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January 13,
2004
By
Facsimile:
Mr. John DeWitt
Chairman
Escambia County School District
215 W. Garden Street
Pensacola,
FL 32502
Dear Mr. DeWitt:
Through an article
appearing today in the Pensacola News Journal ("Teachers
fight plan to cut classes"), I have learned that the Escambia
County School Board will meet with a group of concerned teachers
to discuss the social studies curriculum, most particularly the
Boards plan to eliminate a year-long civics class by combining
that course with American history. As the General Counsel for the
Center for Individual Freedom, I have been and continue to be involved
with the Centers efforts to inform public school officials
and parents about the necessities of maintaining rigorous and thoughtful
curricula that include coursework on American history and government.
As a result, I now write to express my concerns with these changes
to the Escambia County Schools curriculum.
The Center for
Individual Freedom is a non-profit, non-partisan constitutional
advocacy group whose mission it is to protect and defend individual
freedom and individual rights guaranteed by the federal and state
constitutions. As a result, the Center is particularly concerned
with the education our children receive in classrooms across the
country about our republican form of government.
The decision
to drop the eighth grade civics course and combine it with 12th
grade American history could not come at a worse time. As you might
be aware, one prominent agenda item discussed at a recent National
Education Association Conference in New Orleans was the failure
of our schools to provide adequate civics education, particularly
with regard to U.S. history and government. According to the National
Assessment of Educational Progress study from 2001, nearly six in
ten high school seniors (57 percent) could not even demonstrate
a "basic" understanding of American history, while only
one in ten (11 percent) showed a "proficient" level of
understanding. Thus, it is not surprising that, when asked to pick
an ally of the United States in World War II from a list, more than
half of high school seniors identified one of the Axis nations:
Germany, Japan, or Italy. In fact, the National Association of Scholars
reported that todays college seniors have roughly the
same level of cultural knowledge as the high school seniors
of 1955 a fact that was confirmed when the American Council
of Trustees and Alumni gave a high school history test to
more than 500 college seniors in 1999. Four out of five of
the college seniors failed the test by achieving only a D
or F on the high school history exam, and only one in three
knew that President George Washington was a general in the Revolutionary
War, while only one in five knew that the phrase "government
of the people, by the people, for the people" came from President
Abraham Lincolns Gettysburg Address.
Unfortunately,
these results are not at all shocking to me. While it may be humorous
that Jay Leno can "score laughs showing how people offer ridiculous
answers to simple questions" about United States history and
government (see Ben Feller, "Dont know much about history:
Americas civics challenge," Associated Press, July 2,
2003), the factual basis for such humor demonstrates the importance
of continued civics education in the areas of American history and
government, not the elimination of such courses. On standardized
tests, 19 percent of teenagers could not identify our three branches
of government; only 24 percent of 4th grade students could do the
same. Again, the U.S. Department of Education reports that 57 percent
of 4th grade students could not identify the Presidents role
in making laws.
I am also disappointed
to learn of the School Boards plan to combine American history
and civics and teach it only at the 12th grade level.
Such shortsightedness not only has a negative impact by taking away
the advantages of cumulative learning over a course of multiple
years of study, but also reduces a students exposure to these
subjects by compressing two subjects into one course. Such a result
is all the more cause for concern when studies are showing that
high school seniors are more likely than not to have less than "basic"
knowledge of our American past and how to impact its future. It
seems as though, now more than ever, students should have more and
not less opportunities to learn about the American experience through
multiple and sequential courses about citizenship and our national
history. After all, these are soon-to-be adults, who will quickly
reach the age when they can cast their first ballot, run for elected
office, and be a part of American society at-large. Eliminating
the eighth grade course in civics sends precisely the wrong message
it implies their civic and political involvement is far from
important because it would be the school board, with the blessing
of the Florida State Education Department, that eliminated the course
requirement.
Combining the
American history course with a civics course results in other concerns,
as well. Specifically, it robs students of the opportunity to delve
thoroughly into these important subjects. Todays generation
of students already live in a world of sound bites that inhibit
deeper thought and inquisitiveness. Any attempt to teach course
materials as important as those presented in the existing curriculum
through a compressed and combined course will cause more harm than
good to the students learning experience. According to the
U.S. Department of Education, 36 percent of eighth grade students
perform at or below the basic level in their knowledge of U.S. History.
This number increases dramatically among high school seniors. An
astounding 57 percent of high school seniors perform at or below
the basic level in U.S. History.
State Legislatures
magazine reports in its July 1, 2003, edition that "the reason
behind the [social studies reduction] movement is a simple one:
Young people, according to a series of studies, dont generally
care much about government, whether its based in Washington,
D.C., or any of the state capitals." Just where does student
apathy towards government and civic participation come from? Perhaps
it comes from our own legislators and government. Consider, for
example, the fact that the Escambia County School Board is purportedly
planning the curriculum change to comport with a recommendation
of our own Florida Department of Education. Escambia County Schools
should reject this plan and not adopt the mantra chosen by some
educators across the country that "if it aint tested,
it aint taught."
In summary,
the Escambia County School Board should heed the advice of its social
studies teachers to maintain an educationally sound civics curriculum.
While current high school knowledge regarding U.S. history, civics
and social studies is dismal, there is hope. With a combination
of teacher, parental and school board activism, the trend can be
reversed.
I hope the School
Board will consider this information when it makes its decisions
regarding the year-long civics class. I plan to attend the special
meeting this Thursday where you will discuss the social studies
curriculum. If I can be of any assistance before or after that meeting,
please do not hesitate to contact me at my home in Gulf Breeze at
(850) 932-2392.
Sincerely,
/s/ Renee L.
Giachino
Renee L. Giachino
General Counsel
cc: |
Mr.
Jim Paul, Superintendent
Mrs. Carissa Bergosh, School Board Member
Ms. Cary Stidham, School Board Member
Mr. Ronnie L. Clark, School Board Member
Mrs. Linda Finkelstein, School Board Member
Mr. Paul Fetsko, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum &
Instruction
Ms. Bonnie Exner, Ransom Middle School Teacher
Ms. Wendy Pharis, Wedgewood Middle School Teacher |
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