Freedom Line  


Center Urges School District to Keep Civics

In a letter reproduced here, the Center informs public school officials about the necessities of maintaining rigorous and thoughtful curricula that include coursework on both civics and American history and government.


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C e n t e r   F o r   I n d i v i d u a l   F r e e d o m

 

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 Board’s 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 Center’s 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 today’s 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 Lincoln’s 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, "Don’t know much about history: America’s 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 President’s role in making laws.

I am also disappointed to learn of the School Board’s 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 student’s 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. Today’s 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 student’s 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, don’t generally care much about government, whether it’s 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 ain’t tested, it ain’t 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


[Posted January 16, 2004]

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