I.) Introduction
The Georgia Department of Education is to be commended for its efforts to improve the U.S. history standards, and for its efforts to implement deep, rather than superficial coverage of that vital discipline. The best of intents is not a guarantor of results, however. In their current form, the proposed U.S. history standards represent a deeply flawed, poorly conceived, and ineptly designed attempt to emphasize the teaching of discrete facts in lieu of a broad understanding of the critical issues that form the foundation of our nation's history. These standards seem designed for no purpose other than to prepare students to perform well on standardized, objective-format competency tests. They are not designed to acquaint students with the skills they will needs as educated, enlightened individuals, as voters, or as citizens. From our specific perspective as university faculty, students educated under these standards will be poorly prepared for the intellectual rigors of college. In particular, the standards contain little evidence of interdisciplinary work, of writing across the curriculum, or indeed of any substantial writing component (in the form of papers and essay exams). Even if the Georgia Department of Education disagrees with the systemic issues listed in Section II of this document, the reviewers urge that they mandate a more significant writing component, and that they incorporate many of the specific suggestions listed in Section III.
Section II of this review discusses the major problems with the high school standards
Section III summarizes the reviewers' editorial comments on individual standards
The concerns of the Georgia Department of Education regarding curricula that are 'a mile wide and an inch deep' are certainly well founded. There is an obvious danger in covering such a broad reach of U.S. history that key individuals, events, and concepts are excluded. However, a greater danger is that students will be so caught up in the minutiae of specific events that they will lose sight of the big picture. The key to resolving this dilemma is to teach broad, thematic concepts, applying specific information as necessary to illustrate these themes.
These thematic concepts may include:
- The exploration and colonization of the Americas, a process that produced great benefit for many European societies, but one that irreparably harmed many indigenous societies
- The 'hybridization' process that occurred as European and indigenous cultures interacted - European societies did not erase or replace indigenous societies, but rather merged with them into a society that was distinctly different from European traditions
- The growing rift that developed between Britain and its colonies in North America - a rift that led to the first, but not the last, revolution by a colonized people against their colonizers
- The efforts of the Revolutionary generation to create a stable, lasting framework of governance under the Constitution
- The development of the institution of slavery in British North America and the United States, a situation that certainly affected relations between whites and African-Americans after 1877
- The Civil War, which affected events that took place long after Reconstruction, including the post-World War II civil rights movement
- The transition of the United States from and agrarian to an industrial nation, a process that began well before 1877
- The globalization of U.S. business and the expansion of U.S. foreign policy, both of which began well before 1877
- Immigration and related assimilation issues, which also began well before 1877 (the Irish arrived in the 1840s, after all)
- The protection of civil liberties in the United States - how can a student understand the constitutional implications of the Espionage and Sedition Acts without understanding the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions?
- The efforts of women, people of color, students, the poor, gays, and others to attain the basic Constitutional rights which were originally reserved for wealthy white men
- The role of dissent in American society, particularly as it relates to highly patriotic acts of protest against the policies of government, or of business
- Debates over the issue of economic justice, reflected in such topics as tax policies, wealth and income disparities, affirmative action, Social Darwinism, etc.
Of course, topics could be added to or deleted from this list. The important principle remains the same, however. Teachers must emphasize the development of these broad concepts over time, through the history of the American colonies and the United States. These teachers will employ evidence necessary to advance student understanding of these themes. Does this mean that teachers will not have time to teach all of 'the facts?' Yes, it does. Is that a problem? No, it is not. Does it deprive Georgia high school students of a quality education? No, it most definitely does not. In the long run, few people care whether a student remembers the specifics of United States history a decade after he or she leaves high school. Few people care whether a student remembers Blanche Bruce or the Great White Fleet. What IS important is that students remember that greatness may arise from people who challenge the status quo and work against the ill-informed opinions of the majority, and that demonstrations of military prowess, no matter how impressive, can be a mere shell encompassing a hollow and arrogantly corrupt foreign policy that makes this nation less, rather than more, secure.
