u.s. high school social studies textbooks: perpetuating the idea of overpopulation

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A PUBLICATION OF THE POPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM AT HAMPSHIRE COLLEGE NO. 9 ~ SPRING 2001

by Anne Hendrixson

Ingrained into the U.S. popular imagination

is the idea that the world is overpopulated.

Americans talk not so much about popula-

tionas overpopulation, in the belief that

the planet is burdened with too many

people. Often, Americans think of this glut

of people as flowing from Mexico, India or

Africa where birth rates are perceived as

out-of-control and rising. Many viewoverpopulation as the main cause of

environmental degradation, urban sprawl,

hunger, poverty, political instability and even

war. However, although many Americans

believe and repeat the dire forecast of

overpopulation, few know basic facts about

demographic dynamics.For instance, few

c/o Population & Development ProgramHampshire College-CLPP

Amherst, MA 01002-5001 USA413/559-6046 fax 413/559-6045

http://hamp.hampshire.edu/~clpp/popdev.html

Opinions expressed in this publicationare those of the individual authors unless

otherwise specified.

realize that recent UN data indicate that population growth rates

are declining worldwide faster than anticipated.

The idea of overpopulation promotes the simple assumption that

there are a finite amount of global resources spread among too

many people.The reality, however, is far more complex. Inequitable

production, consumption and distribution patterns often have far

more to do with generating poverty and environmental degradation

than the impact of population growth. According to UN figures,the richest fifth of the worlds people who live in the developed

countries consume 66 times as much as the poorest fifth.The

richest fifth consume 45% of all meat and fish, 58% of total

energy, and 84% of all paper. In addition, they own 87% of

the worlds vehicle fleet, a major source of greenhouse gases.

Meanwhile, the gap between rich and poor is growing as a result

of the globalization process.1

Why do Americans have such a narrow view of population issues?

One reason is the presentation of population in social studies

textbooks. A survey undertaken by the Hampshire College

Population and Development Program and the Committee on

Women, Population, and the Environment found that many main-

stream U.S. high school textbooks teach overpopulation,rather

than giving students the conceptual tools to understand population

issues in their full complexity.Lessons on basic demography are

missing from the pages of most texts, substituted, instead, with

glancing references to population, using terms like population

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bomb.The National Standards for World

History guidelines for textbook writers

suggest that lessons teaching population

should include analyzing causes of the

worlds accelerating population growth rate,

and explaining why population growth has

hindered economic and social development

in many countries.2 These guidelines are

thus based on the incorrect premise that

the worlds population growth rate is still

accelerating, and assume that population

growth necessarily leads to hindered

development.

Most of the textbooks surveyed do the

same. Geography: Realms, Regions

and Conceptsasserts that,the human

population of the world as a whole has

grown explosively over the past two

centuries and especially during the twenti-

eth centuryWill this cycle [of growth]

go on indefinitely?3 The authors answer

the question ominously with,It had better

not. Does this statement inform the

student about population issues, or instill

a fear of population growth and its

repercussions?

Too often references to population are full

of stereotypes of the poor South versus

the affluent North. World Cultures:

A Global Mosaicis laden with judgments

about the differing levels of development

in the North and South.The authors use

words like failure and condemn to

describe Southern levels of development.

Rapid population growth and the failure

to modernize have widened the gap between

developing and developed nations. In the

poor countries, crop failures brought on

by drought or other natural disasters

condemn millions to hunger.4 There is

little discussion of how unequal economic

relationships between North and South

contribute to the persistence of poverty.

Accompanying these perspectives on the South and North are

negative racial stereotypes that can engender misunderstanding and

dislike. For instance, the author of World Geography and Cultures

promotes the stereotype of Africans as sexually promiscuous. She

charges that the out-of-control population growth rate in Africa is

causing the spread of the desert, and that the African people have

to take responsibility for their actions (i.e. use birth control) for

the process of desertification to slow. She writes,the values of the

culture may have to change before desertification can be slowed

down.5 Recent research on Africa challenges these stereotypes,

giving a far more detailed historical perspective on the dynamics

of environmental degradation, including the role of national and

international development agencies.6

The texts hold women as largely responsible for population growth

because of their role as child bearers.The majority of the texts

present government-enforced population control, rather than

user-controlled family planning methods, as reasonable measures

to curb population growth, without critical discussion of the effect

of population control methods on womens health and rights.

Geography: Regions, Realms and Conceptscreates a picture of

post-colonial India doomed to failure by its own people, then

advocates for population control as the solution to the problem.

Vigorous propaganda campaigns, federal and state support for

family planning campaigns, and even compulsory sterilization tactics

have been implemented, the authors note with apparent approval.7

However, to the authors these extreme measures of populationcontrol are not effective enough.The paragraph ends with the

portentous phrase,change is coming perilously slow.

A second survey of U.K. textbooks found that, in contrast to their

U.S. counterparts, these books teach lessons in basic demography,

recognize the presence of a debate in population theory, and

complicate the study by introducing other concepts into the picture,

such as power inequalities and colonialism.This knowledge provides

students with the tools to critically understand population issues

and to develop a broader worldview. U.S. textbook authors could

learn from the presentation of population in U.K. texts.

Given the simplistic, incomplete picture of population created by

most U.S. high school social studies textbooks, it is not surprising

that most Americans know little about population except for a

general understanding of the pessimistic idea of overpopulation.

It is important to complicate this picture and textbooks are a place

to begin.Teaching students incomplete and misleading lessons in


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u.s. high school social studies textbooks: perpetuating the idea of overpopulation

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