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Uneasy Standards in History
In February, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute released an extensive review of changes in US History standards at the K-12 level since 2003. What they found was a crisis across the nation in US history education. The authors of the report, Sheldon and Jeremy Stern, observe, "As this report makes clear, today's crisis in U.S. history is fed by most states' indifference to this subject, demonstrated by the dismal condition of the academic standards they're using for schools, teachers, and students." Last August, ACTA released an expansion of the WhatWillTheyLearn project, with a similarly alarming finding: less than 20% of the 716 colleges and universities reviewed require a broad survey class in US government or history. The Fordham report quotes Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David McCullough echoing our common concern:
I don't think there's any question whatsoever that the students in our institutions of higher education have less grasp, less understanding, less knowledge of American history than ever before. I think we are raising a generation of young Americans who are, to a very large degree, historically illiterate.
Can a historically illiterate generation maintain a free society? Our Founders knew better. Let's take the advice of Thomas Jefferson who said, "Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty."
Posted by Jose Herrera on March 01, 2011 at March 1, 2011 10:10 AM
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