If you go to Google maps and type in “Mt. Denali,” it will take you to a mountainous region in Alaska’s “Denali State Park,” and you will see a little red pin demarcating the highest peak in North America. However, by the time the screen finishes loading, the search bar will not read what you typed at all, but rather, “Mt. McKinley.” If you go to Google maps and type in “Gulf of Mexico,” it will take you to an inlet of sea bordering the Southeast United States and Mexico, but the label in blue text will read “Gulf of America.” If you go to North Atlanta High School, you will find chaos, as teachers and administrators are scrambling to adopt these new geographical nomenclature.
All maps in the Atlanta Public Schools district are to reflect the recent geographical changes made at the federal level by April 1, 2025. Just as the Secretary of the Interior will update the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS), North Atlanta High School will update its maps, but since NAHS’s budget is considerably less than the federal government’s- even with the DOGE cuts- teachers are on their own to figure out how to accomplish this.
Times are changing fast, and teachers must keep students abreast of appropriate terminology. When educators fail to embrace new developments, their pupils suffer. If the curriculum does not match contemporary reality, students fall behind. Therefore, schools must mobilize to meet modern standards as quickly as possible. That is, at least, the position of DAPSE, the Department of Atlanta Public Schools Efficiency. “When Pluto was made a dwarf planet, it set us back by years,” said a DAPSE spokesperson. “We failed to make the change consistently, and some students were confused. We are not going to make that same mistake again.”
Charged with devising cost effective ways to implement “Names That Honor American Greatness” before the April 1 deadline, teachers are getting creative. Some teachers are scrapping their old maps altogether and splurging on new ones, while others are determined to work with what they’ve got. AP World History teacher Caitlin Tripp is a member of the latter camp. “I’m going to take my map home over the weekend and do some arts and crafts to paint over it,” said Tripp. “I look forward to being able to point my little red clicker at the Gulf of America.”
The NAHS community has mixed feelings about the initiative. When desperate educators turned to them for help with correcting the school’s cartography, many students appreciated the extra-credit opportunity, but now some experience wrist fatigue from editing. The strain is felt to varying degrees among Social Studies teachers. U.S./World Affairs teacher Shandie Everett is grateful that most of her material is online. “The maps will be easier to update,” said Everett. The transition is inconvenient, but it suits Everett, who thinks it will be valuable in the long-run. “McKinley is easier to spell,” she said.
North Atlanta teachers are hard at work as the deadline approaches. They hope that their efforts will pay off, and that they will be able to help their students. At the very least, they will be able to report back affirmatively when they receive an email asking if they did anything this week.
