Disgusted

[yendi]

http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/0104/25history.html

And people wonder why GA kids rank in the bottom 10% of the nation?

I've got no words for how bad a plan this is. No way is my daughter being subjected to this half-assed a history curriculum.

Comments

[silme.livejournal.com]

I hope the teachers really fight it. I would go on strike!

[aussie-nyc.livejournal.com]

Archie Bunker vs Bunker Hill.

*sigh*

Fortunately, you can always take your daughter to museums and buy her the right books and she'll learn all the important stuff, school or no school.

[kajivar]

My gods. That's just....I have no words.

Do they realize that GA students won't be able to take the AP exams and compete with students around the country?

[dr-nebula.livejournal.com]

As a former high school science teacher and a student of ancient and modern european history I find this almost beyond belief.

Almost.

A classic example of the continual dumbing down of America - with Georgia once again leading the way of mental ignorance. And what about our 'pro-education' Governor Cementhead, err.. Perdue? If he supports this, he's more the redneck hick than he already sounds.

Yendi: 2 things - private school and/or home schooling.

However, I *know* many teachers will say f**koff and teach the 'non- curriculum' stuff anyways.

I certainly would.

[dr-nebula.livejournal.com]

That's a good plan. And check into home schooling - at least look at the books and school supplies that are offered.

..I'm sickened to hear this. First the continual bad news on the Mars lander, and now this. Its starting to wreck my good mood.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

I wish we could afford home schooling! I'd love to...

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Private school is over $10,000/year.

...yeah.

[dr-nebula.livejournal.com]

Kill the Shaw! Kill the Shaw!

Damn, that dates me. :-)

I better watch the amount of coffee I'm drinking this morning.

Seriously, they (teachers) will strongly protest this sort of moronic short-sightedness.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Who do I gotta kneecap?

Seriously, hon, find out what people to write to, and I'll set my flying monkeys on it, AND I'll pass the information to the PTA....

[dr-nebula.livejournal.com]

Its not as expensive as it sounds - and you probably have friends locally who are already home schooling.

I also know some - I'll check into it.

[angryvixen.livejournal.com]

Ugh. Knowing how much Jerry loves history, and seeing how much like Jerry Blake is becoming, I think "extra" history is going to have to get taught at home. I can not BELIEVE how much they're removing. I think parents need to rally against this change and show the government officials that they need to rethink this.

And on another note, if that's the only history they're going to be teaching, I would hate to think what's going to happen when these students go onto college and have to take Humanities courses. "Socrates? Plato? What are those, some weird sports?" ARGH.

[dr-nebula.livejournal.com]

Jeeze, you hit my 'piss-off' nerve with this stuff.

Generally I'm a-political, and don't get freaked out by the string of moronic presidents/leaders we've had. But I WAS a teacher and very strong proponent for education (now my drumbeat is in astronomy/science ed.).

I'm NOT amused.

[elorie.livejournal.com]

Private school and home schooling both require a certain income level...enough to either pay tuition, or to get along without one parent's income while he or she stays home, AND pay for materials. I'd have been homeschooling thewonderboy these last few years if it hadn't been too expensive.

Besides, setting up a system where only a few get a decent education is dangerous. The ignorance of the many will lead to the death of democracy; one could argue quite easily that that is already happening. I personally would rather fight to see the school system we have made better, instead of bailing out.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Yes, but what it means is going without half of our income. If I homeschool, I can't work.

[dr-nebula.livejournal.com]

When I taught astronomy at West Georgia, I did a section on the classics and historical origins. I covered not only the Greeks, but the Egyptians, Mayans, Celts, Native Americans and even the Aborigines. I did a day on the origins of our calendar - then eventually the 16th -18th century - Copernicus, Tycho, Kepler, Galileo and so forth.

Now I heard this has been phased out in intro. Astro-classes at West Georgia - so this sort of idiocy is in our universities, too.

[sistermaryeris.livejournal.com]

There are so many things that piss me off about public education. My son who is in middle school is doing badly, which we are always working on. However, his teachers do not call me to discuss his education, but they call me each and every time he wears his pants low, writes a bad word on his hand, talks in class, doesn't wear the right shirt.. it is absolutely ridiculous the way they pick, pick, pick at everything EXCEPT the education they are providing.

