A Job for the Legislature

The New York State Legislature recently passed a law directing Governor Pataki to appoint a commission, called the Amistad Commission, to examine whether students are learning enough about the slave trade. Now that our state legislators have gotten involved in curriculum matters, they should take a close look at how little our students know about any aspect of American or world history.Study after study has shown that American high school students are woefully ignorant of major events in history, as well as basic knowledge of geography and civics. The federal government regularly tests American students’ knowledge of U.S. history, and their scores are lower in that subject than in reading, mathematics, science, or any other subject tested. After giving tests of American history across the nation in 1994 and 2001, the federal National Assessment of Educational Progress reported that 57% of high school seniors rated “below basic,” which is the lowest possible score. Another national test will be offered next year, and the results are likely to be no better.On almost any important historical topic, selected at random, American students are likely to know little about its meaning or context. When the first national test of U.S. history was given in 1986, two-thirds of a national sample of 17-year-old students did not know in what half-century the Civil War had taken place. When the Berlin Wall fell, reporters asked high school students for their reaction, and most had no idea why it had been built or who created it.Think about some of the critical events that have shaped the history of the world: the French Revolution, the Russian Revolution, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, the collapse of communism. Students have a vague idea that these events happened, but they cannot tell you when or why they happened. Even if the subject is the world wars of the 20th century, they cannot say for sure which nations were involved or what issues were at stake between them.In the most recent test given by the federal government to high school seniors, most had no idea about the Bay of Pigs. Most did not know which nations were allied with the United States in World War II. Most could not identify the purpose of the early-20th century Progressive Movement, even though they had just completed a course in American history. Most had no idea about President Truman’s policy of containment toward the Soviet Union, nor did they know the difference between the countries in the Warsaw Pact and those in NATO. Most could not identify the Gulf of Tonkin resolution that preceded America’s entry into the Vietnam War.Anyone who has read high school history textbooks is aware that American students will read a few pages about such big topics as World War II, but they will not learn about the specific events that give life to the topic. For example, students will learn nothing about the Rape of Nanking or the Bataan Death March. They will never read about the Katyn Forest Massacre, the White Rose Society, or the destruction of the Warsaw ghetto.When it comes to the specifics of American history, students today are completely ignorant about the history of immigration. They know nothing about the waves of immigration that shaped American society in the 19th and early 20th centuries. They are unlikely to study the tribulations of Irish immigrants, the bitter anti-Catholic sentiment that gave rise to the Nativist movement, the anti-Semitism that hobbled Jewish immigrants, and the hostility that Italian immigrants encountered. Nor will they read about the hard life of German and Swedish immigrants who eked out a meager existence on the Great Plains.Ask today’s students about the history of the U.S. Constitution and our institutions of government, and the results are likely to be not much better.Why are American students so ill-informed about the history of their nation and the world?First, history has been undervalued for a long time in our nation’s schools. For many years, history has been largely replaced by social studies, because the study of history involves too many “facts.”Second, many states – including New York – permit teachers to teach history even though they have neither a major nor a minor in history. Studies of “out-of-field teaching” – i.e., lacking either a major or minor in the subject – show that there are more history teachers who are “out of field” than in any subject other than physics.Third, history textbooks are uniformly dull, politically correct, lacking in dramatic stories, and watered down. Their main feature, as well as their main sin, is their practice of “mentioning,” that is, covering significant events in a sentence or a paragraph, thus draining them of any engaging detail of possible interest to students.Fourth, history tests are now so dumbed down that they do not measure students’ knowledge of history. Typically, students are asked to answer a historical question based on a cartoon, a graph, or a paragraph. They can get the correct answer even if they don’t know any history.If the New York State Legislature is sincere in its concern about teaching history, it should raise standards for teacher certification in history. Furthermore, it should ask the State Department of Education for a thorough review of the teaching of history in the schools, from the earliest elementary grades through high school graduation.It is a scandal that our students leave high school with little or no knowledge of the most important events, ideas, institutions, and individuals in U.S. or world history. The Legislature should be deeply concerned about this ignorance. As Thomas Jefferson wrote, “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.”Ms. Ravitch is research professor of education at New York University and a member of the Koret Task Force at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University.

A Job for the Legislature

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