In other words, history students must learn the importance of civil liberties, the value of dissent, the consequences of change, and, above all, the Constitutional foundations of the United States. The specific facts used to teach these life-long skills are far less important than the skills themselves. Yes, there is a danger in providing coverage that is a mile wide. But if that mile encompasses all of the key themes of United States history, if it allows students to fully appreciate how their nation has changed over time, and if it enables them to be fully prepared to assume their vital responsibilities in the running of this nation, that that coverage is good coverage. Far better that coverage be a mile wide and an inch deep than that it be only half coverage, rich in detail, but lacking in analysis and thematic relevance.
And, 'frontloading' the missing material into earlier grades is no solution. First, students are not intellectually prepared to discuss many of these issues in earlier grades. Second, students in high school will probably remember few of the facts that were taught to them in earlier grades. Third, students in earlier grades will confront the other side of the problem discussed above - by missing most of U.S. history after 1877, they will be no better equipped to analyze and synthesize the broad topics that overarch all of U.S. history than their counterparts in later grades.
Along with this broad criticism of the intent and organizational structure of the standards, many specific suggestions are listed below. Taken together, they illustrate that the standards often omit key events, groups, and ideas; they reflect outdated scholarship in many cases; and they reflect a poorly conceived organizational structure. While the reviewers are reluctant to add yet more detail, there are nonetheless substantial (and in some cases shocking and inexplicable) omissions in these proposed standards. Finally, the proposed standards contain an appalling number of grammatical and typographical errors, averaging more than two per page. Were any college professor to receive such a poorly edited document, he or she would probably not even read it without first insisting that student correct the manifest errors. It is almost inconceivable that this document could be made available for public consumption in its current state. If this is the standard set by the Georgia Department of Education, then it is no wonder that our state consistently ranks at the bottom of national measures of educational attainment.
Unit 1 (pg. 4): Impossible to discuss 'Founding Ideas' without a thorough understanding of the late colonial / Revolutionary period in the high school course; asks if Americans still adhere to this principles - again, impossible to discuss w/o thorough coverage of those principles, plus the notion of 'Americans' is problematic - this needs to be disaggregated, as different Americans often adhere to radically different principles; in general, Unit 1 does not do enough to make students understand that the Declaration is a revolutionary manifesto which is not legally binding, while the Constitution is the foundation of all U.S. law - this distinction becomes crucially important when discussing such issues as the separation of church and state
Standard 1.4 (pg. 5): the 3/5ths (NOT '3/5') Compromise didn't address slavery; it addressed whether slaves would be counted as persons for the purpose of determining representation in the House; framers didn't address the issue of slavery directly, as it was already too contentious
Standard 1.5 (pg. 5): 'Founding principles' are NOT 'still in place today' - they evolved over time
Standard 2.2 (pg. 7): In g.), African Americans also made significant accomplishments in politics, not just education and business. In H.) Jim Crow laws did not develop during Reconstruction - they developed much later, as a response to Populism and the fear (by wealthy whites) that poor whites and African Americans would overcome racial differences and embrace the notion of class consciousness
Standard 2.3 (pg. 7): Issues of Jeffersonian and Jacksonian Democracy should be discussed well before (not after) coverage of Reconstruction; introducing these concepts belies stated emphasis on post-1877 history; 'Immigration patterns and trends' must be linked to urbanization and the rise of big business
Standard 2.4 (pg. 8): Westward expansion cannot be understood w/o discussing the Louisiana Purchase, the Lewis and Clark expedition, Texas, and the Mexican War - not enough to have mentioned this in earlier grades; the information needs to be covered in this course
Standard 2.5 (pg. 8): Exodusters WERE African American, as were many cowboys, many of whom were also Hispanic. Homesteaders included people of all races; Asian Americans were involved in numerous occupations (i.e., farmers, grocers, etc.), not just railroad workers - no need to perpetuate this outdated stereotype; the West, like the North and the South, are regions of the country and hence should be capitalized throughout the document
Standard 2.6 (pg. 9): Emphasis on the mining, ranching, and agricultural frontiers is outdated; focus on 'New Western History' and the notion of 'zones of interaction' and the creation of hybrid cultures, concepts of 'lawlessness' and 'anarchy' are overemphasized, trite, and stereotypical; difficult if not impossible to compare the western frontier with African nations, the former U.S.S.R., etc; overall, standards place far too much emphasis of the history of the West
