US history in high school under assault?
The political intrigue of 2009 beginning with Mr. Obama’s election, TARP, and the Health Care Bill have motivated me to be actively involved in politics for the first time in my 42 year history. Oh sure, I voted since I was 18 years old, but I never got out talking to people or to educating myself on the issues. It is that personal background that motivated me to attend a Constitution Rally on February 6th with in an hour drive of my home. I had been a history major in college, but have since taught mostly Science and a Computer Applications class on the middle school level. So thank-you Mr. Obama for reconnecting me with my first love!!
The speakers at the Constitution Rally caught my attention and ignited me to leave my warm home on a four degree day. Bob Basso would be making an appearance. He is the You Tube celebrity “Thomas Paine”. His original video “We the People Stimulus Package” has received over nine million views—I wanted to see him! Also talking was a Circuit court judge from the county I live in who was a recent Supreme Court candidate in my state. Finally, Dr. Kevin Gutzman, an associate professor at Western Connecticut State University and author of the book, “The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Constitution” would speak. The title of his book was enough to make me hear more from him!
As I sat in the nice warm auditorium with other regular citizens, I wondered why there were only a hundred people in attendance. As I listened to the speakers it finally dawned on me: Most Americans don’t know true United States history and have never seen it come alive. Being a teacher I felt that was my fault.
Then this morning, I found a headline on the Internet, “State Educators Propose Cutting Early US History from High School”. Apparently there is hot debate amongst the Department of Public Instruction in North Carolina that there is just too much US History to teach in High School. They propose starting US History class in high school with events after 1877. Students will cover the events prior to 1877 adequately in the elementary and middle school years, so the DPI proposes. Although, the DPI did point out, this is just a “first draft” to the people regarding their plans.
This first draft is meeting with some degree of outrage within the state of North Carolina, as you would expect. But one of the comments to the article left me thinking: “It’s not like the public education system was teaching history with any sense of accuracy anyway.” (dcook28277 said on February 11, 2010 at 9:15 PM).
Really? Are the public schools really not teaching US History accurately any more? Is revisionist history the case? Are classes like Chemistry and Algebra only teaching essentials? Why isn’t there a History Essentials course? American High School History texts are titled “Triumph of the American Nation”, “A History of the Republic”, “The American Pageant” and “Pathways to the Present” (“Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong”, by James Loewen). Those would all be great titles for stories of romantic tales and hero worship, but probably not the best for learning the facts of US History.
I wanted to know more, So this morning I looked up my local board of education members on the Internet, found a picture of their smiling faces, and e-mailed them all. I stated that I would like to read a copy of the book currently being used in my city high school’s history class. Out of nine members I e-mailed, two of the e-mail links were broken, two were not typed correctly and one was referenced to another school board member. Somehow I don’t think my local school board is receiving many comments from the public!
So this is what I want you to do. If you are concerned about the teaching of US History—Declaration of Independence, Constitution, founding fathers, important themes being taught—write or call your school board members. Be nice and polite and ask for the history book being taught in your high school. If you are in a larger school district, ask for the books in many of your district’s high schools. Read them, scan them, and look at what is there. Interview the US History teacher and ask what he teaches. Then you decide. Are our children being taught truth in history, or a history of America with a revisionist slant? Do our children get to question our founding fathers in class or are they told only stories or legends? Are there conservative and progressive values being explained?
For me, I don’t know the answers to these questions, but I am going to search for them.
The organizers kept a ticker count of attendance, and over 1,500 people attended. When I spoke, there were several hundred in the audience.
Kevin, nice to hear from you! Thanks for reading.
I was referring to the rally in New Berlin. It was a pleasure to hear you talk. Very educational and enlightening.
Also, today I received two e-mails from my school board members. Follow up on the history text will proceed shortly!!!!
Read John Stossel’s recent blog post here that is relevant to the discussion.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/02/17/education_too_important_for_a_government_monopoly_104432.html
I agree wholeheartedly. US history classes in public schools have been stripped of many of the important narratives of our culture over the years.
Much of this has to do with the textbook manufacturing industry, and how they select their material. Since the textbook companies, like any other corporation in our country, aim to make money, they cater the material to whichever market is the largest, ignoring the needs of the rest of the country (and our schoolchildren). As a result, the Texas state Board of Education chooses the classroom curriculum for history, and it is typically a politically-charged curriculum with a conservative slant that ignores or revises major portions of our history (I realize that I’m posting this on a conservative web site– but I think we can all agree that we need to bench our political agendas in the name of giving our children a more complete view of history).
Unfortunately, in this case, the problem is that the textbook companies are just doing what corporations in the free market do: seek profit. Nobody can fault them for this– but what, then, is the answer to our problem?