Tag Archive for 'history'

Oh Say Can You C.E.?

Published by Robert Pondiscio on November 17, 2009 in Education News. 6 Comments

A Missouri school district has run afoul of some parents for teaching children to identify when historical events occurred by the designations ”C.E.” (Common Era) and “B.C.E.” (Before Common Era) in addition to the traditional B.C. and A.D.   The numbers don’t change one way or the other.  It’s equally accurate to say Julius Caesar was murdered in 44 B.C. or 44 B.C.E.  Still, some parents in the Rockwood School District have objected to the use of C.E. and B.C.E,. which they see as a move toward secularization. 

In a post on his blog, District Superintendent Craig Larson argues that the schools aren’t favoring one over the other, but both have begun appearing in textbooks and other publications.  Students, he sensibly argues, need to be aware of both designations “so they are literate when they encounter either notation.”

The best advice we can give to social studies teachers is: Help students understand the dating systems they may encounter in whatever source document they may be using. Rockwood teachers do explain the origins and meaning of BC (Before Christ) and AD (Latin phrase, Anno Domini, meaning “in the year of our Lord”) as appropriate, so students understand why BC and AD are in use. We certainly realize that even in our global world, BC and AD are used as the primary dating system.

I’m not aware that C.E. and B.C.E have gained a lot of traction at the K-8 level, but Larson’s argument sounds right to me.  Kids should be familiar with both.

‘Scuse Me, Great Nations Comin’ Through!

Published by Robert Pondiscio on October 12, 2009 in Curriculum. 1 Comment

The Wall Street Journal notes the tradition of honoring Christopher Columbus for sailing the ocean blue in 1492 “is facing rougher seas than the Niña, Pinta and Santa Maria” and wonders if the holiday is in danger of sailing off the calendar. 

Columbus’ stature in elementary school classrooms has declined through the years.  The Associated Press notes “many teachers are trying to present a more balanced perspective of what happened after Columbus reached the Caribbean and the suffering of indigenous populations.” In Texas, the idea that Columbus “discovered America” is out.  Instead, 5th graders learn about the “Columbian Exchange” — the widespread exchange of people, plants, animals, goods, ideas and diseases that occurred after Columbus landed in the Americas.   Fourth graders at one Pennsylvania school held a mock trial and found the navigator guilty of thievery, the AP reports.  They sentenced him to life in prison.   “In their own verbiage, he was a bad guy,” said teacher Laurie Crawford.

Over at Jay Greene’s Blog, Jay points out that ”many of the new answers offered are at least as simplistic and historically false as the established answers they are meant to replace.”  Describing the people from whom Europeans confiscated lands as “Indigenous Peoples or First Nations” is inaccurate, since those people had previously confiscated it from earlier groups.  “You can’t just declare that history starts whenever it suits you,” Greene writes. 

These arguments aren’t going away anytime soon.  For a decidely arch take on the “Columbian Exchange,” here’s Randy Newman’s wry  ”The Great Nations of Europe.”

Columbus sailed for India, found Salvador instead.
He shook hands with some Indians and soon they all were dead.
They got TB and typhoid and athlete’s foot, diptheria and the flu,
‘Scuse me great nations comin’ through!

<a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=ua0pR06pevU">http://youtube.com/watch?v=ua0pR06pevU</a>

An Unhelpful Development

Published by Robert Pondiscio on July 15, 2009 in Curriculum, Education News and Opinion. 6 Comments

The persistent battles over school curriculum in Texas have turned into a debate over how much faith belongs in American history classrooms.  It’s an unhelpful development for anyone who wants to see kids get more history in school.

The Texas Board of Education is revising the state’s social studies curriculum, the Wall Street Journal reports.  “Three reviewers, appointed by social conservatives, have recommended revamping the K-12 curriculum to emphasize the roles of the Bible, the Christian faith and the civic virtue of religion in the study of American history”  reporter Stephanie Simon notes.  

The conservative reviewers say they believe that children must learn that America’s founding principles are biblical. For instance, they say the separation of powers set forth in the Constitution stems from a scriptural understanding of man’s fall and inherent sinfulness, or “radical depravity,” which means he can be governed only by an intricate system of checks and balances. The curriculum, they say, should clearly present Christianity as an overall force for good — and a key reason for American exceptionalism, the notion that the country stands above and apart.

Simon has more to say on the WSJ blog The Juggle, describing history class as “a new front [that] has opened in the curriculum culture wars.”  If so, it’s a most unwelcome and unhelpful one.  Core curriculum is already starved for oxygen in too many schools.  Fear that history is a stalking horse for religious instruction offers one more reason to downplay its importance, eliminate it from the school day, or reduce it to mere pabulum, as one commenter observes:

At this point, I don’t even care about the culture wars any more. I just wish the schools would teach a lot more history. My kids get so little history, and what they do get is mainly in the form of little nuggets of usually incorrect information. They do Columbus in October, Thanksgiving in November (and yes, they do mention God, and the kids color some pictures of Indians, usually in completely wrong attire, and that is about it). In January they learn that “Martin Luther King was a great man who got everybody together.” No mention of Jim Crow, no mention of civil disobediance, no mention of slavery. It is horrifying. My son just finished third grade and doesn’t know about slavery or the Civil War. What sense does Martin Luther King make if you don’t know about slavery? My sense is that the schools here are so scared they might offend someone, both conservatives and liberals, that they just don’t teach anything at all.”

Hard to disagree with that common sense perspective.  And even harder to see how emphasizing the “Christian character” of the U.S. is going to make secular teachers–or parents–more enthusiastic about teaching history.  It’s just what the effort to beef up core curriculum doesn’t need–turning history into the next “intelligent design” debate.

