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The Desk.
A Dignified Countenance, and a little bit of Soul.
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Apparently, as of 2003, the state of North Carolina no longer feels it necessary to teach the American Revolution in 11th grade American History class. Here's the email I sent to the head of curriculum for North Carolina's Department of Public Instruction, as well as the consultants in that department's office for secondary social studies regarding my concern:
"My name is Evan Watson. I am an honors student in the Watson School of Education at UNC Wilmington. I am majoring in history and on track for a secondary social studies teaching license.
Upon examining the Standard Course of Study for the high school social studies classes, I was deeply concerned with the SCOS for 11th grade US History, particularly the fact that there is no mention of what happened up to and including the Revolution, or any events prior to 1789. The course introduction even states that American history is to start with the Washington administration. Needless to say, that is ridiculous. It is impossible to fully understand all the concepts and relationships, and expect students to fully achieve these competency goals, if you pick up in the middle of the story, as the SCOS does.
http://www.ncpublicschools.org/curriculum/socialstudies/scos/2003-04/067eleventhgrade
I was then told that everything up to this point, namely the formative period of the Republic between the end of the war and the adoption of the constitution, is covered in the SCOS for Civics in 10th grade. But I found that this course only covers the period in a limited, political aspect, focusing primarily on how the Constitution was written and how it is to be interpreted, and this still does not answer the question of American history prior to that point. For example, in no course is there any mention of the early exploration and settlement of America, the colonial period, or the historical relevance of any other events and themes prior to the completed formation of the United States as such.
http://www.ncpublicschools.org/curriculum/socialstudies/scos/2003-04/062tenthgrade
Only the World History class does so, but only vaguely and as it relates to the global sense (in objectives 3.04, 3.05, 3.06, and 3.07), and not as the beginning of the American story. In any case, it seems as though a major part of our history has been overlooked here. Though I'm sure any good historian or educator would not make this mistake, a beginning teacher, coming out of the Watson School of Education for example, who is going in blind and working solely from the NC SCOS, could easily fall into this trap. That being said, I'll just say that I believe this oversight to be a tremendous flaw in the SCOS as I have read it, and I am not alone in this belief. I would just like to know where I can go to find out more about why it is written in this way, whether I have simply missed where these paramount parts of our history have been placed, and why the State of North Carolina no longer feels it necessary to teach the American Revolution, among other things, in the American history class. If you could respond and kindly explain to me what is going on here, I would greatly appreciate it, and probably benefit from this exercise in my future teaching career if I can understand why and how the SCOS gets written as it does.
Anyway, I plan to teach world history myself, as that sparks my interests more; I just wanted to clarify my confusion on this matter for my own purposes.
Thank you sincerely,
Evan M. Watson"
|And the Lord spake unto the masses@ 6:59 PM|
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