Posted on 08/30/2017 8:48:39 PM PDT by Fiji Hill
The fourth-grade tradition of building a California mission out of Popsicle sticks and sugar cubes is being pushed aside by the state as history lessons change to reflect all cultures and more accurately depict the past.
A new framework for the curriculum at K-12 public schools means less research into the floor plans of the mission at say San Juan Capistrano, and more time looking at what life was like for both the missionaries and the native people of California.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Gosh, will they teach the kiddies about the way the Spaniards made the Ohlones into their slaves?
That's gonna be a tough sell because it will be hard to fit into the "white anglo-saxons are evil" meme that they have been pushing for 40 years now.
Don’t remember “building a California mission out of Popsicle sticks and sugar cubes “ back in the late fifties California elementary schools.
Do remember that it was a significant subject of study.
In California, fourth graders were for decades assigned to choose one of the missions to be the subject of a written report or a project. If you meet a native Californian, ask him which mission he chose for his fourth grade mission project. Mine was Nuestra Señora de la Soledad in Monterey County.
In those days, we did written reports, and I still have mine. Nowadays, kids build models of the missions. But it looks like this wonderful educational practice is about to fall prey to political correctness..
When I was a 4th grader (in CA), we studied missions but didn’t build models. My kids did as 4th graders 25-30 years ago. I resented the way it was done because the teachers would send a note home about the project saying parents were supposed to be involved in this. My kid’s teacher can’t assign home work to me. Many parents were obviously heavily involved. Many looked like professional architectural models and some were wired with lights, moving doors, etc. I loved the shoe box, popsicle sticks, sugar cube ones that the kids had done themselves - I always made it a point to compliment those kids on their models. I’m happy to see this project ditched.
How about an altar made of sugar cubes, pipe cleaner figures around the altar (with one holding his arms up) and a pipe cleaner figure lying on top of the altar. Use red food coloring everywhere very liberally.
“It’s my Aztec project, teacher!”
Yes. It was always frustrating that so many parents did their kids projects. When our son had to do his mission project, His dad took him to the San Fernando Mission and he did his own model and report. We took comfort in knowing that the teacher KNEW when the parents did the projects.
Generations of teachers have been steeped in the "Progressive Education" approaches of John Dewey et al as well as educational fads like the "multiple intelligence theory" wheedled by Howard Gardner and his friends and followers. Nowadays, we can't just assign research papers--that only engages the student's "linguistic intelligence." We have to design projects that engage his "spatial intelligence," "body-kinestetic intelligence," "interpersonal intelligence," etc. So get out the popsicle sticks and the glue.
this is bizarre - My parents, myself, and my children all built missions in school
The next California generation will build miniature mosques.
Mine was also the broken down mission, Soledad
That was in 1966, fourth grade at an elementary school in Port Hueneme
They did away with teaching about our state in our 4th grade curriculum too. It was always a huge part of the 4th grade social studies curriculum. More common core nonsense.
Field trips to missions will also go away. The field trip to Mission San Gabriel Arcangel by my fourth grade class provided an exciting and powerful reinforcement to what we had learned about the California missions.
Not at all. The Spaniards were white Europeans, many of Goth or Visigoth decent. The family name Rodriguez, for example, means “Son of Roderick” and is as Germanic as Krupp or Schneider. It was not just Anglo Saxons that we’re the baddies you know.
Never had to construct a model of a mission. Toured the San Fernando Mission, though. They showed us Fr. Serra’s room. Made a big impression on me - showed me history was real.
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