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<DIV>
<DIV>Idaho's State Department of Education has, with the help of local
districts, instituted a K-12 Social Studies Scope and Sequence curriculum that
is, I think, an excellent response to the state and federal push for
standards-based education. The alignment of core curricula to state
standards requires some conformity of curricula, but I don't think it's fair to
say that the curricula itself has conformity of thought as its goal. I
know from having worked with our district's curriculum and assessment director
as well as many of our teachers that MSD makes use of additional
resources and curricula that not only help keep us aligned with state standards,
but enhance the learning of our students. We have outstanding
teachers who have demonstrated their competence and creativity time and time
again. It's not my intention to get into a debate on the nature and
importance of epistemology, pedagogy, and the like, but I hope the
information is helpful.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>keely emerine mix</DIV>
<DIV>MSD school board trustee </DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>From:</B> <A
href="mailto:rik82@yahoo.com">Eric Martin</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A
href="mailto:vision2020@moscow.com">Vision 2020</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Tuesday, August 10, 2004 4:36
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: [Vision2020] RE: our history
books</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>Yes, quality history books are certainly available,<BR>even for
the k-12 audience, but they are rarely<BR>adopted by local school boards (when
they have such<BR>authority) or by state boards (such as Texas)
that<BR>provide a short list of approved text options for<BR>local districts
to select from. (I am not sure how it<BR>works in the Moscow Public
School system, so a little<BR>enlightenment would be helpful.)<BR><BR>There
are several reasons for this, but I would argue<BR>that the deciding factor is
that the purpose of<BR>history as it is taught at the k-12 level in
public<BR>schools across the U.S. has much more to do with<BR>shaping the
political/cultural identity<BR>(indoctrination?) of our children than it does
with<BR>teaching them how to detect, document & analyze change<BR>over
time. <BR><BR>Remember the charge the current second lady,
Lynn<BR>Cheney, led against the National History Standards<BR>Project back in
the 1990s? She had two basic<BR>complaints about the curriculum
developed by a large<BR>group of historians who had been funded by the NEH
and<BR>the U.S. Department of Education to improve the<BR>quality of
historical knowledge among U.S. students. <BR><BR>Her first problem with the
curriculum was that<BR>American students would spend too much time
learning<BR>about the rest of the world. <BR><BR>Her second problem was
that the curriculum did not<BR>present a narrative that duly emphasized the
themes of<BR>American progress and American exceptionalism. What<BR>Lynn
Cheney (and those she represented) want taught is<BR>national mythology but
they want to call it history.<BR><BR>Take a look at the title of your kids
history<BR>textbook & then compare that to the title of one of<BR>their
science textbooks. A science text titled The<BR>Rise of the Molecule
or Our Glorious Genes probably<BR>would not be taken very seriously.
<BR><BR>K-12 (& many college survey) textbooks usually present<BR>a
sanitized version of the past that reads like an<BR>encyclopedia. We
should not find it surprising that<BR>many of us find history boring and a
matter of<BR>memorizing dates, battles, and names. The current<BR>trend
towards more standardized testing is only<BR>reinforcing these
(mis)perceptions of history.<BR><BR>Additionally, because of their
encyclopedic nature<BR>history textbooks usually offer no argument/thesis
and<BR>no/little supporting evidence. This becomes<BR>problematic when
students are asked to write a<BR>research paper on a historical topic and they
have<BR>never been assigned a text that modeled the process<BR>for them.