Standard 3.1 (pg. 10): 'Industrial Revolution' does not distinguish between the first (steam power, the factory system of production), the second (electricity, internal combustion, and the assembly line) and the third (information technology, electronics, globalization) Industrial Revolutions; neglects the development of technological systems and perpetuates the old myth that technology arose from heroic lone inventors; ignores the vitally important agrarian and transportation revolutions, in particular giving short shrift to the technological and organizational innovations of the railroad industry; Wright Brothers emerge much later, and are hardly to be considered in the same vein as Rockefeller and Carnegie; 'marketing techniques' were a PRODUCT of the Industrial Revolution, not a cause of it; Social Darwinism is likewise an effect, not a cause, of the Industrial Revolution; Task C) seems hardly relevant, since the Industrial Revolution produced fewer changes in the home than one might expect - the real emergence of the consumer culture took place in the 1920s
Standard 3.2 (pg. 10): Gives too little emphasis on the role of the government at all levels, does not discuss early labor unions (Knights of Labor belongs here, not in 3.6a.), impossible for students to understand these strikes w/o an understanding of unions, fails to distinguish between the goal of greater control over the process of production and the goal of 'bread-and-butter' unionism
Standard 3.3 (pg. 11): Migration of African Americans out of the South not an issue until the First Great Migration of the WW I years; presents too rosy a view of WASP attitudes toward immigration - Emma Lazarus is fine, but what about the American Protective Association and other nativist groups?; standards need to discuss conflict between such groups as the business community (who wanted access to cheap labor, and thus encouraged immigration) and conservative labor unions such as the AFofL (who wanted to restrict pool of unskilled labor)
Standard 3.6 (pg. 12): Information on labor unions should be covered earlier, in conjunction with age of industrial violence; need to discuss radical unions like the Industrial Workers of the World
Standard 3.7 (pg. 12): Must distinguish between different strains of Populism (Northwestern and Southern Alliances), discuss racial implications in the South, tie this to the emergence of segregationist legislation; direct election of Senators was NOT the most sought-after Populist reform - far more important was the Sub-Treasury System, also emphasize limited socialism (railroad and telegraph lines), free coinage of silver (illustrates need to appeal to western miners), unsuccessful attempt to appeal to eastern labor unions
Unit Four (pg. 12): Progressives were not 'average citizens' - they were elite WASPs, and the Progressive Era was a fundamentally conservative (not radical) social movement; must not give credence to the misconception that 'average' citizens affect change today (that is why 50% of Americans don't bother to vote)
Standard 4.1 (pg. 13): Remind students that The Jungle was a socialist tract more than it was a public health missive
Standard 4.2 (pg. 13): Detach the early civil rights movement from Progressivism - Washington, DuBois, etc. were not Progressive reformers; DuBois' book was the Souls of Black Folk, not 'Folks'
Standard 4.3 (pg. 13): 'The struggles of women to gain basic civil rights' is presentist; they were seeking greater opportunities, including the right to vote, but could not envision our modern notion of gender equality; need to discuss such groups at the National American Woman Suffrage Association, the role of radical protest, the concept of the 'domestic sphere,' the shift in suffrage tactics between voting as an individual right and voting to increase women's ability to protect the morality of society (i.e., suffrage shifts from a radical to a conservative reform)
Standard 4.4 (pg. 14): The Sherman Act was NOT a Progressive reform, put into Standard 3.2; relate Sherman Act to the E.C. Knight case; MUST discuss railroad regulation in Standard 3.2 - since railroads were the first big business, they were also the first business to be regulated (1887 Interstate Commerce Act)
Standard 5.2 (pg. 15): Causes of WW I ignores such issues as supposed German atrocities in Belgium, economic and cultural ties between the U.S. and Britain & France, Woodrow Wilson's Progressive idealism, etc; misspells 'Lusitania'
Standard 5.3 (pg. 16): Building a diorama is a fine hobby, but constitutes useless busywork in a high-school class; tasks ask students to compare WW I combat experience to that 'of a soldier in more recent wars,' yet students have no basis for this comparison; use of the word 'treatment' of African-American soldiers is astonishingly racist, implies complete lack of agency on their part
Standard 5.4 (pg. 16): No discussion of the role of the Committee on Public Information, links to wartime propaganda, loss of civil liberties, implementation of Espionage and Sedition Acts, creation of the American Civil Liberties Union
Standard 6.1: Inherit the Wind is a wonderful film, but it is important to acknowledge serious historical inaccuracies and relate the film to post-WW II McCarthyism
Standard 6.2 (pg. 18-19): 'Flappers' are worth discussing, as an example of media bias, but they were NOT common during the 1920s; more important to discuss the culture of modernity; need to tie the growth of organized sports to urbanization and increasing leisure time (shorter working hours, growing middle class, etc.)