I've already told him that if this continues, we WILL homeschool. One way or the other. I wish I was still in the midst of college classes, I'd take him with me.

[dr-nebula.livejournal.com]

Evenings?

How about finding friends and working with them. Work 4 days a week - longer days for sure, but then have others teach the rest of the week.

Home schooling is *much* faster and more efficient. You could cover in 2 -3 hours what the schools can in 8. I know this to be true from all my tutoring experience.

[dindin.livejournal.com]

That's just wrong...What's the quote "those who do not understand history are doomed to repeat it"? I think that kind of sums it up. Here's to hoping the proposal is rejected.

[silme.livejournal.com]

You know, now that I think of it, they're probably doing this because it's cheaper. That's another way to attack it.

Something similar was attempted in Colorado when I was still living and teaching there. Boulder, of course, fought it. Kids there still learn lots and learn well. I sent kids onto Stanford, Harvard, the Sorbonne, Oxford, MIT, NYU, Columbia, etc. And yes, I sent them to Emory as well. :) They all returned on visits home and said they were almost overprepared for university compared to many of the other students they met there. One girl, who has long since graduated from GWU, told me that she couldn't believe the poor quality of the essays her three roommates wrote. She tutored them. She couldn't believe they'd gotten into a school like that with such horrible writing skills.

She understand why we pushed her so hard and didn't just automatically hand out high grades.

But then I'm a lifer -- 21 years of teaching thus far, and I don't dumb it down. :)

Assist the teachers in Georgia. Write letters to the editor, to the state education department, your state senators and congresspeople, the governor, etc. Join or help organise rallies. Stupid legislation can be fought. I know. :)

[silme.livejournal.com]

She understood, I mean. I was typing quickly and was guilty of a grammatical error. Oops. :)

[cissa.livejournal.com]

That's so weird. I mean, yeah, it's bone-headed! The weird part is this: in all my history classes throughout school we NEVER got past WW2 and mostly not past or even to WW1. The more recent, the more potentially controversial, and the gods forbid we be controversial! They're going to have a lot of squawking parents when they hit the 20th century, no matter what spin they put on things (and is has to have a spin, just to make it a manageable size).

When K was in grade school, every summer I'd work her through the "What every Xth Grader needs to Know" books. She hated it, but did get a more thorough background than the schools offered.

*hugs*

[silme.livejournal.com]

The Shah of Iran or George Bernard? ;)

I'm in my forties; I've taught Shaw's plays in my English classes, and I remember that time in Iran well. Yet another case of American interference. Oops -- that's another subject. ;)

[dr-nebula.livejournal.com]

The Shaw of Iran of course. :-)

I just missed doing protests and sit-ins at college, but I did hang around an 'interesting' crowd in the 70's (I started college in 1974 at the innocent age of 16..)

At home I was called the 'meat head' since I looked like a linebacker version of him. Lovely dinner time discussions with dear, old dad in those hell bent days.

[silme.livejournal.com]

I still remember the fights between my father and my brother (now in his mid-'50s) about Vietnam. I was too young for the protests, but my sister attended university in Ohio when the massacre happened at Kent State. She attended a candlelight vigil there. I attended university with students from Iran...

I just wondered about the spelling 'shaw'... ;) Is that with a Georgian accent? (And I'm not assuming the former Soviet republic. ;)

My husband and I have been protesting now as adults; we attended two large anti-war protests in 2002 and 2003 in London. (I'm an ex-pat American living and working in the UK; I taught for 17 years in the US; I now teach in a British school.)

[dr-nebula.livejournal.com]

My battles with the 'old man' started when I hit 15. But even before then, I was very anti-vietnam.

Many of my friends are Vietnam vets. Very little of that 'baby killer' stuff happened - but when it did it was blown out of proportion. They (vets) conducted themselves with honor for a country (at the time) which could care less. I was glad we finally honored them with a memorial. I just wish one will be built before the "greatest generation" (WW II) dies out.

BTW - I've added you

[alladinsane.livejournal.com]

Cant say it better than the folks above...

on a similar note, check this (http://www.ajc.com/friday/content/epaper/editions/friday/opinion_0401dcb981df52e200f1.html) out from yesterday's AJC...

