It’s become a common lament among those worried about the state of education in the United States: We are raising a generation of Americans who are historically illiterate.
Patrick Kelly, a high school history and government teacher in South Carolina, recently wrote an opinion column about the deficiency, what he believes is causing it and why the nation should be concerned.
Kelly, in addition to his teaching duties, serves on a board that oversees the Nation’s Report Card, a compilation of how American kids fare on a national assessment of a range of subjects, including U.S. history and civics.
On the most recent report card, only 13% of American eighth graders scored at the proficient level in history, and only 22% did so in civics. At the other end of the scale, 40% had just minimal knowledge of history — or put another way, if it were a class, they’d be failing — and about a third had only minimal knowledge of civics.
Why is this so?
Kelly believes it’s because the nation’s public schools are putting nearly all of their emphasis on reading and math and neglecting most everything else. They do this not only because reading and math are the building blocks to all learning, but also because those are the subjects on which schools and school districts are largely graded by the federal government and, in turn, their respective states.
Kelly cites his own state as an example. In South Carolina, students are required to take a test in civics in order to graduate, but the test is a joke. It’s made up of 10 questions from the U.S. citizenship exam, but the school districts get to pick which 10 questions. Of course, they usually opt for the easiest ones. Even worse, the students don’t have to answer a single question correctly in order to pass. They just have to take the test.
As Kelly says, “you get out of something what you put into it.” Presently the U.S. is putting very little into teaching students about their nation’s history, how their government works and what their role is in making sure it operates properly. It’s no wonder that a significant number of Americans think the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol was no big deal. They have no historical appreciation for the peaceful transfer of power, a tradition that is a bedrock for American democracy.
This critique is not to downplay the importance of reading and math. It’s hard to appreciate history if you can’t read the books in which it is written.
Education, though, should not be an either/or proposition. We should be able to teach students to read, and then apply that skill to subjects that will excite them and also prepare them to be good citizens.
