On a recent 13-minute drive home from baseball practice, my 15-year-old explained to me how World War I started.
Mind you, I knew the bit about Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand being assassinated by a Bosnian Serb but I couldn’t have told you why other countries started joining in like it was a brawl at an NHL game.
For most of us, information has a use-it-or-lose-it quality. If we’re not called on in daily life to remember who was president during the Spanish-American War, it might slip our minds.
What stays are concepts. How America’s founders enshrined freedom of speech, religion and the press in the Bill of Rights of the Constitution to protect minorities from the tyranny of the majority. That America came to England’s aid to defeat Hitler. How Martin Luther King Jr. and other Civil Rights leaders used non-violence to force this country to see the shamefulness of the Jim Crow system.
I bring this up because the Allentown School District is considering combining social studies with English in the sixth grade in order to free up time for more math, according to The Morning Call. The district’s math scores on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) tests drop off after elementary school, which puts it at odds with the federal No Child Left Behind law. The Allentown School Board could vote on the change April 26.
Combining the subjects might sound like it makes sense because so many works of literature can shed light on historical events: Have a class read “Animal Farm” to learn about communism or “To Kill a Mockingbird” to discuss segregation in the South.
But unless those classes are team-taught by an English teacher and a Social Studies teacher, one of the subjects will be slighted. Plus the time on these subjects would be cut in half.
Allentown is in a pickle. The regiment of high stakes standardized testing instituted by No Child Left Behind diminishes the importance of anything not on the PSSAs, including social studies.
While I was researching other efforts to combine social studies and English, I spoke to Corbin Moore, vice president of the Ohio Council for the Social Studies and a former history teacher.
Moore said he’s seen the combining of such subjects done successfully but only when they were team-taught.
“It can work, but my fear would be that social studies would get the short end of the stick like it usually does,” Moore said. “Pretty much what gets tested, gets taught. You talk about No Child Left Behind, well …social studies was the subject that got left behind.”
Here’s what gets lost: Creativity – one of the hardest talents to measure -- germinates in our frame of reference. Learning world history is key to expanding that.
Social studies helps us understand who we are as a country and what is worth saving. It reminds Americans from diverse backgrounds, ages and ethnicities of our common bond and shared rights and responsibilities. It teaches us what solutions to problems have – and have not – worked.
Perhaps a clergyman I know said it best: Science and math can tell us how to build gas chambers and opera houses. Social sciences like history teach us which one to build.
Let's recall for a moment what we were told about Iraq. The initial story did indeed state that Hussein had Weapons of Mass Destruction. Hussein played cute with the US and UN on the issue. Foreign intelligence reported WMD's. Our intelligence and military reported the same. Colin Powell reported WMD's in Iraq. Democrats and Republicans agreed and made comments that Hussein was a bad guy. Some still believe that one day these WMD's will appear. In short this was a real mess. Should we have gone into Iraq or wait until Iraq made the first move and in the process killed others. The Iraq War is not going to go down well in the history books. I prefer Washington's comments that we grow as a nation, stary strong, pick our friends carefully, and work with out enemies putting our republican form of government on display as often as we can. Beware of getting into bed with the wrong people. This does not mean that we should not give emergancy assistance and deal diplomatically with our enemies. And let me add that degrading out presidents, and i must admit I am guilty of same, is not the way to go. These men are as human as you and me and we should ask what we would do if found in the same position.
I agree with you whole heartedly. That will not stop side issues here because what I write and see from my perspective is different from Andrew's. Most time both parties end up learning something and that is a good thing. One thing to keep in mind that the PSSA test that our kids take does not have a history, geography or social studies test. Why is that?
You are correst as to what has gone on in the creation of Social Studies. That is why those of us who are familiar with this stew pot want it eliminated and a return to teaching history. When i started to teach in Bethlehem I taught English, my minor, because there were no openings for a history teacher, In my second year I taught geography, I finally started teaching history in my third year. At the time Bethlehem had a great history curriculum. Seventh graders had local, Bethlehem history their first semester and the history of the Commomwealth with a separate geography class. In 8th grade They went to the Civil War that for some reason was taught in 8th and 11th grades with 9th and 10th grades being World history and 12th grade was economics and government. Geography was eliminated as a separate discipline. Too bad. I found social studies to be a mistake because it appeared and still appers to be a problem for a lot of kids. Thus a watering down occurred. We need to rethink how we want to handle History.
