Epic Fail In Historical Education! Very Important Details Are Missing In Proposed Curriculum
Education is one of the most talked-about topics in the news these days, especially with the government’s lead in trying to raise the United States’ ranking compared to other countries. Here on The Inquisitr, we reported numerous times on the government’s attempts to achieve their goal, as well as the people who see something sorid within the new programs. This includes the introduction of common core and how it it’s starting to be implemented into other curriculum such as physical education.
Now there are reports coming in about education that may annoy a lot of historians, history teachers, and people in general. Why? Apparently the new history curriculum is missing a lot of important facts and figures as well as changing some around.
In an article by Fox News, the new history curriculum standards proposed for top high school students leave out American icons such as Benjamin Franklin and Martin Luther King Jr., retell the colonists as bigots, and gloss over the Greatest Generation’s fight to save the world from the Nazis. That is all according to conservative education activists wanting the framework delayed, and possibly dismissed.
An open letter circulated throughout The College Board to delay the implementing new Advanced Placement U.S. history guidelines. The conservative education activists state that the curriculum will take the nation’s classrooms in a bad direction, in which it reads:
“The framework ignores the rise of democratic institutions such as the House of Burgesses and New England town meetings. It also omits the colonists’ growing commitment to religious freedom and the emergence of a pluralistic society that lacked an entrenched aristocracy.”
For one former public school teacher, what is missing is the mention of John Winthrop and his “City Upon a Hill” sermon as one of the key instances of American exceptionalism and references to Roger Williams pertaining to the creation of religious tolerance. Larry Krieger – another former public school teacher – had even more words to say about the proposed curriculum:
“And you’re not going to find Thomas Jefferson and the House of Burgesses and the cradle of democracy either. And finally, you’re not going to find Benjamin Franklin and the birth of American entrepreneurialism.
What you’re going to find is our nation’s founders portrayed as bigots who developed a belief in white superiority that was, in turn, derived from a strong belief in British racial and cultural superiority.”
The Blaze wrote an article too, in which they report Jane Robbins, an attorney with the American Principles Project, that education officials in seven states are reviewing the guidelines. In Texas, State Board of Education Member, Ken Mercer, asked last month to delay the new guidelines to determine if they are part of the controversial Common Core education standards. For those who didn’t know, Texas is one of the states that rejected Common Core.
What do you think about the proposed curriculum for history? Is it wrong to leave out key figures such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Benjamin Franklin? Or are certain figures and events really not important justifying their exclusion? Also, do you think this new curriculum may be part of Common Core? Let us know in the comments below.
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