[jerel.livejournal.com]

My AP American history class stopped with McCarthyism. Everyone else started back at the beginning to review. Nick and I read the rest of the book. It worked out well for us, because there were a lot of questions about Vietnam and Watergate. We were the only 2 that passed the exam.

My 10th grade Honors World History Teacher got all the way through Watergate. Even stuff that wasn't in the book, like the Irish potato famine of the 1840s. (Which is extremely important to American history, of course.) Are teachers just having to go too slow because kids just aren't getting it?

[wundergeek.livejournal.com]

The thing that scares me the most is that that curriculum wouldn't teach American history - it would teach white American history. Leaving out the Civil War, The Underground Railroad, Indian relocation, and others in favor of 1920's radio dramas? Ridiculous.

I wish you two the best of luck in finding a *real* education for your daughter.

[theferrett.livejournal.com]

Aw. She's your daughter now, and will officially be soon enough.

That's so heartwarming.

[silme.livejournal.com]

My sister's boyfriend died in Vietnam. It took a while, but she found his name on the Wall.

My father was a World War II veteran.

I've always been a liberal -- mostly due to my very liberal mother. Interestingly enough, my father gradually grew less and less conservative as he aged. After Reagan's first administration, he started voting Democratic until his death a few years ago.

I have added you also.

that sucks!

[thermidor.livejournal.com]

That's Awful! (see the guillotine - that's from the French Revolution...sigh)


Why gut history programs? The BoE is a bunch of idiots, that's why.

[mermaidnchains.livejournal.com]

my daughter

Adam, before when I would read things like this that you would post, it would make me smile in happy pride for Eylana knowing how much you love her. Now, with the wedding forthcomming, it just about made me cry with glee.

I am so very happy for you three dear. Words just cant express how much. Congratulations.

[dr-nebula.livejournal.com]

I started out as a liberal then became a liberal republican (late '80s), a moderate and now a moderate with liberal leanings (esp. in the environmental issues).

I now dislike politics in general, but the way the republicans pay homage to the far right conservatives pisses me off. Most republicans are not nearly as skewed on abortion, gay marriages -etc. but those clowns set the party line.

Bah.

I'm just not sure of the political leanings of the idiots in the Georgia Dept. of Education anymore. It *was* heavily democratic, but with the new Governor - who can say?

[mfree.livejournal.com]

Send her to public, and then keep tabs about where she is on things. Keep history books around the house, and when you see them jump a gap, on the weekends have her do some exercise about the missing time periods.

It's not the best thing, but it'll mean she catches everything left out, doesn't involve sending her to private school, and won't involve keeping her at home for homeschooling.

[mfree.livejournal.com]

My American history class actually stopped with the election of Reagan, and even then there was a blurb about the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

I'm simply amazed reading everyone's posting here that the curriculum I had was so complete... but then, I also remember it moving terrifyingly fast, too.

[sff-corgi.livejournal.com]

You and shadesong should consider taking her to re-enactor events a lot, when you can swing it. Really -- SCA, Civil War (should have real easy access to those), and there may even be a Georgian-period group or two around. Seeing history will be much more engaging than just tutoring her; she'll be asking questions about stuff that piques her interest.

And cheaper than private school! ;)

[salleesuewho.livejournal.com]

Really, I want to find out who to complain to keep this from happening. I went to school in Covington Ga and we did run out of time and had to skip some things, but we were told of everything; highlighting the more important events.

[ebon-hawk.livejournal.com]

i read the first few paragraphs and i had to puke!!! they're gonna make it world-class by studying their own history, very nice!!!! its not much of a history anyways, compared to all the things they're leaving out!!

[gladstone.livejournal.com]

According to the GA Dept. of Education website (http://www.doe.k12.ga.us/curriculum/instruction/qcc/truth_curriculum.asp), those subjects are being removed from the high school curriculum because the students, presumably, will already know it by the time the reach high school, having learned it in the earlier grades, when is will now be taught. The newspaper article makes it sound like those subjects won't be taught at all, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

Re:

[yendi]

The article I linked to mentioned this as well. It also pointed out the obvious problems with this thinking -- twelve year olds don't process information in the same ways as older kids, and learning is always more effective with reinforcement.