Anyway, I stand by my earlier post, I don't think that our young military men and women should be going anywhere to fight unless American soil has come under attack. W was and is a liar, and in my view is responsible for war crimes. I'm a registered Republican by the way. What if the hundreds of billions of dollars, if not the trillions, spent to fight the Iraq war(s) were used for education? If not all for education, how about alternative energy research, or infrastructure improvement here at home? How much better off would we be? Instead all we have to show for the effort is thousands of killed or injured American service men and women and massive debt for the money that had to be printed to fund the fighting. Lastly, can you explain why we are not actively fighting in Africa if our foreign policy is to help out the oppressed all over the world?
Cannot say that I have seen the Freedom of Information material regarding an earlier war on Iraq. How were they going to do this? If I recall correctly reasons given at the time were that it was to finish the War that W 41 was in, a lot of folks never understood why he didn't do that, or the reason was oil. When it comes to sending our men into war I'd ask do we assist our allies as was the case in WW II. Personally I would like to see us not only out of Afghanistan but also out of Korea and out of Europe. European nations got rich under our nuclear umbrella. As to Africa, I believe we have troops in Uganda. I have not been a proponent of nation building from the day it was introduced in Vietnam. I believe in maintaining a strong nation.If you are not strong you will be captured and you will not have any of the items you mention. I believe we continue to negotiate and trade, if possible, with those who are willing to deal with us but may not like us. This will give us the opprrtunity to serve as an example of a free nation and people.and hopefully our example will cause others to want the same. I would also note that we do not give things away and I believe we need to put a tax/tariff on folks like the Chinese who want to trade here. As for the items you mention such as infra structure and education, I believe we should handle most of that at the local level and through the process of true capitalism. Want a solar panel business, raise your own funds.
You have defined a number of items that in turn open alot of doors containing lots of information. One could spend a lifetime on the history of the Jews in Europe and additional time on the banking suitation in Germany during the time after WW I
You know, a critical study of religion is also very rewarding. We haven't mentioned that yet, but religion is also one of the "social studies." I might begin a course in religion by asking students to define religion. (I think no one has yet done this successfully.) Then I'd explore the difference between political ideologies and religious ideologies. Then I'd examine the messianic dimensions in both, since both tend to say, "If you follow this program (Christianity, Judaism, socialism, democracy, etc.) properly it would bring about the messianic age. How do leaders use this sense of messianism to strengthen their following? What are major differences between western religion and religions of the east and why? How much should religion seek to motivate us to change the world and how much should it help us to accept it? Drop "social studies" and you also lose out on exploring these great questions.
You write above that you believe that matters of "infra-structure and education" should "mostly be handled at the local level." Can you explain what you mean by this? Roads? Curriculum? And why?
I am a supporter of no child left behind...it has a great message to build a stronger adult from education throughout their childhood. However, there is a lot of evidence it is not working as we had hoped. We are losing the battle...and once the education is gone, the ability to take charge becomes less of a threat.
I agree that we are in a bad place for the moment. I believe we can and will pull ourselves out of this ongoing mess
We have allowed our governments to get bigger, more intrusive and more expensive. If we put the local communities in charge and allowed the labarotory the Founders discussed I think we could do more with less because we did not send the money to Harrisburg and Washington where they can collect their portion and send some back to us. I also believe that teaching the history of one's area is a great place to introduce kids to the subject. How many youngsters in our are know that Easton was one of three communities where the Declaration of Independence was read. How many know that we have a state constitution as well as our Federal Constitution. Do they know what a township, county or other entity exists in the immediate area.Are they aware of a local cemetary where 20+ revolutionary war veterans are buried? As to local prejudices do you think they don't exist already in our area as well as our nation. My goodness just look at the mess and Sanford, FL
The Trouble with Scientism: Why history and the humanities are also a form of knowledge-- http://www.tnr.com/article/books-and-arts/magazine/103086/scientism-humanities-knowledge-theory-everything-arts-science?page=0,0