It's not a partisan issue, it's about teaching facts *Petition link
Submitted by Nina Kilbride on Fri, 02/05/2010 - 2:38pm
Liberal or Conservative, if you think that high school students should learn the facts of our history, please sign the online petition created by Dr. Holly Brewer and me.
Seems you've gone off half-cocked
both with your original post and with this petition.
No?
Do good. Be nice. Have fun.
Sen. Basnight, Sen.P. Berger
Sen. Basnight, Sen.P. Berger and Gov. Perdue apparently don't think so.
Just because they're all idiots
doesn't mean we have to be too.
Do good. Be nice. Have fun.
Have you read the entire curriculum?
No one could learn history under the rubric, IMO. If you are going on just what I or anyone else says, read the curriculum first.
A good suggestion
but that would be like me reading a manual on rebuilding a carburetor or brain surgery. I tend to trust teachers and professionals hired to manage the institutions they're responsible for. Sometimes that trust is betrayed, but mostly not.
(Truth is, the trust is more often betrayed when god gets involved.)
I also don't know what all the pressures schools are facing these days. There's a lot to be learned and there's no way to cover it all, is there? Especially with so much emphasis on test scores. Are US history questions on standardized tests?
Isn't it all a matter of trade-offs? Memorize stuff, learn to think. Teach to the test, learn to think. Prepare to be a worker, learn to think.
Do good. Be nice. Have fun.
If you trust teachers then
If you trust teachers then James please trust me. I've got over 20 years in the classroom teaching history. I've got a degree in History, and masters in middle school social studies and am National Board Certified. I'm not trying to brag just show that I'm not shooting from the hip. DPI is way out on a limb here and I'm not just talking about the US History issue but the entire curriculum proposals for K-12. They were suppose to transition from "goals and objectives" to "essential standards" and just went way over the top. They are trying to fix something that at most needs some fine turning not an overhaul.
Higher order thinking skills are something every decent teacher shoots for every day but you don't just pull that out of thin air. You have to work from a base of knowledge. As we build the base the concept of a global perspective will make sense and creativity and understanding will emerge. With a poor base of knowledge it's all just a jumbled bunch of information that doesn't fit together. Unfortunately if DPI doesn't back track a great deal that is what we are going to end up with.
I'm a moderate Democrat.
Thank you
Very well said and clear as far as it goes. What can we do? How can I help?
Do good. Be nice. Have fun.
disagree
the curriculum is so paltry regular folks can see it, which is why 8500 people joined my facebook group in 10 days.
Nina, my (main) problem with
the way this issue has been presented is the wide acceptance of falsehoods. The mantra has been, "No U.S. History prior to 1877 will be taught in high school", but that's not true, is it? 10th Grade students will be taught about the Founding Fathers and the Constitution, but you and Holly didn't tell us that, you told us this:
And you've got 7,522 members in your Facebook group because of that incorrect or at least misleading declaration.
You may be correct that this is not a partisan issue, but it will have political ramifications, for sure. The Democratic Party is in charge, and those who are upset about this will blame it on Democrats. Republican candidates and pundits have already added this to their arsenal of misinformation, and you can bet it will bring them some votes.
The new curriculum may very well have an overall negative impact on learning, and it should be scrutinized closely. But making it more of a "hot button" issue by promoting falsehoods ain't the way to go about it.
did you read the curriculum-it's not difficult to do?
I see how my quote up there missed the word "high", but read the material rather than my opinion. DPI says it can't wait to get that proposal off the internet, but maybe you can see what we are dealing with here before they do.
And as to being concerned more about the party than the education of citizens, I refer you to "Can Democrats learn from 1976? " from Monday blog. Party loyalty must be earned. Democratic political leaders showed concern and support for my group's goals, even if they were ahead of some liberal media and public opinion. Whose fault is it that Fox picked this up first, or that moderate news outlets treated it like a nutjob conservative issue? By and large, anyone who actually clicks on what the DPI puts out there is concerned about the quality of the work product.
There are a lot of curriculum experts on my facebook group, "history did not begin in 1877!" See what they say. We may need a new name, I hope!!
I read most of it,
but I'm not a teacher, so some of the problems you folks see wouldn't necessarily jump out at me. I was a history major (Campbell University), so I have a good idea of the difficulty involved when trying to cover extensive time periods in one semester.
I'll tell you what I have been studying for the last few years, though: The publications and agendas of the John Locke Foundation. And when I see a college professor doing Carolina Journal radio interviews, giving speeches at JLF luncheons and joining their Faculty Affiliate Network, it raises some serious questions in my mind about said professor's politics and ideology.
But don't take my word for it. Read their blog and decide for yourself.
uncomfortable bedfellows
Understand where you are coming from here. But plenty of Regular People Who Vote care about this issue and flaws jumped out at them. Red, blue, green and purple. I think Democrats should have been able to spot this issue earlier based on the pulse of the constituency, as this is a battle NC history educators (some quite liberal) have fought for years. Locke certainly has some professors in its ranks, but this history issue has been driven for years by Dr. Holly Brewer and associates. Go check out her credentials.
