Tag Archives: republican
Social Studies Curriculum & the Educational Crisis In Texas
You’re probably aware of the controversy over the recent Texas School Board vote to adopt new Social Studies Curriculum standards. The board has decided to ignore the recommendations of university-level academics, teachers and publishers and exclude or marginalize key figures such as Thomas Jefferson and even the term slavery from textbooks. State legislators such as Barbara Cargill, R-The Woodlands, say they are “proud to have their name” on these standards.
As a former classroom educator who taught social studies in Texas, I’m very disappointed by this and other actions by leaders in education. For those unaware, Texas ranks #46 in verbal SAT scores and according to the Dallas Morning News, 40% of Texas students that graduate from high schools need remedial reading, math and/or science classes.
There is a true educational crisis going on and I see very little evidence that our leaders understand the issues facing our students. The immediate response is to toughen standards and while this sounds logical for some, I don’t believe that it will address the real problems many of our students face. I remember when I was high school student in Texas over 20 years ago. I was fortunate to have supportive family that expected nothing but academic success. So, I managed to excel.
It wasn’t until I got to college that I realized how much had been left out of the history books. I discovered what were for me, life changing books such as the autobiography of Malcolm X and WEB Dubois’ The Souls of Black Folk. These works and the people that made them gave me inspiration and a passion for history. They helped me understand that the experiences and thoughts that I had were not just unique to me. I belonged in a continuum of history and that black folks were integral to the development of American society not only as labor but intellectually as well.
The issue facing the educational system is not about raising test scores. In fact, all of the high school graduates that enter college in Texas, have actually passed the TAKS test and yet 40% of them are not college ready. The true issue students face is a lack of engagement. We live in a fundamentally different society today. Through technology, students have access to sophisticated tools and information. When we omit vital historical figures and well proven concepts, we further erode students inherent trust in the educational system. Some of our educational leaders are promoting a world view where actual facts don’t matter.
Is education about empowerment or control? That is the question with which our leaders need to grapple. If you believe the former, you look for content that will provoke your students to think and act. Let’s say your students are into sports. You might use that as a launching point for them to understand history by studying figures like Jackie Robinson. Once you get students engaged, you can cultivate higher level thinking skills such as synthesis and evaluation. You can also connect them to more core curriculum objectives within a context they can appreciate and embrace. After all, that is what standardized test are supposed to evaluate – the ability to think critically or take information and employ it in a useful way.
According to the US Census, Hispanics and African Americans will be the majority of citizens in Texas in just 4 years. In fact, these groups already make up the majority of students in our public schools. The Texas school board is accountable for these students’ successes and failures. Removing mentions of fundamental concepts like slavery and ethnic historical figures like Cesar Chavez is ultimately not in their own best interest.
In the age of the Internet, it’s unreasonable to pretend that students can’t find out about these things. Students aren’t engaged because on an inherent level they don’t see what they are being taught as legitimate. They may not be able to verbalize it but this feeling of disenfranchisement has permeated throughout many of the schools I visit across the state. If 40% of Texas high school graduates are more or less illiterate, not to mention those that don’t even make it that far, what does that portend for our future tax base? Our social fabric?
These are some of the real questions we need to answer. In our current economic climate, we need innovation and entrepreneurship more than any time in recent American history. Nothing happens in a vacuum. Every significant advance of business or scientific concepts that I’ve studied are based on fundamental understandings of what happened before. When we ignore facts and history in favor of partisan half truths, we stifle innovation in favor of control. That doesn’t sound very American to me.