Content in Education

My latest from the Pierre Capital Journal.  A teaser:

The education field believes that learning is simply a process. For example, for many years I was involved with a now blessedly defunct federal program called Teaching American History, a program to help history teachers bone up on history content.  Many of the grant proposals I read expressed a goal of getting students to “think like historians.”  

Now, thinking like an historian is a good.  But the first step to doing so is to actually know some history.  History is more than names and dates, but it is at least names and dates.  It is hard to “think like an historian” about, say, the Thirty Years War when one is clueless as to when those thirty years took place and what actually happened in those years.  

Comments

[Julie Gross (NE)]

I recall a lecture in constitutional law some years ago: the subject was the Civil Rights Amendments, and the professor called on a student, inquiring as to when these were enacted. After some pause ,the student replied, "the Sixties." The professor was just about to acknowledge a correct answer when he caught himself, and inquired, "which Sixties?" The student replied, "the 1960s"! AHHHH!!

Now, this may not be common knowledge, but we're talking about 22+ year olds with bachelors degrees in law school studying the Constitution!

[Donald Pay]

We elected G.W. Bush, whose knowledge of Middle East history was so sparce that, even when he was President, he didn't know the difference between Sunni and Shia. Then, of course, we have Romney and others on this blog who can't remember even recent current events regarding what was said about Benghazi. And we have the right's astro-turf "scientists" throwing out non-scientific propaganda on climate change.

The right spends a lot of time tsk-tsking Common Core, but seem to be most in need of a big dose of a remdial course in basic history and science. By the way common core is not an Obama administration initiative.

[larry kurtz]

Julie: your beard makes you like a creeper.

http://history.unl.edu/facultystaff/profile.asp?id=143

[Fitted Carpets]

I have been absent for a while, but now I remember why I used to love this blog. Thank you, I’ll try and check back more often. How frequently you update your site?

[Latest Political News]

The education field believes that learning is simply a process. For example, for many years I was involved with a now blessedly defunct federal program called Teaching American History, a program to help history teachers bone up on history content.

[alasda asdam]

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[Lynn]

Donald Pay, don't forget that Obama thought there were 57 states and could not pronounce corpsman. He admits that he got mediocre grades but won't release any college records. Yeah, he's really smart; if you don't believe that, just ask him.