The 6th rule of Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals is:
Education – Take control of what people read and listen to – take control of what children learn in school.
Americans have ben waking up to the
threat posed by Common Core as a means of control over K-12 curricula. OhioansAgainst Common Core are working to get our state legislators to reject it, as
just happened in our neighbor state of Indiana. Bravo Indiana!
As bad as Common Core is, there is
another threat that is just as destructive: it's a frightening change in the College
Board’s Advanced Placement U.S. history course. From Heartland.org:
A dramatic, unilateral change is taking place
in the content of the College Board’s Advanced Placement U.S. history course.
In fall 2014, almost half a million high school sophomores and juniors will
learn a very different version of U.S. history from the course of study now in
place. Currently, a five-page topical outline gives teachers clear guideline
for their course. This long-established outline conforms to the sequence of
topics state and local boards of education have approved. In contrast, the new,
redesigned Framework is a detailed 98-page document that does far more than list required
topics.
This change in format is best described as a
curricular coup that sets a number of dangerous precedents. By providing a
detailed course of study that defines, discusses, and interprets “the required
knowledge of each period,” the College Board has in effect supplanted local and
state curriculum by unilaterally assuming the authority to prioritize historic
topics. This inevitably means that some topics will be magnified in importance
while others will be minimized or even omitted. If concerned parents,
educators, and elected public officials do not speak out, the College Board
(led by David Coleman, generally considered the architect of the Common Core
national standards) will continue to develop similar frameworks for its 33
other Advanced Placement (AP) courses and thus become an unelected de facto legislature for America’s public and
private high schools.
Frowning at American History
The new Framework inculcates a consistently
negative view of American culture. For example, the units on colonial America
stress the development of a “rigid racial hierarchy” and a “strong belief in
British racial and cultural superiority.” The Framework ignores the United
States’ founding principles and their influence in inspiring the spread of
democracy and galvanizing the movement to abolish slavery. The Framework
continues this theme by reinterpreting Manifest Destiny—rather than a belief
that America has a mission to spread democracy and new technologies across the
continent, the Framework teaches that it “was built on a belief in white racial
superiority and a sense of American cultural superiority.”
The units on colonial America focus
unbalanced attention on the conflicts between the colonists and Native
Americans. While students will learn about the Beaver Wars, Chickasaw Wars, and
King Philip’s War, they will learn little or nothing about the rise of
religious toleration, the development of democratic institutions, and the
emergence of a society that included a rich mix of ethnic groups.
A particularly troubling failure of the
Framework is its dismissal of the Declaration of Independence and the
principles so eloquently expressed there. The Framework’s entire discussion of
this seminal document consists of just one phrase in one sentence: “The
colonists’ belief in the superiority of republican self-government based on the
natural rights of the people found its clearest American expression in Thomas
Paine’s Common Sense and in the Declaration of
Independence.” The Framework thus ignores the philosophical underpinnings of
the Declaration and the willingness of the signers to pledge “our lives, our
fortunes, and our sacred honor” to the cause of freedom.
Ignoring Cultural Giants
The Framework also sidesteps any discussion
of the personalities and achievements of American giants whose courage and
conviction helped build our country. It excises Benjamin Franklin, James
Madison, and the other founders from the United States’ story. George
Washington’s historical contributions are reduced to a brief sentence fragment
noting his Farewell Address. Two pages later, the Framework grants teachers the
flexibility to discuss the architecture of Spanish missions, which presumably
merits more attention than the heroes of 1776.
The Framework consistently highlights
negative events while ignoring positive achievements. For example, although it
does not mention the sacrifices U.S. civilians and armed forces made to defeat
fascism, it does recommend that teachers focus on “[w]artime experiences, such
as the internment of Japanese Americans, challenges to civil liberties, debates
over race and segregation, and the decision to drop the atomic bomb [which]
raised questions about American values.”
AP U.S. History should give students a
balanced curriculum that acknowledges both America’s founding principles and
its continuing struggles to be faithful to those principles. Instead, the new
College Board Framework seems determined to create a cynical generation of what
it calls “apprentice historians.” Is this really what we want our children to
learn about America’s history?
The AP US History Framework is not a fait accompli. There is still time for parents,
educators and public officials to closely scrutinize it and then demand a new
curriculum that does not trump state curricular requirements with warmed-over
political correctness.
Another topic to discuss with your legislators at Bring Your Legislator To Class Day on April 9.
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