Standard 6.3 (pg. 19): 'The business of America is business' is an incomplete and misleading quotation; need to discuss political scandals like Teapot Dome; Washington Naval Accords and the Kellogg-Briand Pact are far more important than the events listed; 1920s was hardly a pivotal decade in U.S. military technology - most innovations occurred before 1919 or after 1935; isolationism only half true during the 1920s and 1930s - the United States was politically, although not economically isolated during those decades
Standard 6.4 (pg. 19): Relate Prohibition to Progressive Era reforms and to the earlier Temperance movement; emphasize that Prohibition did reduce alcohol consumption w/o a great increase in crime, but at the cost of a loss of civil liberties; radio drama is pointless busywork - do we really want students in blackface reenacting the racist commentary of Amos Ôn Andy?
Standard 6.5 (pg. 19-20): Discuss the impact of the assembly line, the Five-Dollar Day at Ford (and its conditions - relate to the Ford Sociological Department); discuss safety issues relating to the automobile, as the 1920s were the deadliest decade in U.S. history for pedestrians, especially children
Tasks, Standard 7.2F) (pg. 20) and 7.4E (pg. 22) are virtually the same
Standard 7.5 (pg. 22): The New Deal was not intentionally Keynesian, FDR did not understand Keynes' theories; relate to 10-fold increase in spending during WW II that was enough to 'prime the pump' and get the U.S. out of the Great Depression, emphasize that the New Deal did not get the U.S. out of the depression; emphasize the fundamental role of the New Deal in augmenting the federal government's traditionally responsibility for the protection of property rights with the added role of safeguarding the health, welfare, and well-being of individual Americans; discuss the creation of a mixed economy; discuss the involvement of socialists and communists in the New Deal, as a set-up for the post WW II second red scare
Standard 7, at some point, MUST discuss gains made by organized labor during the 1930s - the creation of the CIO and affiliates such as the SWOC/USWA, the UAW, etc; the role of John L. Lewis; the impact of Section 7a of the NRA enabling legislation, the NLRA (Wagner) Act, and the Fair Labor Standards Act; the incorporation of labor into the New Deal Democratic political coalition
Standards 8.2 through 8.8 (pgs. 22-26): Four pages on WW II is far too much - at the risk of offending the 'Greatest Generation,' it is hardly worth a full 10% of the history curriculum - much of this should be condensed or eliminated; forget the strategies and battles and instead focus on the homefront - the Second Great Migration, the emergence of 'cultural pluralism' as reflected in movies, recruiting posters, etc., African Americans in uniform, women in the military and in the workforce, the growth of labor unions, and Japanese Internment (including the Korematsu case, racial vs. economic explanations, civil-liberties-in-wartime issues, etc.); in Task 8.3G (pg. 24), students cannot possibly know what life was like for a combat soldier in WW II - journals are likely to include such entries as 'I blew away a hundred Japs with my Bazooka and they were smeared all over the place and . . .' - who needs that?; in Task 8.5C (pg. 24), relate 'victory garden' mentality to current conflict in Iraq coupled with tax cuts, high incidence of SUV ownership, etc.; in Task 8.5D (pg. 25): create a USO show!! - are you kidding? If the intent is to strip high school teachers of every shred of dignity and respect that they might attain in the classroom, then having them teach their students the jitterbug is a good way to go about doing it; decision to drop the atomic bomb vs. invade is a false dichotomy - there were other options, and it is possible that the Manhattan Project (which should be discussed as the prototype for the military-industrial complex, by the way) may have prolonged the war by making the U.S. less receptive to Japanese overtures regarding a conditional surrender (allowed to keep the Emperor); discuss censorship issues in the context of letters home, news reports, etc. - relate to basic issue of military and national security vs. the public's right to know
