When I went through high school history, American History pretty much started at Plymouth Rock, said very little about the pacification of the West, and had the U.S. single-handedly winning both world wars. I think the pendulum has swung almost fully in the opposite direction these days. Maybe, just maybe, someday, our teaching of history will approach the truth.
Better not start talking about 'Creationism v Evolutionism' as taught in hundreds of American schools then....A 2012 Gallup survey reports:
"Forty-six percent of Americans believe in the creationist view that God created humans in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years. The prevalence of this creationist view of the origin of humans is essentially unchanged from 30 years ago, when Gallup first asked the question. About a third of Americans believe that humans evolved, but with God's guidance; 15% say humans evolved, but that God had no part in the process."
Nearly half the population of the world's most powerful country believe that? Whatever the facts according to Gallup, that's worrying in my opinion.
'I do not think we can hope for any better thing now.
We shall stick it out to the end, but we are getting weaker of course, and the end cannot be far.
It seems a pity, but I do not think I can write more. R. SCOTT.
Last Entry - For God's sake look after our people.'
In memory of Capt. Robert Falcon Scott, Edward Wilson, Henry Bowers, Lawrence Oates and Edgar Evans. South Pole Expedition, 30th March 1912.
Theres mistakes and then theres mistakes, but that is a huge historical gaff, not only on the part of the proof reader but the printer as well, both of whom are clearly clinically insane and should be committed to the nearest funny farm at the earliest possible opportunity
history is king
This is what happens when when History is collapsed into "social studies." Students don't even know the subject that they're not even being taught. Social studies is supposed to be composed of: anthropology, sociology, psychology (why? this is absurd), economics, political science, criminal justice, History, classics, civics... and probably a few more that I'm forgetting.by alexanderhistorical
It's ridiculous. We have (in the US) people who don't know the participants of the world wars. Who have no understanding of even the most basic principles of history. Like, why it's important, or even, what history is.
Teachers need to be intellectuals with a passion for their subject, not dumbasses who couldn't read a book to save their lives, or who who don't even pretend to care about history (a lot of the people in my master's program). I know many of you are on the conservative side, and hate to think of paying more in taxes for teachers, but how else can you get better applicants to these positions? When a salary starts off at 30,000.00 and requires extensive college education then you're practically guaranteed to be skimming from the bottom for applicants.
Of course, teachers have zero esteem in the US... not like they used to at least. The argument over whose fault this is is an important one, but not particularly relevant to discussing the sorry state of textbooks in India.
History is the crown jewel in the humanities' crown. The rest of this "social studies" crap can be put in second place where it belongs. Besides, any decent history teacher will include these things naturally, as most of them are offspring of the field of history.
I have never heard any French people say anything like that.
Or teach anything of the kind.
chris
I think Goebbels said "repeat a lie long enough and people will believe it.
As a former student of "social studies" I can fully vauch for this. It really was hard to follow, especially as a kid. Because they did it in chronological order you ended up with extremely complex concepts such as the war of 1812 being taught to 9 year olds. I don't even remember anything about it from that class. I don't think I knew the combatants of WWII until I got free reign on the Internet in about grade 7 or 8. At least here in Canada we also had various political ideas cast upon us as small children and told that these were facts. Luckily by the time I got to high school I was wiser and much less impressionable than that otherwise my crazy history teacher (who is outlined in my previous post) would have turned me into some sort of communist zealot as he did to some of my classmates.
Incase you can't tell, I really don't like the school system here in Canada.
James Watson wrote, "The rest of this "social studies" crap can be put in second place where it belongs" and several others have said essentially the same thing. And all of you are right. I taught, among other subjects, American history as an introductory course to college freshmen at San Jose State University in California. During the fourteen years I was there (1988-2002) I saw the level of general history knowledge among so-called high school graduates decline to a point of non-existence. The problem stems from the California liberal mind-set that the primary function of the public school system is to promote self-esteem. Given that primary mission, grades are not only unimportant, they are detrimental to a happy Id. Competition in any form is to be eliminated because it reveals to under achievers that they are---well, under achievers. No one must be allowed to fail or even appear to fail. And most certainly, no one must be made to feel anything less than average. In fact, we should strive to promote being average as the desirable norm. Grades have to be eliminated or equalized, the "playing field leveled." The result was that in any given freshman class, I could be sure that 1/3 of them would be gone before the semester mid-terms, 1/3 would wash-out sometime in their sophomore year, and 1/3 would more or less graduate. When I left the CSU (California State University) system in 2002, that liberal mind-set had become conventional wisdom in the CSU entire system. During my last year at SJSU, I was assigned to the Social Studies Department as a fill-in lecturer. I was told by the chairman in a perfectly sincere tone that the Department policy was that no student would receive less than a "C" grade for the course. I refused to fill the position. Dwight
I think you really hit the nail on the head there. I remember our teachers having a policy that they wouldn't give us under C either which meant that there were kids who hugely slacked off knowing they would get a passable Mark. I also find that the school system makes huge excuses for students. I remember kids being allowed to take "test aids" with the equations for math on them not the math test, and big surprise they all got 80s and 90s while I had to settle for a 70 or low 80 because I didn't have some bs doctors not that said I had ADHD. Well, actually I did have a doctors note saying I had a "learning disability" but I refused to use it because of principle alone. Perhaps grades wise it wasn't the best decision, but it definitely prepared me better for things outside of high school.
politics and pedagogy
I agree with everything you've said except for some of the parts about politics. I don't think the fact that we're not challenging students (at least in the right ways) has much to do with liberal versus conservative politics. I see it as being more to do with structural problems within schools and bureaucratic failure. We teach too much content. We emphasize breadth over depth. This leaves students with about 10 miles of information that's easily washed away because it's only 1 inch deep. As far as teachers that brainwash go- that's bad pedagogy too, and happens in both directions (left to right, right to left). I'm a firm believer in the idea that teachers shouldn't teach what to think but how to think. If we let teachers (and this requires hiring GOOD teachers) create their own professional curricula, instead of mandating that they cover the history of the entire world in 10 weeks, we would have students with more depth of knowledge in key areas, and less of this emphasis on breadth. This would leave students with better retention and *ghasp* perhaps even an interest in learning, instead of an association with learning being pointless.
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