Report Says Schools Are Unfair to America Tuesday, September 9, 2003 Posted: 12:05 PM EDT (1605 GMT) WASHINGTON (AP) -- The nation's schools are telling an unbalanced story of their own country, offering students plenty about America's failings but not enough about its values and freedoms, says a report drawing support across the ideological spectrum. Without a change of approach, schools will continue to turn out large numbers of students who are disengaged in society and unappreciative of democracy, the report contends. Produced by the nonpartisan Albert Shanker Institute, "Education for Democracy" is the latest effort to try to strengthen the nation's underwhelming grasp of civics and history. . . (T)he report is notable for the range of people and groups supporting it, from Republicans and Democrats to labor unions and conservative think tanks. . . Too many classroom lessons and text books contribute to a sense of historical indifference by focusing on America's darker moments, the report says. In a push to give a warts-and-all account of the struggles of democracy, schools have turned the nation's sins into the essence of the story instead of just a part of it, the new report says. . . "People have been so anxious to be self-critical, probably with good intentions," said Sandra Feldman, president of the American Federation of Teachers . . ."But we feel that's just gone too far over in that direction. "We definitely have had terrible problems as a nation, but we also have a society that is totally different than that of a totalitarian society. Children need to understand and value what has been built here," said Feldman . . . (I)t takes aim at a lack of teaching about non-democratic societies, saying that comparison could show the "genius" of America's system. Sanitized accounts of real-life horrors elsewhere lead to the "half- education" of children, the report says. (The report) also suggests a bigger push for morality in education lessons. "The basic ideas of liberty, equality, and justice, of civil, political and economic rights and obligations, are all assertions of right and wrong, of moral values," the report says. "The authors of the American testament had no trouble distinguishing moral education from religious instruction, and neither should we."26 responses total.
I thought so! After the astounding lack of support for Bush after 9/11, the failure of Congressto pass the PATRIOT Act, and Bush himself being recalled last year and replaced with Al Gore, who could doubt that the liberals run this country?
Mr. scott, You appear to be somewhat confused. Let me know if I can help you. Sincerely, klg
Not surprised at all.
0 is interesting...and, in my experience as a public school teacher, wrong. i dare the author to go to pine ridge, the cass corridor, flint mi, and discuss the "genius of the american system" we have plenty of "horrors" to discuss right here in america. in fact, we as teachers don't teach children to be critical ENOUGH when it comes to history...i dare the author to go into any elementary school library, pick up a biography of columbus (lots of schools *celebrate* columbus day) and see what it says about his treatment of the arawaks. probably nothing.
O please. You can't blame him for doing something which was common place back then.
Mr. happyboy is a teacher? My word and no wonder!
I haven't looked at primary-secondary school history textbooks for some time, but I find it hard to believe that they don't give proper coverage to our Constitution, the Bill of Rights, women's suffrage, emancipation, the civil rights movement, etc. In addition, since none of those have been *undiluted* successes, it is proper to discuss their limitations. I think I would have to see what the authors of the report are presenting as evidence for their assertion before I support their conclusions.
Yeah, #0 sounds good (though the last paragraph about how we shouldn't make any distinction between morality and religious teaching is a little confusing to me), but I'd like some details. Like - what should we be talking about that we're not, and what should we leave out to make room for it?
> Without a change of approach, schools will continue to turn out large > numbers of students who are disengaged in society and unappreciative of > democracy, the report contends. Translation: Unless something changes, things will stay the same!! Seriously, though, I have a problem with #0's tendency to suggest that criticism of America's past (and, one can't help but think, present) policies is somehow anti-democracy. It smacks of the "whoever is not for us is against us" rhetoric of the "war on terror".
Dear klg: Might I suggest you buy a dictionary, and look up the word "sarcasm"?
I have a feeling that the broad, non-partisan support described for this report is overstated. This is bound to be a somewhat controversial finding, especially in light of the tendency of non-democratic governments (a description toward which ours is quickly moving) to empahsize their own positive qualities (whether actual or imagined) and de-emphasize their own shortcomings. A more profoundly valuable approach would be balance emphasis on our successes with discussion of ways to address our shortcomings (rather than just highlighting the shortcomings). However, without specifics of the implementation suggestions in this report, one could not really criticize* it effectively. *Note for those whose ideology undermines their intellect: Criticize and condemn are not only not equivalents, but the latter is not even a stronger form of the former.
re5: why not? Bartolome da las Casas did.
re6: not this year, staying home with my kid.
did you go to private school?
I think you'll see groups of all political leanings supporting this study and calling for more "balance" in education. What they mean by "balance" will vary greatly, though. Considering who's currently in power, I expect there will be attempts to legislate all kinds of patriotic rituals and to eliminate everything that isn't rah-rah flag-waving the-U.S.-can-do-no-wrong propeganda from the curriculum.
Re #6: I'm told that happyboy teaches special education; given your demonstrated lack of reading comprehension, you should have had no difficulty recognizing him as such.
he, sadly, probably never recieved the services that might have treated his social autism. I'M KIDDING.
I've been watching for bias one way or the other in the history textbooks my kids have been assigned, but haven't seen anything major. Around Thanksgiving time last year, my daughter's history teacher told his class, "The Mayflower Pilgrims dined ON the indians, not with them." I had to deprogram my daughter, who, like most kids, loves to see history myths debunked. There's lots of bad things you can say about the Pilgrims, I explained, but at least they weren't freakin' cannibals. "Indian pudding" (New England soul food) was never made with real indians. After some research, I came up with one Jamestown story about a couple of desperate colonists who dug up a dead indian and ate him, and were put to death by the other colonists for this indiscretion. That's where my daughter's teacher got his idea about cannibalism among the "Mayflower Pilgrims." So I think there are probably individual teachers who have IQ issues, but the textbooks seem okay, albeit shallow.
re: #8 Mr. aruba - It appears that you may have misinterpreted the final paragraph of #0. re: 10 My dear Mr. scott - How kind of you to make such a suggestion, though it is not necessary. re: 11 Mr. other - With support for the report coming from such a broad-based, divergent, wide-ranging group or prominent Americans, it ought to be quite less controversial than you suggest. re: 12 Mr. happyboy - That must be some relief. No. Why do you ask? re: 13 Mr. gull - I suspect you are too suspicious. (Unless, of course, you are able to provide substantiation.) re 14 Oh, Mr. russ - You are so cute. We love you, too.
especially when he wears his spandex star trek uniform.
Re #17: I probably am too suspicious. But I remember being told not all that long ago by some prominant Republicans that to criticize America was to support the terrorists.
Ah, I see - I reread the last paragraph of #0, and klg is correct: I has misread it before. I find myself in agreement with klg here. All americans should learn about the freedoms we enjoy, and learn to fight for them when someone tries to take them away.
How about we just teach the kids the best approximation to the truth that we can come up with? I like the bit about teaching them about some other countries. Pick any three third world countries, and do a study of their miserable histories. Columbia. Somalia. Afghanistan. Yicks. Then let the kids try to figure out what exactly they did to deserve having life as easy as most of them do.
ASg. g'aflaftly flat drunk
This response has been erased.
learning US history IS and should be learning about other countries also. just as with any world raping global empire.
/chants USA OUT OF MY UNDERPANTS! >< --
This response has been erased.
You have several choices: