Social Studies Academic Standards
Social Studies Academic Standards
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Academic Standards and give comments online
Posted on Sun, Dec. 28, 2003
St.
Paul Pioneer Press
Standards are foundation for building knowledge
BY JEREMIAH REEDY
Guest Columnist
Being a self-appointed educational reformer and one who is passionately
interested in K-12 education, I have been perusing the public comments on
the proposed social studies standards, all 198 pages of them and following
the discussion in the media. Interesting patterns have emerged, and also a
number of what I consider serious misconceptions. Here I shall deal with
two of the more serious, "educational formalism" and the claim
that we don't know what students should study because the "knowledge
explosion" renders facts obsolete as fast as we and they learn them.
Educational formalism is the belief that the content of education is
arbitrary any content will do as long as the desired skills are
acquired. Among skills mentioned are critical thinking, decision making,
problem solving, analysis, synthesis and "metacognitive skills"
(how to think about your thinking). I shall begin, however, with the most
important skill of all, reading.
In his 1987 book "Cultural Literacy," E.D. Hirsch made a
powerful case for the claim reading is not a "general, transferable
skill" that can be taught in the abstract or in a vacuum. In order to
read even a newspaper with understanding, one must have the background
knowledge that writers assume readers have. Putting it another way, all
writers assume the existence of an "ideal reader" with whom they
share a body of knowledge. This is why in our culture, writers don't have
to identify Jesus or George Washington or Martin Luther King Jr.; nor do
they have to footnote Cleopatra, Columbus or Sitting Bull. On the other
hand, one mentioning Jacques Derrida in a letter to the editor should
explain who he is. One must have a great deal of factual knowledge to
read, and this is what our schools should be teaching. Those of us who
teach foreign and classical languages know that we can't simply teach
grammar, vocabulary and perhaps "decoding skills" and turn
students loose on texts. It is impossible to read any language without
background knowledge about the culture of the speakers.
What Hirsch proved about reading applies also to other skills, which means
educational formalism is a chimera, "a vane and foolish fancy."
If it weren't, one could take a course in "thinking like a
lawyer" and not have to attend law school. Does anyone really believe
people who have taken courses in problem solving and decision making could
solve our medical problems and make decisions about treatment even though
they hadn't studied medicine?
No one denies a "knowledge explosion" has taken place in the
natural sciences and their offspring, technology. There has, however, been
nothing comparable in the humanities (literature, history, philosophy,
etc.) or in the social sciences (psychology, sociology, anthropology,
etc.). No one is writing better stories today than Homer's epics, the
narratives of the Hebrew scriptures or the parables of the New Testament.
Still the question remains, "Do we know what students need to
know?"
In order to participate intelligently in "democratic processes,"
citizens should be able to read newspapers, magazines such as Time and
Newsweek, and books addressed to the general public. What one needs to
know to read these is an empirical question that Hirsch and his associates
answered empirically by examining the aforementioned publications. See the
list of 5,000 items in the appendix to "Cultural Literacy." This
is the knowledge base that graduates of high schools should have and
without which they will not be able to read, much less master, the
"higher order thinking skills." This is why we need
"content-rich" curricula and why the standards for social
studies proposed by the Education Department with their concrete and
specific requirements represent a gigantic step forward for our students
and our state.
Reedy is professor of classics at Macalester College in St. Paul.
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