I have, and Dr. Brewer
knows her stuff. I especially like the way she drills deeper and explores the way people thought, and not just what they did. It brings history to life. Which makes it even more frustrating that she would affiliate with JLF, an organization that uses history merely as a tool to promote their vision of what government should be.
!She is not affiliated with JLF at all!
My point is, people who don't agree on anything else agree on teaching history as fact. Now, as long as we have enough players who don't think like JLF and who are qualified to and capable of calling BS on brainwashing attempts by crazies, I think we can respect each other and work together for a cause that we all believe in: REAL HISTORY EDUCATION for people who will vote and run the country some day.
Instant TV for History Buffs and Political Idiots?
Liberal or Conservative, if you think that high school students should learn the facts of our history, please sign the online petition created by Dr. Holly Brewer and me.*Nina Kilbride's
You would be better off with a petition that said " All middle, high school students would be require to watch the History Channels all day long while on School property for one year." That includes the Teachers who would be required to watch all C-Span's all day long while on School property,until they fiqure out that the terms " Liberal" and "Conservative" were simply political Newspeak or Orwellian terms invented to confuse one about their individual liberties with governments that divide the masses......
The lack of a comprehensive
The lack of a comprehensive North Carolina History course at the middle school level is also a great concern that needs to be addressed. It has been moved to seventh grade and greatly watered down. The eighth grade curriculum as proposed would be a vague global perspectives combination of NC/US/World studies beginning around 1950 ro 1970 depending on where you read in the draft. We would be much better off creating a two year survey course in NC/US history beginning in the 7th grade. This would provide enough instructional time to cover in detail our history beginning with the early explorers and going up to the present. The global outlook could be easily addressed by folding those goals into the curriculum. I hope Kibride and Brewer will take note of these problems occurring at the middle school level as well.
I'm a moderate Democrat.
Thanks for the input
we are working on comprehensive proposals. The whole social studies curriculum is going back to the drawing board, per DPI. The 1877 history course was just the most obvious problem with the DPI curriculum process and an excellent rallying point for individuals. We are working to follow through on this preliminary success.
you hit a nerve for me!!
I am in LOVE with NC history. I think it gets short shrift in national history. I think a deeper knowledge of NC history, particularly antebellum history, is instructive on most early american themes. My bias is THIS is the cradle of the Revolution, the original place where settlers went to escape the reach of English politics that tainted the colonies, and the place where early free-thinkers came. Many left in droves before the civil war because of the complicated issues leading up to it in a state as divided as NC. So I hope that we get a little more NC, particularly since so many students and families are new here. Plus the law requires it. NCGS 115C(b1).
I don't think the DPI
I don't think the DPI proposals met the requirements of 115C(b1)which is something I worked hard to get passed 10 years ago. It called for one year of NC history and geography in the elementary and the middle grades. What they proposed was a combined NC/US course that did not completely cover the states' history or geography.
Twenty years ago there was no clarity of instruction because of a vague curriculum product from DPI. Even within the same school you would find some teachers teaching US history, some NC history and some a combination. That got straightened out and now throughout the state instruction is in NC history as a model that serves to teach about our nation's history.
Additionally NC history should stay at the 8th grade level unless they plan on creating a two part course starting in the 7th grade. If they did that it would make it much easier to completely cover the entire history of our state.
On a side note, if anyone wants to take a look at an individual from the antebellum period that exemplifies the contradictions and complexities of life in NC during that time look into Milton cabinetmaker Thomas Day, especially since it's black history month!
I'm a moderate Democrat.
I wonder about "current events"
I wonder how our High School kids would do on this little current events quiz (it might be a bit of a lean-right site...got it via email).
Take the quiz. It is interesting.
2%
Got 'em all right! Which only goes to show my brain is full of trivial facts that no one really needs to know.
J
PS The Pew Center is a reputable organization, though the questions were very oddly phrased.
Do good. Be nice. Have fun.
I missed two
I still think I am a "smart fart", though :)
Current events are important
But the first DPI proposal focused on current events to the exclusion of history (oversimplification). Since we are in the re-draft stage now, do you have ideas as to how we can make history instruction relevant to current events without shorting either? This is hard work, and I understand that the DPI has more masters than it can serve, so ideas from others can only be a good thing.
Don't take my word for it.
Read the proposal - carefully. Then read the proposals for the places where the DPI says it will teach pre-1877 us history. Note that "Facts" are dismissed as an objective.
click resources at: http://realhistoryreform.org to view the proposal, plus the blue-ribbon report as to why this change is proposed.
Again, thanks
Thanks for the link, Nina.
DPI withdraws proposal
A little grassroots work does something once in a while! Now if we can keep Fox from claiming victory, as this issue was driven by people of all political stripes who think history education is vital to a healthy body politic. Dr. Brewer is working on curriculum proposals, along with other experts. Maybe the DPI will take advantage of them this time instead of dismissing them as "laypersons."