Standard 9.1 (pg. 26): A rap song? In 1948? This is patently absurd. The negotiations between A. Phillip Randolph and FDR happened before U.S. entry into WW II, not after, discuss links to the largely ineffective FEPC; this information should either be tied to WW II issues affecting African Americans or to later civil rights information
Standard 9.3 (pg. 27) J. Edgar Hoover is a subtopic of the FBI, likewise the Rosenbergs are a subtopic of espionage; it would also be appropriate to link Alger Hiss to Nixon's rise to national prominence (remember, Hiss was a spy during the 1930s, not during the 1950s, as 9.3A suggests); link to involvement of communists in the New Deal, close ties between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R during WW II
Standard 9.4 (pg. 28): Discuss the GI Bill in the context of 1950s society, discuss (Full) Employment Act
Standard 10.1 (pg. 29): Discuss such concepts as Mutual Assured Destruction and the presumed 'missile gap'; standards put too little emphasis on the Walter Lefeber et al school of thought on Soviet 'domination' - having lost 27 million people in WW II, they wanted a buffer zone in Eastern Europe, but this was not part of any plan for the worldwide spread of communism; discuss flawed assumptions that underlay the concept of containment; discuss effect of F.G. Powers & loss of U-2 over the Soviet Union
Standard 10.3 (pg. 30): In reference to the Cuban Missile Crisis, Rusk's 'other fellow blinked' quote was revealed in the 1990s to be politically useful fiction (i.e., it really didn't happen that way); relate to removal of U.S. Jupiter missiles from Turkey
Standard 10 (in general): Aside from Cuban Missile Crisis, there is very little material on U.S. foreign policy in Latin America after the Teddy Roosevelt era: What about William Howard Taft's 'Dollar Diplomacy,' Wilson's invasion of Mexico (twice), pre-WW II intervention in Nicaragua, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, etc.? Then, after WW II, what about U.S. economic plus anti-communist (counterinsurgency) policy in Latin America? -- LBJ sent 25,000 troops into the Dominican Republic, U.S. assisted in the creation of military dictatorships in Chile and Brazil, CIA sponsored coup in Guatemala (1954), U.S. associated with human rights abuses in El Salvador (1980s), etc.
Standard 10.4 (pg. 31): Vietnam timeline should begin much earlier than Dienbienphu - U.S. aid to Ho Chi Minh during WW II, etc.; Vietnam unit should emphasize more strongly the conflict of opinion between support of the war and opposition to the war - both of which are patriotic
Standard 10.7, Task B (pg. 32) is counterfactual - students can't possibly know what might have happened
Standard 11.1 (pg. 33): Entire unit should emphasize the crucial importance of Constitutionally protected dissent in the United States; important to discuss key leaders, but this unit must also discuss the grassroots phase of the Civil Rights movement - many 'ordinary' civil rights activists (Anne Moody, for example) didn't think very highly of Martin Luther King; must also discuss the NAACP, as that organization was responsible for the Brown v. Board decision - the Black Panthers are also worthy of mention; unbelievably, the standards do not cover the two most important pieces of civil rights legislation passed by Congress during the 20th century: the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act - this omission is unconscionable!!!
Standard 11.2 (pg. 34): Relate women's rights movement to the earlier suffrage movement and such common themes as changes as a 'threat to the family,: don't neglect female anti-equality activists like Anita Bryant; distinguish between the larger, more mainstream group of liberal moderate women and the smaller group of radical feminists, who attracted more than their fair share of media attention
Standard 11.3 (pg. 34): The anti-war and environmental movements were NOT just youth movements - they had broad popular support amongst all age groups; add groups such as SDS and the Weathermen to the student movement, distinguish between the larger, more mainstream New Left component of the student movement and the more radical (and thus more likely to attract media attention) counterculture component of the movement; place sit-in reenactment with the Civil Rights material and rethink this - do we really want some students burning their fellow students with cigarettes and pouring hot coffee over their heads?
