Thursday, November 5, 2009

Moldy Old Stuff

For those of you unaware, yesterday President Obama spoke at Wright Middle School in Madison, Wisconsin. It was a half-hour speech to a crowd of a little more than 600, definitely fewer than the crowd that last saw him when he spoke in Madison. But then, that was a public event held in the Kohl Center during the election; circumstances change. Obama said that over $4 billion in federal incentives would be offered to successful schools - essentially, he would be actually funding "No Child Left Behind."

That's great. Except NCLB relies heavily on test scores, which as everyone knows, are excellent indicators of test-taking ability, but piss-poor when it comes to actually getting knowledge through the thick skulls of students. You may notice I'm a little biased on this point.

American students simply do not learn as much as students from other countries. This can be seen in Common Core's report, "Why We're Behind: What Top Nations Teach Their Students But We Don't." (Warning: PDF file).

Twelve hundred 17-year olds were questioned on basic knowledge that should be common to any curriculum. Here are some results that, as a history major, really make me want to beat some small animals to death with a bat:

*The respondents answered 73% of the history questions correctly. That's a low C.

*Almost 1/3 could not identify "ask not what your country can do for you" as a quote from JFK.

*A third did not know that the Bill of Rights ensures freedoms of speech or religion.

*Only two in five students knew that the Civil War occurred sometime between 1850 and 1900.

*Only three in five students knew that the First World War occurred sometime between 1900 and 1950.

In fact, the question that students did the best on in history concerned the "I Have a Dream" speech, where 97% of students could correctly identify the speaker (MLK).

Students who have parents that went to college finished one to two letter grades better than those without college-educated parents. I don't find this an excuse. Parents need to get involved in the education of their children, at an early age! Parents should take their kids to museums, or national parks and monuments, or read books about our history. Maybe the reason our current political situation is so fucked up is because our citizens have such a skewed, inaccurate, and simply spotty understanding about the key events and concepts that shape our nation.

Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Sometimes they may not even get that chance.