Filling the Curriculum Gap

An alarming gap exists between the growing importance of other world regions to our nation’s economic prosperity and national security and many young Americans’ knowledge of the world that lies beyond our borders. It is appalling to know that 37% of US college freshman were unable to identify Europe or Asia on a world map.  That statistic from the National Geographic’s 2001 Geography Survey, is a red flag that as a community we must do much, much more to provide international affairs and geography education to our youth.

One of the primary goals of the World Affairs Council of Jacksonville is to reach out to the youth of our community and to promote their interest and understanding of the world that lies beyond our borders. Currently we support the following four student education initiatives:  

• Academic WorldQuest is a contest for high school students to test their knowledge of international facts covering topics such as geography, political leaders, history, and current issues.  With the sponsorship of Heritage Bank and other supporters, twenty teams from the following high schools participated in the second annual Academic World Quest Competition: Bishop Kenny, Bolles, Episcopal, Nease, Orange Park, Paxon, Pedro Menendez, Ribault, Ridgeview, Robert E. Lee, Stanton and Terry Parker High. The winning team from Stanton Preparatory High School will represent our Council at the national competition in Washington , D.C. at the end of March.

• Great Decisions is a discussion program facilitated by UNF faculty focusing on 8 new foreign affairs topics each year.    The topics are outlined in non-partisan articles with companion videos.  In collaboration with UNF we continued with Great Decisions at Nease, Paxon, Stanton, UNF honors students and expanded the program to include students at Sandalwood high school. The curriculum not only exposes the students to foreign affairs topics, but they also participate in a crisis-management exercise that develops critical thinking and decision-making skills. For additional information, go to the Foreign Policy Website at www.fpa.org.

• World in Transition is a major initiative to improve international education in schools nationwide.  It includes teacher workshops and curriculum support materials.  The materials cover eight regions of the world using a video, lesson plan, background readings and web-based resources.  The program was developed and is maintained by the Southern Center for International Studies (www.southerncenter.org).  Our Council funded the mapping of the materials in each of the units to meet state social studies standards.

   

  In 2006 WAC Jacksonville, in partnership with a grant from SCIS, supported the offering of three “Master Teacher Workshops” for 25 middle and high school social studies teachers from the Duval school system; and the Council supported the offering of a one-day training session to an additional 25 teachers.  Participating high schools included: Anderson , Darnell-Cookman, Fletcher, First Coast , La Villa, Lee, Peterson, Ribault, Sandalwood, White and Wolfson.  Participating middle schools included: Arlington , Fletcher, Johnson, Kernan, Kirby-Smith, Landmark, Mandarin, Southside and Twin Lakes.

   

• Ambassador Marilyn McAfee Scholarship This $1,200 academic merit scholarship will be awarded to a sophomore or junior currently attending Edward Waters College, Jacksonville University or the University of North Florida.