new curriculum proposal for N.Carolina high schools completely cuts Founding Fathers

[emazur]

This sound like the kind of stuff G. Edward Griffin often talks about - I'll send him this article
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,584758,00.html?mep

As the North Carolina curriculum stands now, ninth-grade students take world history, 10th-graders study civics and economics and 11th-graders take U.S. history going back to the country's founding.

Under the proposed change, the ninth-graders would take a course called global studies, focusing in part on issues such as the environment. The 10th grade still would study civics and economics, but 11th-graders would take U.S. history only from 1877 onward.

[moostraks]

The problem is the way the whole curriculum is generally approached. There is only so much material that can be legitimately covered in a curriculum year, so it seems they are picking their battles.

I have a public high school history book and the amount of minutiae they cover is mind boggling. The more incidental details should have been covered by that point and you should be working more on a level of translating history into a modern application,imo. Instead they are still doing drill and kill over numerous details. By limiting the scope you can hope to focus their attention for the standardized tests. They even have highlights that state this will be on the test in many of the school editions.

They aren't teaching knowledge but those stupid tests. They aren't concerned with true academic achievement but whether the scores reflect a desired outcome. This method is because people wanted to hold the teachers accountable but really caused the demise of education because it makes the teacher beholden to the curriculum writers.

To have a legitimate gripe one needs to take the entire districts curriculum and establish how the subject is being taught over the years. Then show how they are failing to teach knowledge rather than having a knee jerk reaction because they are not covering what you feel is necessary. Present the argument as a matter of reworking the curriculum to meet the students emotional and intellectual growth rather than wanting to pile on more material and you will make better friends with the insiders (see: teachers).

fwiw...we homeschool...

[Southron]

There is an amazingly small amount of history being taught in in the NC government schools already.

Essentially, history has been replaced by social studies.

Students learn disjointed facts about other cultures that they have no way of applying to their lives and no ability to put it into context with their own history.


fwiw...we homeschool...

Nice work.

[moostraks]

There is an amazingly small amount of history being taught in in the NC government schools already.

Essentially, history has been replaced by social studies.

Students learn disjointed facts about other cultures that they have no way of applying to their lives and no ability to put it into context with their own history.

Both are necessary, imo. History is one facet of what brings about a current state of events. (Not saying you do, but the pressure is there)Parents are oftentimes more concerned their children can ramble off facts rather than whether than can understand them in context. So the subject should go hand in hand with the developmental age of the child's understanding as it expands with facts and nuances of culture explored segueing into modern application in the upper grades.

Having teachers with minimal commitment to the students also seems to be a problem. Teachers get one year in which to know the children, fill gaps, and have them testable for the next battery of information. This leaves room for a number of students to fall through the holes.

Having perused a number of curriculum provider's material through the years, there are various methods to achieve a specified result. The failure lies in a collision of a number of factors that a present in a government school and the various desires of the parents trying to be accomplished.

The best way to insure a child's education is to take responsibility for it.