We learned these things when we were children in school.
Carson City is the state capital of Nevada.
Carson City is named after Kit Carson, scout and trail leader for John C. Fremont’s expedition to California in the 1840s. Fremont named the river that runs through an area of western Nevada the Carson River and the camp along its bank became Carson City.
Carson City has the smallest population of any state capital. The population in 2011 was 55,439.
Now we are approaching “so what.”
When I taught United States History including geography and economics and government to 8th grade children, proudly they learned these facts among other trivia about the fifty state capitals. They read these facts in text books and atlases. They completed tables of state names, capital names and “interesting facts.” Nobody could claim that these children did not know their state capitals!
They met the social studies objectives of their time. They performed well on the label the map and multiple choice questions used to assess their learning. Later, when these children were in 10th grade American History, their teacher undoubtedly lamented that they did not know much about the fifty states or our nation’s geography. That teacher, as was the general practice, started the “learn your capitals” all over again.
We taught the heck out of this objective. However, from today’s educational vantage point, we taught to the wrong objectives. That “so what” statement three paragraphs ago should have been asked then. When children knew their capitals, what could they do with the knowledge?
Some of the more informative questions revolve around “why is this city the state capital?” Why Albany and not New York City or Annapolis and not Baltimore? Why Harrisburg and not Philadelphia or Springfield and not Chicago? The answers involve the stories of personal interest and economics and geography within both the nation’s and the state’s history. How many early capitals needed to be on rivers for transportation and economy? Many current state capitals were not the original capital of their state. What led to a relocation of the state government? What economies attach themselves to the capital city?
To what extent does a current state capital represent its state? Des Moines lies in the middle of Iowa and in the center of its agrarian culture. There is some symmetry in that state’s access to its capital city. Omaha lies on the Missouri River on the eastern border of Nebraska. It is at the convergence of river, wagon trail and railroad and there is no similar geo-political location like it in the state. Helena, Montana, is in the cluster of Boise, Butte, Bozeman and Missoula and the confluence of mountain gaps and valleys and mining industries. The populations of Nebraska and Montana diminish rapidly the further one gets from their capital cities. St. Paul is the state capital, yet one thinks of Minneapolis and the Twin Cities more than one thinks of St. Paul.
That brings us back to Carson City. The story of this capital city includes an influential founder, conflict with Mormon leadership in Utah, nearby gold and silver strikes, railroading and Chinese rail workers. Nevada is traditionally a conservative, Republican state, yet has a significant Mormon and is home to some of nation’s largest gambling and gaming cultures. Certainly, Carson City’s renown is surpassed by Las Vegas and Reno. In their study, would children today relocate the state capital to either Las Vegas or Reno or retain it in Carson City? Listening to their reasoning using history, geography and culture, we could expose their understanding of learning objectives with much greater importance than “find Nevada on this map of the United States” and “Which of the following is the state capital of Nevada.”
Yesterday’s learning objectives may not satisfy today’s learning needs. Learning must always be targeted at the right objective.