaire; I was relieved, if a bit surprised, to see that it was Congo. After I got home, I started thinking about this, and pulled up Wikipedia to check; sure enough, Congo was Congo before it was Zaire. I resolved to look at the map again the next time I was over there.
I was there today, and I took the map out and looked at it. It's not the Democratic Republic of the Congo that's on there -- it's the Republic of the Congo, which hasn't existed since 1964. Even if you shrug that one off (it's not like the third graders are going to remember whether the map says Republic or Democratic Republic -- heck, you could fix that one with a Sharpie) the map also has Rhodesia on it.
Just to clarify, these are not the fancy pull-down maps I remember from my childhood classrooms; these are actually really simple maps, made of stiff coated cardboard, so that kids can lay them down and trace the countries. They're not super-expensive, in other words; they're $8 each in the standard approved Montessori supply house catalog. (Puzzle maps are much more expensive -- $150 each. You can find discount versions around, but the teacher says they don't hold up to classroom use.) (Alas, the world map that Doctors Without Borders sends me every other month would not be useful in this context. Control maps are done with thick lines and minimal landmarks, to make them easy to trace.)
When I talked to Molly's teacher last week about the Europe map, I told her that I wanted to buy replacements, and donate them. The teacher was puzzled and a little defensive, even though I tried to make it clear that I didn't blame her. I think she looks around the classroom and sees SO many material deficiencies that a parent flipping out about antiquated maps seems really weird to her. But we all have our hot buttons, and seeing the USSR (and East Germany, OH MY GOD) on a map drawn by my daughter pushed a really big one for me.
It's prohibitively expensive to keep geography materials truly current in a classroom, because stuff changes constantly. I am okay with a significant margin of error here. But ... East Germany has not existed since 1991. That map is at least 18 years old. And Congo started being called Zaire in 1971. That map is older than I am. (And even if Congo is Congo again now, Zimbabwe is not named after Cecil effing Rhodes anymore. OMG.)
The saddest thing is that I bet these maps will not be thrown away when the new maps arrive; I bet they will be passed along to the teacher next door, the one who borrowed the Asia maps because she has no geography materials at all.
Molly had traced a Cold War map. "Russia" was actually the USSR: Lithuania, Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia, Moldova, and Estonia were all missing. Czechoslovakia was carefully outlined (but unlabeled), as was Yugoslavia (all of the former Yugoslavia, not just that last little bit that was still called Yugoslavia until 2003). She'd also drawn East and West Germany, though apparently while labeling countries (using a more up-to-date map) she'd realized something was very wrong here, and she'd tried to turn East Germany into extra Poland.
I was appalled, and poked through the classroom stash of maps the next time I was in the classroom. The Asia maps were missing, so I couldn't check them for accuracy -- it turned out the teacher had loaned them to the classroom next door, which didn't have ANY maps. I pulled out the Africa map and checked to see whether it has Congo, or Zaire; I was relieved, if a bit surprised, to see that it was Congo. After I got home, I started thinking about this, and pulled up Wikipedia to check; sure enough, Congo was Congo before it was Zaire. I resolved to look at the map again the next time I was over there.
I was there today, and I took the map out and looked at it. It's not the Democratic Republic of the Congo that's on there -- it's the Republic of the Congo, which hasn't existed since 1964. Even if you shrug that one off (it's not like the third graders are going to remember whether the map says Republic or Democratic Republic -- heck, you could fix that one with a Sharpie) the map also has Rhodesia on it.
Just to clarify, these are not the fancy pull-down maps I remember from my childhood classrooms; these are actually really simple maps, made of stiff coated cardboard, so that kids can lay them down and trace the countries. They're not super-expensive, in other words; they're $8 each in the standard approved Montessori supply house catalog. (Puzzle maps are much more expensive -- $150 each. You can find discount versions around, but the teacher says they don't hold up to classroom use.) (Alas, the world map that Doctors Without Borders sends me every other month would not be useful in this context. Control maps are done with thick lines and minimal landmarks, to make them easy to trace.)
When I talked to Molly's teacher last week about the Europe map, I told her that I wanted to buy replacements, and donate them. The teacher was puzzled and a little defensive, even though I tried to make it clear that I didn't blame her. I think she looks around the classroom and sees SO many material deficiencies that a parent flipping out about antiquated maps seems really weird to her. But we all have our hot buttons, and seeing the USSR (and East Germany, OH MY GOD) on a map drawn by my daughter pushed a really big one for me.
It's prohibitively expensive to keep geography materials truly current in a classroom, because stuff changes constantly. I am okay with a significant margin of error here. But ... East Germany has not existed since 1991. That map is at least 18 years old. And Congo started being called Zaire in 1971. That map is older than I am. (And even if Congo is Congo again now, Zimbabwe is not named after Cecil effing Rhodes anymore. OMG.)
The saddest thing is that I bet these maps will not be thrown away when the new maps arrive; I bet they will be passed along to the teacher next door, the one who borrowed the Asia maps because she has no geography materials at all.
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no subject
Date: 2009-04-01 02:00 pm (UTC)Which reminds me that I forgot to quiz my son on the capitals of all the South American countries for his test today. I learned that Surinam became Suriname from his homework.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-01 02:21 pm (UTC)I'm not honestly sure whether it's better to do geography with atrociously outdated materials, or to leave it for a later grade.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-01 02:56 pm (UTC)