Hopefully, we all took a moment yesterday to honor those who have fallen while serving under our nation’s flag. However, I wonder how many of our public school students can actually tell us what the meaning and significance of Memorial Day is? US History is too often a dreaded subject in the nation’s schools.
When I visit schools I see growing evidence that History has been relegated to a subject with less significance than at anytime during my 33-year public school career. Part of this trend can be attributed to the No Child Left Behind high-stakes testing that places math and English-language arts as the most prominent content areas.
We test students every year with fill-in-the-bubble standard tests in grades 2-11 in math and English. We only test in 8th and 11th grades for History-Social Science. Ten years of testing for math and English and two years of testing for History-Social Science. A long time ago I learned that we teach what we assess. If it is not assessed we do not teach it—and our students do not learn it.
In California, the grade eight test consists of 75 multiple-choice questions covering the cumulative body of knowledge covered from 6th-8th grades. This body of knowledge covers World History and Geography relative to Ancient Civilizations in grade six; World History and Geography in Medieval and Early Modern Times in seventh grade; and Unites States History and Geography Through our Growth and Conflict as a Nation in grade eight.
The grade 11 California Standards Test in History-Social Science consists of 60 multiple choice questions covering United States History and Geography through continuity and change in the 20th Century. The US Department of Education and NCLB do not require testing for History-Social Science.
In Santa Clara County 57.1 percent of the 2nd-11th grade students scored proficient or advanced in the California Standards Test in English-Language Arts and 53.5 percent scored proficient or advanced in mathematics in 2008. Of the 55,975 students in Santa Clara County who took the History-Social Science Content Standards Test in 8th and 11th grades only 47.8 percent scored proficient or advanced in 2008, less than a simple majority.
I think America, considering the reauthorization of No Child Left Behind Act, must refocus on what a true American education really is about. Yes, it is essential for all graduates to read, write, and perform mathematical problem solving on an equivalency to meeting world-class standards, yet my growing fear is US History, World History, and even Science are taking a back seat to literacy and numeracy (math) skills. Would national content standards help promote the importance of teaching US History?
Unfortunately, big business has turned these important dates in history to yet another profitable day for them. The media hasn’t helped educate the public on it either. God, what has happened to this country, and our schools? It is depressing to say the least.
Kids don’t know much about Memorial Day, the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Cinco De Mayo, Easter, or many others including Labor Day. Why? Because their parents don’t either! I watched this elderly Latino man get up in front of the Council and tell them we celebrate Cinco De Mayo because of Caesar Chavez. What?
When I was in high school, I never understood the importance of history. It wasn’t until I became an adult that I got it. It is sad to think youth today looks at these important events in our history as nothing more than another day off from school. I think parents as well as schools need to instill the importance of the history of these holidays in our kids today. Rather than rewarding ignorance with a day off from school, kids should have to do a report on what the holiday means, to ensure that they get it.
Kids don’t know about Memorial Day? One of my middle school students wrote in her journal the other day about how she and her family went to visit her grandfather’s grave. He was a WWII vet. It’s experiences like these and many other that are ingrained in the minds and memories of many students. They may not understand the significance now, but they soon will mature and remember these life lessons.