Debate
over social studies is history
After two years
and several drafts, new teaching standards are ready
Thursday, September 02, 2004 • BY JOHN MOONEY
• Star-Ledger Staff
Sitting Bull is in, and so
is Simón Bolívar, the Venezuelan
revolutionary.
New Jersey's first Gov.
William Livingston, abolitionist Frederick Douglass, and
suffragist Alice Paul also made the cut and are on the list
of people every New Jersey schoolchild should know. But Ida
B. Wells, the pioneering African-American journalist was
eliminated a couple of drafts ago.
And when it comes to
required teaching of historical events, the "war on
terrorism," the Iraq war and the Patriot Act, of course, are
in.
After at least five drafts
and two years of debate, New Jersey's contentious social
studies standards are finally ready for approval, as state
officials yesterday signed off on the last of the additions
to what was already a 45-page document.
The state Board of
Education won't take a formal vote until next month, but its
members raised few qualms yesterday to the last revisions
that added 10 pages and countless historic figures, events
and themes to the required learning.
"I don't want to change
any more," said a relieved Jay Doolan, a state department
director who spearheaded the massive task. "I think we are
ready to adopt."
One might argue there is
not much more he could add. Chastised as too vague and
general when first adopted in 1996, New Jersey's standards
can hardly suffer such insults now. With dozens of
associations and individuals weighing in over the last year,
it appears most of their demands have been met.
There are additional
sections on Caribbean and South American history, as well as
new attention to connecting global and international issues
in general. There are also beefed-up demands for New
Jersey's own legacy to be taught.
And there is considerably
more about Native Americans, including this nugget for all
high schoolers to be able to do:
"Discuss the role of Chief
Sitting Bull, the outcome and impact of the Wounded Knee
Tragedy of 1890, and the suppression of the American Indian
revivalist movement known as Ghost Dance."
Yesterday, at the board's
monthly meeting, member Thelma Napoleon-Smith had a few more
items to add, and she came ready with the exact
wording.
"On page 13, number 13,
I'd like to have added ..." she began.
The existing section read
that middle and high school students should be able to
analyze how prejudice and discrimination can lead to
genocide.
"I'd like to have added
(after the word genocide)," she continued, "and other acts
of hatred and violence for the purpose of subjugation and
exploitation, such as slavery."
A former Trenton
schoolteacher, she went on to ask that New Jersey's own
school desegregation history be added. She cited especially
the 1944 case that found segregation of Trenton's schools
violated the state's constitution, 10 years before the U.S.
Supreme Court's landmark Brown vs. Board of Education
decision was applied to all schools.
"We can't say it enough,"
she said. "It's our own state of New Jersey, and it is so
important for children to learn about that."
The standards are not a
state curriculum. They are meant to guide districts and
teachers in developing their own. The state will also issue
more detailed frameworks in the coming months that will
provide sample lessons and other materials.
But one of just eight
subject areas covered in the standards, the social studies
section, have been the toughest to reach agreement. The last
draft was pulled back for further work last spring when
board members and others couldn't reach
agreement.
At that time, a national
standards watchdog, Achieve Inc., said at even 35 pages the
draft still wasn't specific enough in what should be taught.
Yesterday, Doolan said the latest draft adds "much more
content," and teachers will still have the discretion to go
further.
"This is as far as we are
going to go at this time," Doolan said after the board's
meeting. "There may be still more content that teachers will
teach, but this is the core of what students should
know."
One of those teachers on
hand was Beverly Jones, a Trenton Central High School
history teacher who won the state's Social Studies Teacher
of the Year Award and was celebrated by the board
yesterday.
"I think the old standards
were good," she said. "They focused on democracy, civic
education, cultural enlightenment, historic
evidence."
But when filled in on the
changes to come, she said the additional content made sense,
too, even if many teachers would naturally teach it
anyway.
"Of course, we teach a lot
of Native American history," she said. "There is no way you
can teach history and not include them."
But she said seeing the
different events and historical figures in the standards
does lend a legitimacy and consistency to the teaching. It
just may require a teacher's improvisation to cover it
all.
"When you have so many
names and so many people, you can't get to all of them," she
said. "So that's when you have the students do independent
research. That's what learning is all about."
John Mooney covers education. He can be reached at
jmooney@starledger.com or (973) 392-1548.
Copyright 2004 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with
permission.
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