Wasn't sure where to post this, as there are education threads already started and it could fit in one of those.

Have you seen this article on What's Happened to Teaching History? by Phyllis Schlafly, March 12, 2008 about tests given to College Seniors on Civic Government and History??

The one given to the Brit's was just as bad..many of them don't know Robin Hood is fictional and Winston Churchill was real..


What's Happened to Teaching History? - CWN


Civic Literacy Report - 2007-2008 College Test Scores and Rankings

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Bobbi Clark
Covenant Member
Pinewood Pres. (PCA) Middleburg

When I kept Silent, My bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. Psalm 32:3

I have a few conjectures.

More children are have difficulty with reading comprehension. As children are more visual/image trained, the word/symbol part of the brain is underdeveloped.

Then, when reading comprehension becomes work, the children complain bitterly about the material being "too hard". Parents who don't want to listen to the endless complaints, in turn complain and campaign to have material in the classroom that isn't so hard for their children. Teachers and administration give in under the pressure.

Add to the mix a short school year and an emphasis on "hands-on" learning, the students are exposed to less and less material.

There could be another, more ideological issue at play. History education, especially in the public arena, is often in the hands of people who have some extremely odd perspectives about fact and truth. (Howard Zinn anyone?) Also, finding material to include in text books that is unoffensive to the "oppressed" is difficult. Therefore history textbooks have increasingly featured minor players from "oppressed" groups at the expense of white males. There is a lot of environmentalism worked in as well. (Did Winston Churchill recycle?)

If you think about it, Robin Hood was a good socialist so he would be taught and Winston Churchill was a white male so he gets dumped.

Sorry for the rant. Your post hit a teacher's nerve!

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~Carolyn Martinson~
Covenant Presbyterian - OPC (Baldwin, WI)
River Falls, WI

I would agree with the above, but what I've seen around her is a replacement of teaching history as a "story" and instead teaching it as a list of facts that are not connected.

Here's my favorite. One of the neighbor children came along with us on a homeschool field trip. I engaged the child in conversation about school, since he goes to the local public school, I was interested in what he was learning. He proudly announced that he had learned that Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin. When I asked him "what's a cotton gin" I got a blank stare. "well, when did Whitney invent the cotton gin." Another blank stare. He then proudly announced to me that he had learned this information for the upcoming PACT tests (standardized tests required for SC public school students).

What I want to know is what good is it to know facts, if you have no clue what they mean or when they happened?

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J Baldwin
Keowee Presbyterian Church, PCA
Pickens, SC
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” Luke 10:27

Check Out My Blog: http://reflectjoy.blogspot.com/

Carolyn;

it's okay, it hit my nerve as well..

Eli Whitney was black and did something neat. That's all the kid needs to know.

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Davidius
Husband of Emilia
Member: First Reformed Presbyterian Church of Durham (RPCNA) - Durham, NC
Student: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, German Literature and Classics

This may explain the old adage about Baptists being Methodists with shoes, and Presbyterians being Baptists who can read. To round out the adage, Lutherans might qualify as Presbyterians who drink to excess, and Episcopalians as Lutherans who know when to say when. - D.G. Hart

JBaldwin;

I agree.

So did you tell the boy so that he would know? Maybe even send a bill to the local school board for educating their students..

FWIW he was not black.

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Chris Poe--Attending Grace Community Baptist Church, Mandeville, LA

"There never was a man in the world without a creed. What is a creed? A creed is what you believe. What is a confession? It is a declaration of what you believe. That declaration may be oral or it may be committed to writing, but the creed is there either expressed or implied."—B.H. Carroll

I went to public school, too.

I guess the kid from the story and I are about on the same level: all I knew was that some guy named Eli Whitney had invented it!

You bring up a good point. Some people have memorized the fact that HTTP stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol, but they don't know what that means or what a protocol is.

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Curt Hayashida
member, Community Bible Church (Non-denominational)
Vallejo, CA

It sounds like he was learning some facts just to pass a test.

Teaching to the test...nothing more.

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Kevin
Far East
Deacon, Int'l Church

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Andrew Myers
Husband of Jessica, Father of Jackson, Katie and Samuel
Member, Presbyterian Reformed Church of Northern Virginia
Warrenton, VA USA
Editor, The Matthew Poole Project

"On land, at sea, at home, abroad, / I smoke my pipe and worship God." -- J.S. Bach

I wrote a paper in college that said that Eli Whitney caused the Civil War. (Let us see if any History dudes or dudettes can figure out why)

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Benjamin P. Glaser
Pittsburgh, PA
Fairmount ARP Church
Student of Theology
Pittsburgh Theological Seminary
Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary
My Blog

"Man's attempt to enter heaven on his own terms places him instead in hell." -- R.J. Rushdoony

Let's see, because the south no longer needed the north's textile manufacturers?

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David Morrow
Faith Community Church
Kansas City, MO
http://presupposetheism.blogspot.com

I learned that Abraham Lincoln was born in a log cabin that he built with his own hands.


I think Paul Bunyan (possible relation to John?) also settled the West with a real babe (the blue ox). Maybe he lived next to Johnny Appleseed, I don't know...

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Pergamum


"If a commission by an earthly king is considered a honor, how can a commission by a Heavenly King be considered a sacrifice?"
-- David Livingstone

I did give him a little history lesson.

Send a bill to the local school board? I like the idea, or maybe I could demand they refund my school taxes.

That's ok, the very fact he thought he was black means the public school is doing it's job.

In seventh grade our history teacher came in on the first day of school, closed the door and proceeded to tell us he was required to teach us from this new book. He held it up, and then proceeded to tell us that their are numerous things in this book that are wrong, but I'm required to teach it to you anyway. He then mentioned a few, such as the United States being a republic instead of a democracy &c. Then said he was prohibited from answering any questions but recommended we spend some time in the library studying history, then got up opened the door and started teaching the book.

I thank God for that man, I wish he would have taken a stronger stand - but he planted a seed. I tremble for today's children that are subjected to such abuse.

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Thomas Weddle
Member, Covenant Reformed Presbyterian Church
Evansville, Indiana

Good for that teacher. He was probably afraid to say much else.

I believe so. Of course, today, the teachers probably don't much else but revisionist history, so they don't know they are teaching mythology.