Teacher: Events missing from new history text

[one...two...tree 2,762]

The consequences of standardized teaching?

Josh Kelley

The Arizona Republic

A new U.S. history curriculum for Mesa Public Schools' fifth-graders has led to criticism from one teacher concerned about what the textbook is leaving out while perhaps shedding light on the growing pains of incorporating technology into classroom instruction.

When fifth-graders open their history book, History Alive! America's Past, this fall they may not find some notable events, or noteworthy people, you'd expect to be there.

"Give me liberty or give me death"?

Not there, and neither is Patrick Henry, the fiery Virginian credited with making the famous declaration.

Founding father Alexander Hamilton and The Trail of Tears also fail to make an appearance.

And as for Harriet Beecher Stowe, whom Civil War President Abraham Lincoln described as "the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war," she's missing in action, too.

All those absences, along with several others, are reason for serious concern, says Laurel Moore, a fifth-grade teacher at Hermosa Vista Elementary in Mesa.

"These are like the core things that are just etched on the American psyche," she said.

But Bert Bower, president of the Teachers' Curriculum Institute that produced History Alive! America's Past, said the curriculum is more than just a textbook. Many of the people and events Moore says are missing are available to teachers through Web sites referenced in the curriculum, Bower said.

School district officials in Mesa who oversee curriculum decisions also say Moore's fears are unwarranted. All the recently revised state standards for teaching U.S. history will be covered, and teachers will receive supplemental materials to fill in any gaps, district officials say.

http://www.azcentral.com/community/mesa/ar...istory0524.html

Edited May 24, 2007 by Steven_and_Jinky

[JoeMama 0]

Got to love political correctness! I bet it's staggering to even think how much history has been "re-written" or "left out" on purpose!

[jundp 191]

What's more distressing to me than anything is the fact that most of the "district officials" who come up with the standards of curiculum haven't been in a classroom as a teacher for years....if ever beyond student teaching. Yet classroom teachers have little to no input in many cases as to what is taught. Ridiculous. (And this is why I teach in a private school).

[homesick_american 1]

Hasn't this already been posted?