History And Civics Not Being Taught

Annie

Annie

Not So Junior Member
as they were when most of you were in school. My ties with the Center for Civic Education run deep. Back in 2001, I participated in a proposal through the Center for national standards and objectives. Social Studies Reviews accepted, later shot down by Education Departments and text book committees. Huge ongoing problem.

This is part of one that has its roots in the arguments between university departments of education and history. Revisionist history is considered 'truth' in education departments, history professors tend to disagree. They've yet been able to come up with standards and objectives in states, much less 'common core.' History professors by and large, find the texts in K-12 unacceptable, education departments disagree. For the record, history departments tend to be very liberal in staffing, that doesn't mean they ignore what happened at the time events occurred or the social norms for those events. Education departments are also dominated by progressives, they don't seem to have a problem with assigning modern norms to time periods where they just don't apply and they want the standards/objectives to reflect those beliefs.

For the last 15 years or so social studies, much less history are for the most part left off of standardized testing. Sooooo, the hours required have been dropping. Most high schools no longer include the tests of state and federal constitutions.

http://www.nationalreview.com/phi-b...pones-tests-us-history-and-civics-anne-d-neal


August 7, 2013 2:26 PM



NAEP 'Indefinitely Postpones' Tests of U.S. History and Civics
By Anne D. Neal


Haley Strauss of the Heartland Institute picks up on an important, overlooked development:

The National Assessment of Educational Progress exams in civics, U.S. history, and geography have been indefinitely postponed for fourth and twelfth graders. The Obama administration says this is due to a $6.8 million sequestration budget cut. The three exams will be replaced by a single, new test: Technology and Engineering Literacy.


“Without these tests, advocates for a richer civic education will not have any kind of test to use as leverage to get more civic education in the classrooms,” said John Hale, associate director at the Center for Civic Education.


Hale’s comment is right on for anyone who cares about civic and historical literacy. Strauss later points out that students often do very poorly on these tests — although those results are dispiriting, they can sometimes be used to goad administrators into reform.


The removal of the requirement is a one-two punch: It robs historical-literacy advocates of valuable evidence for our case at the same time that it signals to teachers and administrators that history and civics are just not taken seriously. Almost certainly, this will cause civic and historical education to decay even further than it has.
And that will hurt colleges, too. Already, college graduates demonstrate remarkable ignorance of U.S. history and government. Without up-to-date information on high school graduates’ civic illiteracy, it will be increasingly hard to convince the more than 80 percent of colleges and universities that do not require U.S. history or government to change their ways.
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Carlos Danger said:
60% of college graduating seniors can't score above a D in this area.
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If you've anyone you care about in K-12, suggest they contact the Center for Civic Education and have a teacher or two get involved. Lots of benefits for the teachers:

Intro: http://new.civiced.org/

Most important project, IMO: http://new.civiced.org/programs/wtp

I was always been able to supply my students with texts, free of charge. The results when they entered high school were amazing! They were light years ahead of their peers, kids that had 'C' from me, were moved to honors classes, regularly. It wasn't 'me' other than being a believer that what inspired the founders would inspire students.

I've been in the Regional and National Institutes. I've continued to participate in academic forums with the Center. Every summer I participate in local courses. Twice I've taught the locals.

Pass along to teachers:

http://new.civiced.org/wtp-the-program/professional-development

I don't have the time to read tonight and lots of things have changed in the past few years. When I went to national conference, the Center covered airfare, lodging, food and gave me over $800 worth of books for personal use, and $500 stipend. Yes, 3 weeks is a good bit of time out of one's summer, especially if one has young children. I was lucky, my kids were in high school, my mom was sick and living with us, along with my dad and 24 hour nurse. Those 3 weeks were a real break for me, a boon for my students and helped me to change how I approached civics.
 
Make the Federalist papers required reading. It's short. If they can't finish it they're pansies, and don't deserve to graduate. That will do wonders for constitutional literacy.
 
Panda Hugger said:
Make the Federalist papers required reading. It's short. If they can't finish it they're pansies, and don't deserve to graduate. That will do wonders for constitutional literacy.
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I've required some references to The Federalist and Anti-Federalists in both debates and research papers. That's a no brainer. The Center provided classroom copies of both when I attended.
 
Panda Hugger said:
Make the Federalist papers required reading. It's short. If they can't finish it they're pansies, and don't deserve to graduate. That will do wonders for constitutional literacy.
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"Common Sense" is short, the Federalist Papers? Not so much.
 
Clovis said:
Why not all three? That's a moderate amount of reading.
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Not for middle school. BTW, they did read all of "Common Sense." ;) That is short and we read it as a class. The Federalist and Anti-Federalists are not short, but huge on ideas and philosophy, indeed a mini-course on Western Civ.
 
Annie said:
Not for middle school. BTW, they did read all of "Common Sense." ;) That is short and we read it as a class. The Federalist and Anti-Federalists are not short, but huge on ideas and philosophy, indeed a mini-course on Western Civ.
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The Anti-Federalist papers are unpatriotic propaganda.
 
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