Surprise, Mr. McCauley has — once again — twisted his underpants into a Gordian knot over something he never quite bothers to understand. His feigned outrage stems from a proposal in the N.C. school system that limits the teaching of American History in High School to post-1877. Oh no! How will our children learn about the Founding, the Constitution and Civil war? For McCauley, this is all an insidious plot by right-wing birthers to dumb down our children.
If McCauley had done any research — instead of his quasi-comic overreaction — he would have discovered that the state education officials in question yielded the proposal to the critics. But why were they trying to erase American history? What kind of Republican monster would do such a thing? What actually happened is that our schools are turning out hordes of students who have little knowledge of American History. ECU did a piece on the controversy in which one of their history professors explained that every year he quizzes his introductory students on American History and most fail the quiz. Granted, not all of his students are from N.C. public schools, but most are. So we have an educational problem, how do we solve it?
We cannot just throw more classes at these kids; obviously something is structurally wrong with history classes. These students who reportedly have little knowledge of history have already had years of history instruction in N.C. schools. What the N.C. officials tried to do was deepen students’ knowledge of the most recent period of American history — since 1877. In my experience with American history, my teachers never quite made it to the latter part of the 20th century. More in-depth knowledge from the 20th century is desperately needed. Frankly, in today’s society, which set of knowledge is more culturally and politically relevant: group A — John C. Calhoun, Louisiana Purchase, War of 182, Andrew Jackson, Trail of Tears — or group B — Stock Market Crash, Great Depression, Ronald Reagan, Iran Hostage Crisis, Cold War, Franklin Roosevelt, World War II, World War I, Vietnam War and Korean War? By my measure, group B is clearly the one that the average high school student, who wishes to engage in a global society, needs to understand best. This is the calculation that the N.C. school officials made. That is not to discount the importance of Group A, but with limited funds and time, they had to make a “Sophie’s Choice.”
Try asking twenty random high school students — or N.C. State students for that matter — questions concerning the Civil War and the Korean War. Most would be able to give you a broad overview of the Civil War touching on key points. Very few would be able to describe the causes of, events during and results of the Korean War. The key point being that — while it still resonates — the Civil War is over and technically speaking, the Korean conflict still hasn’t been resolved. That is why there is a de-militarized zone on the border between North and South Korea. Knowledge would also help explain the current tension between the U.S. and a pesky, nuclear North Korea.
Alas, the proposal to change the curriculum was DOA. N.C. will continue to produce students that have little knowledge of crucial recent events in American History that impact us every single day — the knowledge they might have is cursory at best. My suggestion is that American history in high school should start with the Civil War and that civics classes who already cover the Constitution should teach more in-depth about the Founding. Economics should be separated from Civics class and taught on its own, in a course that combines general economic principles and personal finance — a skill that many high school graduates sorely lack. Next time, instead of screaming your heads off over an issue you know little about, try doing some actual reasoning. It’s good for the soul.