Mr. Holland’s Curriculum

Published by Robert Pondiscio on June 4, 2009 in No category. 0 Comments

Could a little Hollywood star power help further the cause of teaching history and civics? 

Actor Richard Dreyfuss has come up with a program he’s calling “The Dreyfuss Initiative” — a plan to create a civics curriculum and series mr-hollands-opusof videos “to engage, enlighten and empower students of all ages in an entertaining way.”  In an interview with the AP, Dreyfuss describes his project as “a nonprofit initiative to get K-12 grades back to civics, to give our children real-world knowledge and hopefully wisdom about how to run this complex governance system.” 

But Dreyfuss is loathe to use the c-word in describing his plan.   “Don’t call it ‘civics’ because ‘civics’ is easily the most boring word in America,” Dreyfuss says. “Call it what it is: political power.”

Channeling E.D. Hirsch, Dreyfuss tells the AP, “I stopped defining myself as an actor and I went to Oxford because I believe that America is a miracle.  And I think that there is nothing easier in the world than for us to lose this miracle and to be reduced to words on paper.”

Patriotism in the Age of Obama

Published by Robert Pondiscio on April 16, 2009 in No category. 5 Comments

Barack and Michele Obama seem to be exemplary parents, writes Checker Finn in the latest Gadfly.  But (and you knew there was a but coming) he wonders how the Obamas see the value of patriotism. ”How are their daughters being taught to view the United States?” he asks. ”More important, what examples are the Obamas setting for fifty million other American kids and their teachers and parents?”

Is America, in their eyes, ‘the last best hope’? A place that doesn’t always live up to its ideals but comes closer than anyplace else? A place worth defending from all enemies, foreign and domestic? And is that something they believe is important for grownups to impart to children? Or do they think it’s the proper role of parents and teachers to emphasize the country’s shortcomings?

Finn is not questioning Obama’s patriotism, but wondering aloud about where the post-Vietnam generation of leaders places patriotism in the pantheon of civic virtues.  It’s a provocative question with lingering resonance.

“When the country chose Barack Obama over John McCain, it opted for a member of that crowd and for the youth and change and energy that come with it,” Finn concludes.  “Well and good. The President certainly has his hands full on many fronts and one can only wish him well. Nobody expects him to be the national K-12 curriculum director, too. But he and his wife are inevitable role models. How he views America matters in a thousand ways, including–though surely not limited to–how our children and teachers will view it.”

Library of Congress on YouTube

Published by Robert Pondiscio on April 15, 2009 in Core Knowledge and Teaching. 2 Comments

The Library of Congress has begun putting portions of its vast audio and video collections on YouTube.  So far there are fewer than 100 videos–an eclectic collection including Thomas Edison kinetoscopic movies, oral histories of Pearl Harbor, and a documentary on the poetry of Langston Hughes.  But the potential certainly exists for this to be a terrific teaching resource.

 <a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=hnpItYHdP8Q&#038;feature">http://youtube.com/watch?v=hnpItYHdP8Q&#038;feature</a>

The Library of Congress also makes historic photographs available on Flickr.  Good stuff.

History Lessons Not Sticking

Published by Robert Pondiscio on March 9, 2009 in Curriculum and Education News. 3 Comments

A survey of 11-16 year olds in Britain shows that 60% are not familiar with the term ”Final Solution” – Nazi Germany’s plan to exterminate European Jews.  Despite the Holocaust being specified on the Britain’s national curriculum as a subject that students must be taught, only 37 percent knew that the Holocaust claimed the lives of six million Jews, with many drastically underestimating the death toll, reports the London Times.

Curriculum vs. Kumbaya

Published by Robert Pondiscio on February 27, 2009 in Core Knowledge and Curriculum. 16 Comments

If you want to promote tolerance and respect for Muslim students, perhaps teaching children something about Islam might help.  Teachers College has come out with a guide for teachers “designed to enhance understanding of Islam and promote tolerance of Muslim students.”  But EdWeek’s Mary Ann Zehr points out the guide ”gives only tangential treatment to religion in favor of focusing on the culture and identity of Muslims.”

The guide doesn’t discuss, for example, the five pillars of Islam, the significance of Ramadan, or the differences between Shiite and Sunni Muslims.  One of the most direct references to religion that I could find is a link to a survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life about the beliefs and practices of Muslims (search by “tradition”). But that survey tells you about as much about Islam as a religion as a survey of the beliefs and practices of Roman Catholics  in the United States tells you about Catholicism.

In contrast, the Core Knowledge Sequence introduces major world religions in the first grade.  In the fourth grade, the spread of Islam is examined along with Islamic art.  One of the lessons in the TC cycle asks students to examine and evaluate depictions of Muslims and Islam in the media.  Great idea.  Hard to do if you’re coming to the subject cold.  “There are still entrenched suspicions and profound misconceptions about Islam and Muslim culture,” the TC guide notes.  And there will continue to be unless you actually teach the subject.

“Black History is American History”

Published by Robert Pondiscio on February 19, 2009 in Education News. 1 Comment

Overlooked in Attorney General Eric Holder’s controversial ”nation of cowards” remarks yesterday:

We have to recognize that until black history is included in the standard curriculum in our schools and becomes a regular part of all our lives, it will be viewed as a novelty, relatively unimportant and not as weighty as so called ‘real’ American history.

Er, what standard curriculum, Mr. Attorney General?

Muy Estúpido

Published by Robert Pondiscio on February 11, 2009 in Curriculum and Education News. 6 Comments

Si usted puede leer esto, usted podrá comprender estudios sociales clase en esta escuela primaria de Wisconsin.  ¿Cómo se dice “well-intentioned nonsense” en español?

(Inclino el sombrero a Joanne Jacobs)