Posted on 05/06/2023 4:45:28 AM PDT by george76
This week, history and civics scores across the nation plummeted to record lows among eighth graders. Just 13% of students performed at or above the “proficient” level in U.S. history. It is the latest appalling report on our declining educational system — a matter that should be treated as a national crisis of literally historic proportions. As discussed in prior columns, we are graduating students from high school who cannot proficiently read or do math. School districts have responded by solving the problem by simply lowering standards and eliminating gifted programs. Now we are producing citizens who know little about our history or our values.
The decline has been blamed on the pandemic, though these declines have long plagued our public schools. Nevertheless, the lockdowns had a profound impact on the psychological and intellectual development of our students. While other countries refused to shutdown their schools or go to virtual classrooms, the school districts and teacher unions pushed for closures. In Europe, countries cited ample scientific evidence refuting the need to close schools. However, experts in this country were banned from social media and attacked in the press for raising these studies. The National Education Association and teacher union leaders supported censorship during this period.
What is even more maddening is to hear those who opposed reopening schools, like Randi Weingarten, now insisting that they were really pushing for keeping schools open despite their public statements to the contrary. As the costs of this disastrous decision mount, suddenly no one in education or the media was opposed to in-person classes.
Putting those decisions aside, the drop in scores also reflects a deemphasis on civics and history over the last decade as other subjects have been given greater priority. I have watched with growing alarm the lessons given to my own children in public schools. History often seemed a vehicle for making political or social commentary.
I have been a huge supporter of public schools my whole life. While my parents could afford private schools, they helped form a group to keep white families in the public school system in Chicago in the 1960s and 1970s. They wanted their kids to be part of a diverse school environment. I also sent my kids to public schools for the same reason. I view our public schools as important parts of our society as we shape future citizens.
Now our educational system is dropping in history and civics scores as well as math and English. We are failing our children across the board and undermining a rising generation of citizens. Yet, we are likely to see just another shrug followed by some mumbling about the pandemic. There will also likely be demands for more money despite the unbroken record of failure in many of our public school districts.
These scores once again show how educators and unions are killing public education in this country. They continue to treat families as virtual captives rather than respond to these demands for competence and accountability. Many are voting with their feet and leaving public schools in jurisdictions allowing vouchers or other options.
The drop in civics scores may be even more alarming than the declines in math and English. We can train people for jobs in this new economy. It is far more difficult to shape citizens who have never been taught about the underlying struggle and values that define this nation.
James Madison is often quoted for his statement that “a popular government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy; or, perhaps both.” What is not widely known is that Madison made that statement in response to a letter from William Taylor Barry, a Kentuckian who wrote him about the effort to create primary and secondary educational programs in his state. Information remains the paramount value in public education as well as the transparency needed to secure it.
In the same way, the farce that is our current educational system is producing a generation of historically illiterate citizens. That can only be a tragedy in the making.
History is certainly not that detailed. While history may account for the structures your grandfather built, it certainly doesn’t contain day-to-day construction or contract details. We know Thomas Jefferson’s contribution to our Nation, but we don’t know his brand of toilet paper.
It makes you think out of the box a little bit and not linearly along the equation in front of you -
1/3 “of THIS thing” = 1/6 “of THAT other thing”.
I do think the triangle thing is just an ok example. My preferred example would use numbers.
I went to a ONE ROOM SCHOOL.
I treasure that education
At a third grade level I think it is good to say that 2/6 is equal to 1/3. And this can be easily shown with manipulatives. And then simplifying fractions as a numerical operation is an easy follow-on.
But young people who are just learning fractions, and who are too young to really handle abstract concepts, should NOT be taught that 1/6 is equal to 1/3. At that level, it is simply an incorrect statement. Sure, you can twist your head around and say, well, under the following circumstances, sure, I guess I can see why 1/6 might be equal to 1/3 ... But that sort of “clever” thinking isn’t a good way to introduce a fundamental concept to little kids.
I think that approach really leads into (and I think this is somewhat intentional) the thinking that “anything is true” is you just think about it the right way. Your Truth may not be My Truth, but both are true, because, hey, if you think about it the way I think about it, then I’m just right.
Certain people want that mentality to be endemic in society. And saying that 1/6 is equal to 1/3 is a step in that direction.
Great one. The young people are in for a great big surprise on May 11th when they see 300,000 job applicants wading across the Rio Grande. All those “student loans” they want the taxpayers to pay for will prove out to be a giant waste of other people’s money.
They may not know anything about American and World History but I’ll betcha they are whizzes in black history - much of which is fiction.
Massive political corruption—omitted from the biographies of all key players—is not a “detail”.
It is central and critical to understand who they were, what motivated them and their (lack of) moral values.
If that is not valid “history” nothing is.
If it is Illinois or Italy there is no reason to dwell on it—just as we know that aspiring rappers are gonna rap—but I agree that high and mighty sons of Puritans need taking down a peg or two.
They need Deliverance.
Voting means nothing if the corrupt politicians can successfully hide their dirty deeds.
There can be no informed consent in such an environment.
They aren’t taught
Not for awhile
0
The beauty of the places I note is that there was no need to hide dirty deeds, and no pretense of doing so. Illinois gave us the wonderful definition of an honest politician: an honest politician is one who, when bought, stays bought.
OK. We don’t know anything at all.
"Polish children need only to be educated enough to read and write a simple letter, count to 500 and, above all, to obey their German masters."
- Heinrich Himmler, 1940
There is nothing new under the sun.
At school we “know” a lot—the problem is that a large chunk of it is false.
My Ph.D. is in Economic History (Cliometrics). If you want to know anything about the internal rate of return on Parliamentary Land Enclosures in 18th Century England, I’m your man!
I do not believe in study questions. The frat/sorority houses will already have a file on you...they don’t need any more help. I believe any crutch offered to a student is almost always unnecessary.
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