Standard 11.4 (pg. 35): Task B refers to 'scientific' advances, but actually should discuss technological advances; might be more useful to make a comparison chart of U.S. and Soviet 'firsts' in space between 1957 and 1970; information about LBJ and the Great Society should be placed in a separate category dealing with poverty in the United States - avoid the temptation to engage in presidential synthesis history
Standard 11.6 (pg. 36): Place this material with earlier Civil Rights information to show the evolution of the Movement over time - don't chop it up - history is best taught topically, rather than chronologically
Overall, Unit 12 contains far too little emphasis on the economic problems of the 1970s - it is imperative to go beyond the two oil embargoes and the concept of stagflation to discuss root causes, including managerial ineptitude, 'excessive' regulation, labor intransigence, foreign (especially Japanese) competition, etc.
Standard 12.1 (pg. 36): Link Watergate (esp. Pentagon Papers) more closely to Vietnam
Standard 12.3 (pg. 37): Place this with earlier women's movement material - this is the same problem that is present with the Civil Rights sections, in that it is organized chronologically and not topically; students can't discuss whether or not the ERA has made a difference to women, since it was never ratified (the standards say 'passed' - this is incorrect, since it did pass both houses of Congress, ratification by the states was the problem)
Standard 12.4 (pg. 37): Standards need to discuss the Bakke Case and the issue of reverse discrimination
Standard 12.5 (pg. 38): Environmental movement effectively began in the 1960s (Carson - Silent Spring, Nader - Unsafe at any Speed, 1st Earth Day, etc.); standards also need to discuss federal agencies such as EPA and OSHA, and the concept of 'New Regulation'
Standard 12.6 (pg. 38): 1970s culture is minimally important, we certainly don't need to revisit the 'fashion' of the 1970s; music of the 1970s is worthwhile, but only when linked to the social protest songs of the 1960s (which ARE important and should, in turn, be linked to the student movement and the anti-war movement)
Standard 12 must also discuss the concerns of Hispanics and Latinos during the 1960s and 1970s, Chicanismo, Cesar Chavez and migrant farm workers (including health concerns involving pesticides - Hispanics are the fastest-growing demographic in Georgia - didn't ANYONE think that this history was important?
Standard 12 also needs to discuss the gay rights movement, the Stonewall Riots, etc. - some people may disagree with the homosexual lifestyle, but that is no reason to exclude this historically important topic
Standard 13.1 (pg. 39): The United States MAY have 'bankrupted' the Soviet Union, but this ignores larger issues such as the internal dynamics within the Soviet Union, and ignores the effect that budget deficits had on the U.S. economy; Reagan/Bush years should also include debates over the size of government ('government IS the problem'), the extent to which federal spending has been relatively constant as a percentage of GDP, while state budgets ballooned (the basic un-funded mandate issue, coupled with severe restrictions on the percentage of state budgets that involve true discretionary spending), the growth of federal weapons programs (Star Wars), the growing maldistribution of income
Standard 13.2 (pg. 39) It is indeed important to discuss the Iran-Contra scandal, but it must be placed within the broader context of U.S. foreign policy in Latin America, as discussed earlier; standard should also mention U.S. involvement in El Salvador
Standard 13.3 (pg. 40): Task A asks students to debate the 'issue of cloning' when the more pressing issues concern the privacy of medical records, the possibility of genetic testing information being used to affect the cost or availability of employment, health insurance, etc.; a related issue concerns the debate over stem cell research
Unit 14 (pg. 41): Asks students to determine whether 'the USA still reflects the goals of the founding fathers,' yet students have not learned enough about the framers in this course to make accurate comparisons; a larger issue is that our society has changed dramatically over the past 200+ years - perhaps we should have different goals than the founding fathers