What I would Change About the Nevada Social Studies Curriculum

I personally believe that history and civics should have a stronger emphasis. There are too many
people in this nation who dont understand the past or have any idea of how our government
truly works. Our citizenry is gradually becoming complacent bystanders in the political process
of government. Our leadership often tells the citizens what to do rather than the citizens
exercising their rights to implement change. Overall America has become culturally stagnant or
regressive over the past few decades. I think the best way to address this problem would be
increase the amount of overall social studies instruction. The only way to do this would be to
increase the length of the school day. An extra 30 minutes should be added to the school day so
that both teachers and students can focus more on social studies. The history focus should be on
past mistakes that were made as well as ways to correlate those mistakes with decisions being
made today. An example would be correlating the events leading up to WWI with the current
crisis in Ukraine. During both periods in time a singular event caused tension between two
opposing alliances. WWI was caused by secret alliances and the assignation of the heir to the
Austro-Hungarian throne. Currently we have NATO and the EU aligned against the Russian
Federation with the annexation of Crimea being the tension point. A stronger emphasis on
historical mistakes could prevent future leaders from provocative actions or statements. America
interfered in Eastern Europe back in 1917 and as a result we angered the Communist Party in
what became the Soviet Union. Currently we are interfering with a geographic area that all
Slavic cultures trace their ancestry back to. Effectively were stepping on Russias toes again, but
very few Americans realize this. Currently most Americans dont know where Ukraine is located
or if they do know they learned it from the Daily Show on Comedy Central. The average
American is also ignorant of the distinction between NATO and the EU as well as Americas
role in one but not the other. We are obligated by treaty to defend NATO members and yet our
leaders are over-stepping their bounds by offering to defend an informal member of the CIS from
Russia. Ukraine is part of the CIS which is the Russian counterpart to NATO and America is
attempting to alter he global balance of power. There are far too many US citizens willing to see
troops sent to this area even though they know nothing about what is going on. I think to prevent
future generations from becoming so ignorant we should require that every elementary school
student identify each nation on the globe by 5
th
grade. This would show that Ukraine has a long
land border with Russia and that its very far from the US. Secondly I think history should
emphasize how alliances have both preserved and destroyed nations in the past. This would show
how centuries old empires like Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire were fractured after
WWI and could serves as a warning against preventable wars. Third I think that the average
citizen should understand how America fits in with its allies. This would show that the US in
actuality is the majority of the military force and as such bears the burden of casualties as well as
financial cost. A further look into NATO would prove that the alliance is economically
unsustainable since we are reducing our military spending. Lastly I think that young students
should be taught how to petition their elected officials when they disagree with decisions being
made. A conventional third world war is a distinct possibility at the moment due to poor
government decisions concerning foreign policy, stupid decisions by Congress and the Executive
Branch of government should never go unchallenged. Currently we are robbing future
generations of their income to support a growing budget deficit; young children should be taught
basic civics principles so they may understand how to lobby for reform. As a nation we must
reverse a trend of ignorant citizens making uniformed decisions or worse yet not making any
political decisions at all.