I have taught college level history for 7<BR>years to mostly working class,
public school educated<BR>kids and most of them dont know how to
critically<BR>read a book (in addition to a near 100% geographic<BR>illiteracy
rate).<BR><BR>Why not provide history students with some primary<BR>sources, a
couple of differing historical<BR>interpretations (real books, presenting
historical<BR>arguments, with evidence to evaluate) and let them<BR>work it
out in the History Lab?<BR><BR>Well one problem with that method is that it
would<BR>mean actually having teachers in the class who were<BR>trained as
historians. The football coach teaching<BR>history may be a stereotype,
but I had several of<BR>them, as well as the basketball coach, and the
drill<BR>team instructor. Even with the best intentions a<BR>teacher with no
historical training who is required to<BR>teach a history course has little
choice but to teach<BR>the textbook and the text. <BR><BR>Although it
can be infuriating and repetitive at times<BR>James Loewens Lies My Teacher
Told Me provides a<BR>pretty good description of the problems facing
U.S.<BR>high school history education focusing particularly on<BR>the issue of
textbooks. History on Trial provides an<BR>account of the battle over the
National History<BR>Standards in the 1990s. And History Wars is
an<BR>account over the exhibition of the Smithsonians Enola<BR>Gay (dropped
the A-Bombs on Japan) exhibit and<BR>provides some good insight into the
political<BR>dimensions of historical education. <BR><BR>Cheers to all
the quality public ed. k-12 history<BR>teachers (trained or not) out there who
still manage<BR>to spark there students intellectual curiosity about<BR>the
past and the rest of the world. You are engaged<BR>in a most important
and mostly thankless task.<BR><BR>Thanks,<BR><BR>Eric
Martin<BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR>--- "Art Deco aka W. Fox" <<A
href="mailto:deco@moscow.com">deco@moscow.com</A>> wrote:<BR><BR>>
Bob,<BR>> <BR>> Perhaps you can provides some specific
observations<BR>> to illustrate your thesis.<BR>> <BR>> There have
been a number of books published which<BR>> seek to demythologize
American<BR>> History as presented to el-hi schoolers.<BR>> <BR>> I
for one would be interested in hearing your<BR>> concerns.<BR>> <BR>>
Wayne<BR>> <BR>> Wayne A. Fox<BR>> <A
href="mailto:waf@moscow.com">waf@moscow.com</A><BR>> PO Box 9421<BR>>
Moscow, ID 83843<BR>> 208 882-7975<BR>> <BR>> <BR>> ----- Original
Message ----- <BR>> From: "Robert Probasco" <<A
href="mailto:rcprobasco@fastmail.fm">rcprobasco@fastmail.fm</A>><BR>>
To: "'vision2020'" <<A
href="mailto:vision2020@moscow.com">vision2020@moscow.com</A>><BR>>
Sent: Tuesday, August 10, 2004 2:48 AM<BR>> Subject: [Vision2020] RE: our
history books<BR>> <BR>> <BR>> | -- <BR>> | Robert
Probasco<BR>> | <A
href="mailto:rcprobasco@fastmail.fm">rcprobasco@fastmail.fm</A><BR>>
|<BR>> | ----- Original message -----<BR>> | From: "Tom Hansen" <<A
href="mailto:thansen@moscow.com">thansen@moscow.com</A>><BR>> |
[snip] ... let's study our history books ....<BR>> [snip]<BR>>
|<BR>> | If we study only the history books used in<BR>> American
schools, we'll<BR>> | continue to be woefully ignorant consumers of
the<BR>> mass media. The<BR>> | sanitized version of history
produced by American<BR>> publishers is<BR>> | guaranteed to generate
naive questions like, "Why<BR>> do they hate us?"<BR>> |<BR>> | A
decade ago, I served on the Moscow public<BR>> schools textbook
selection<BR>> | committee for Social Studies. I was so
appalled<BR>> at the Pablum in those<BR>> | books I recommended none be
adopted. Naturally,<BR>> the chairwoman<BR>> | ramrodded her
choice through the committee. Six<BR>> months later, the<BR>> |
California school board rejected all submissions<BR>> from social
studies<BR>> | publishers as unworthy.<BR>> |<BR>> | I would
recommend each student acquire a World<BR>> Almanac so they can<BR>> |
reference basic facts and dates, then creative<BR>> assignments would
enable<BR>> | them to research and recreate historical events. <BR>>
They would gain an<BR>> | appreciation for the complex and
contradictory<BR>> events that led to the<BR>> | seminal events in the
historical (or is that<BR>> hysterical?) record.<BR>> | Bob
Probasco<BR>> |<BR>>
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