History Shortchanged

Oh, the saga of low test scores in US schools. It's hardly a news story these days. Still, The New York Times, in response to the latest results of a nationwide test, found that most fourth graders are unable to say why Abraham Lincoln was an important figure and few high school seniors able to identify China as the North Korean ally that fought American troops during the Korean War. But, really, is that all too surprising? I am not so sure that most American adults could identify China as a North Korean ally in the 1950s, let alone, a crucial partner in the Korean War.

According to The Times' Sam Dillion, history advocates blame students’ poor showing on the 2002 No Child Left Behind Act. Teachers and schools no longer have time for history — No Child Left Behind Act, with its requirement that schools raise scores in math and reading but in no other subject, allow time for little else. And if you are not being taught history, it's unlikely that you'll test well.

But as this Reuters story from 1995 shows, student declines in history knowledge is far from new. In fact, the decline even predates 1995. Still, in The Times article, Linda K. Salvucci, a history professor in San Antonio and chairwoman-elect of the National Council for History Education, explains one of the big issues around teaching history.

“History is very much being shortchanged,” Salvucci explains. Many teacher-education programs, she said, also contribute to the problem by encouraging aspiring teachers to seek certification in social studies, rather than in history. “They think they’ll be more versatile, that they can teach civics, government, whatever,” she said in The Times. “But they’re not prepared to teach history.”

Source: The New York Times