A member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) proposed changing middle school geography courses to earth science courses during the annual session of the CPPCC in 2023. Subsequently, relevant articles were published in China Science Daily, China Newsweek, and Science Park, sparking discussions and concerns in public about whether middle school geography courses should be changed to earth science. In order to answer this question, we conducted a survey on the curriculum settings of middle school geography and earth science in major representative countries or regions of the world through literature review, online search, and consultation with overseas friends. We also analyzed the role of geography discipline and middle school geography course from the perspectives of disciplinary nature, educational functions, geographical perspective, and serving major national needs. The results indicate that representative countries or regions around the world have generally offered middle school geography courses. Although some countries or regions have also established earth science courses or related content in middle schools, there has been no phenomenon or trend of renaming or changing middle school geography courses to earth science. Because of the intersectionality of humanities, natural sciences, and engineering technology, the uniqueness of geographical perspective, and the diversity of educational functions, geography is indispensable in secondary education. The middle school geography course is a synthesis of a major category of teaching content, and is synonymous with "heaven, earth, and man". Changing middle school geography course to earth science course can lead to confusion in the relationship between middle school courses and the destruction of the middle school curriculum system, leading to deviation or ambiguity in social cognition. In addition, the new geoscience discipline system characterized by earth systems science is in the process of forming and constantly improving, and there are still problems in methods, standards, strategies, analysis, etc., and the research on the earth is still limited to the planetary scale, not including the global, regional and local scales of geographical research, which is far from the actual needs of socioeconomic development. Therefore, middle school geography courses should not be replaced with earth science courses. Earth science education can be achieved through middle school science and geography courses.