Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 28, 1990 TAG: 9006280744
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B5 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
Wiltshire, who has taught at The Collegiate Schools since 1968, isn't alone, according to the University of Virginia's Division of Continuing Education.
High-school teachers of social studies throughout the country are trying to keep up with rapid changes in the Soviet bloc and other areas of the globe, prompting UVa to launch a pilot program this summer to help teachers stay abreast of global upheaval.
"What we have heard from many of them is that their textbooks are no longer relevant," said Marilyn Maughan, a spokeswoman for the division in Charlottesville. "So we're putting together a long-range program to develop an updated curriculum on various world regions."
The initial program in the "Global Change: Understanding the New World" series will cover the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. The program will begin Aug. 5, and for Wiltshire the timing couldn't be better. He plans to visit Germany and Czechoslovakia later this month.
"My whole thesis is that the last chapter has yet to be written," said Wiltshire, one of 30 social studies teachers who will enroll in the Eastern Europe program at UVa. "This is why we need to keep up."
For four days, Wiltshire and the other teachers will become students, hearing from university scholars and outside diplomats, economists, historians and law experts on changes that have included the replacement of communist authority with democratically elected governments in several countries.
The experts who will teach the teachers include Jack Armitage, a former deputy assistant U.S. secretary of state; Paul Goble, deputy director of Radio Free Europe; Soviet law professor Paul B. Stephan; and Slavic literature professor Karen Ryan-Hayes.
The specialists "will provide the teachers with a political and economic overview of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe and will be seeking to impart a deeper understanding of the cultures of those peoples," Maughan said.
"The long-range goal is to provide teachers with the materials they need to prepare students to become global participants in our changing world," she said.
After the session ends, the teachers will be sent a newsletter during the school year with updated information and lists of new sources to use in their classes. The materials will include possible curriculum changes as well.
Maughan said teachers from as far away as San Francisco, Massachusetts and Connecticut have signed up for the August class, in addition to teachers from rural and urban schools in Virginia.
Next year, the university will offer programs on Latin America and Africa. In 1992, the United States will be included, with a focus on this century's national identity and the "rediscovery" of America, Maughan said.
Wiltshire said the currencies of West Germany and East Germany will have been merged by the time he arrives in Berlin. From there, he will visit Prague, and then come back for the U.Va. program.
"It looks like a great conference," he said. "I'm looking forward to going and comparing their notes to my notes."
When it comes to social studies, Wiltshire said, textbooks are good for background. But students have to stay on top of the news. "My textbook going to school is the newspaper," he said.
by CNB