Focusing On What Students Should Be Learning in School

Latest Polls (view all)

Where do you stand on the Transgender Issue now that the issue has gotten to the overt point of the open celebration of this lifestyle choice, dictated by certain direct and explicit actions.

88.51% I do not approve of behavior that has within its expressed tenants policies that harm children.

10.34% I do support the Trans Community in all its many facets because diversity is at a premium in today's society.

1.15% What is a "Children's Drag Queen Story Hour?"

Click Here to Vote
87 Vote(s)

View all Polls

Focusing On What Students Should Be Learning in School

Published: Thursday, October 28th, 2021 @ 8:14 am
By: John Locke Foundation ( More Entries )

Publisher's Note: This post appears here courtesy of the John Locke Foundation. The author of this post is Mitch Kokai.

Daniel Buck writes for National Review Online about major gaps in public school students' education.

So Tom Hanks didn't know what the Tulsa Race Massacre was, and we're told that it's an indictment of the inadequate treatment of our racial history in schools. Well, alongside Hanks, two-thirds of Millennials don't know what Auschwitz was, and only two-fifths of Americans could name all three branches of government - one in five couldn't name a single one. More broadly, less than a quarter of students demonstrated proficiency in civics, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

If our curricula have gaps about our racial history, perhaps it's indicative of a deeper, far more pervasive mediocrity. The Fordham Institute ran a comprehensive review of school curricula across the country to investigate such shortcomings and found that schools too often

"provide overbroad, vague, or otherwise insufficient guidance for curriculum and instruction;"

"omit or seriously underemphasize topics that are essential to informed citizenship and historical comprehension."

The curriculum in my own state of Wisconsin exemplifies both weaknesses. Regarding the first point, one section asks students to "analyze significant historical periods" and "evaluate a variety of primary and secondary sources." Regarding the second point, where the curriculum does attempt to provide topics for learning, the standards list things like "Meeting of Peoples and Cultures" and "The Modern Era."

These give me, as a teacher, about as much guidance regarding what I should do in my classroom as would an atlas without highway numbers and city names. Students could accomplish these goals with the words of the Constitution or a tweet in hand. Without sequenced time periods or events to cover, various teachers could end up teaching, in two or three different grades, labor history during the industrial revolution, with a student never once encountering Auschwitz or the basic structure of our federal government. Given that, they're left with large knowledge gaps of what we would reasonably expect any citizen to know.

Such vagueness isn't a result of pure incompetence either but has an ideological basis.

Go Back

Login to Leave a Comment

Student Interns Support Local Governments, Nonprofits Across North Carolina

John Locke Foundation Guest Editorial, Editorials, Op-Ed & Politics

Harris Complaints Are Nothing New

Our Members

ENCN Sign Up

BCN Home

Beaufort Observer

Portfolios

Current Events: A Historical Perspective

Current Weather

Latest Comments

Latest Polls

Featured Entries

Latest Entries

Focusing On What Students Should Be Learning in School | Eastern NC Now

Focusing On What Students Should Be Learning in School

Leave a Guest Comment

Latest Op-Ed & Politics

New poll: 60% of Americans blame the media for assassination attempts on Trump

Key UK local elections today, anti-immigration Reform Party expected to do well

FBI raids office of Democrat VA Senate President Pro Tem in major corruption probe

RNC Statement on Roy Cooper in Greensboro

GOP voters in Indiana oust 7 state senate RINOs and replace with Trunp backed conservatives

Cooper released 3,500 “hardened criminals out of the NC prisons

Alberta independence from Canada petition submitted with almost 2X number needed

Another de-transitioner wins court settlement for trans surgery genital mutilation

Dominican Republic has mass deportation of Haitian migrants, while Obama judges stop it here

Henry Hinton: "NCAE teachers union rally in Raleigh was like a communist / left wing rally".

Democrat federal candidates make threats on President Trump's life, one arrested

new poll: 60% of French people believe native population being replaced by 3rd world migrants

14,000 food stamps ("SNAP") users were driving luxury cars in just ONE STATE,

Hollywood Still Blacklists Conservatives — Now They Don’t Even Hide It

NC federal grand jury indicts Comey on charges he threatened Trump

The Abortion Industry Simply Changed Tactics. Now Congress Must Act.

Trump Admin Shuts Down Sham Charities Caught Bankrolling Hamas

51 Prisoners To Be Freed As Cuba Shows Cracks Under Trump Pressure

‘Andre the Giant’ marker puts smalltown Ellerbe into spotlight

Republicans Petition for New Meetings

What Happens When A Naturalized Citizen Commits Terror In America?

teachers unions push WEF globalist propaganda in schools; NH legislature fights back

US Justice Department to enforce SCOTUS ruling against states with racial gerrymanders

Political Parties? – Why We Have Them and What They Do

No Amnesty, No Surrender: Why The DIGNIDAD Act Must Die

Major Teachers Union Plans Trump Walkout While Their Own Students Can Barely Read

Heroic Students Rally To Stop Gunman Who Carried Out Terror Attack At Old Dominion