Visiting Column #23 -- What Do They Teach Now?

I would like to describe George White as a "friend", although I have not seen him for over five years and hadn't seen him for 40 years previously.  At my age, our former high school teachers are often no longer alive, let alone people we would think to call "friends" at this point.  George -- excuse me, "Mr. White" -- is about 83.

The last time I saw him was at the funeral of my brother-in-law, and while we sat down for a few minutes to chat, it was not with the opportunity, let alone reflective of the appropriateness of the situation, to have discussed any issues.  I told him what my family had been up to, and that was that.

I thought of Mr. White this past weekend while watching some news wrap-up show that prompted my best girl and me to consider the teaching of USA history at the high school level.  During my high school days, we had a requirement to take American history in both junior and senior years in order to graduate, and the local approach was to start with Christopher Columbus as juniors, and work up to the current period by the end of senior year.  For us, "current period" meant six months into the first Nixon Administration.

There is not a great deal I can recall about high school, now fifty years removed from it, but I do fairly distinctly remember that it was taught, including by Mr. White, in a very non-opinionated, unbiased curriculum that focused on what happened, why, and what the implications were.  We eventually debated the merits and demerits of the then-raging Vietnam war, but certainly not in the "America is bad" school of pedagogy.  I think he was a Democrat, but you really wouldn't know.

When I saw the news clip over the weekend, it became fairly obvious that had the events been the same, but this had been 1969, the senior American history classes would have had some lively discussions, and it would have been the teacher's challenge to keep the students focused on the facts, on critically assessing what was actually known, and on not taking the media as gospel.

But while I could see George White leading such a class, I wondered about some things.  Is there even American history taught as a mandatory class anymore, in all 50 states?  I don't know that.  We had two full years of it, taught at an age where we could legitimately discuss it, but what about now?  Who is teaching it, and what biases might they be dumping on innocent ears?

Yep, I thought about that, but I also asked myself a question I didn't want to answer.  Is there even a cadre of teachers of the subject who are sufficiently prepared to teach pre-colonial, colonial-period, 19th and 20th Century, and contemporary history in a manner without infecting the room with bias?  If I had children in the public school system now, what would I expect their brains would be filled with when they came home, and would I have to challenge their actual teachers?

I hope you remember this piece from five years ago and will read it (it's a quick read).  I stressed the fact that people need to grow a good deal past age 17-18 or so before they are able to think critically, unless we actually teach them to do so.  That it takes a few decades of life experience before you can connect an action with its likely outcome.  That the ability to make that connection is what we call "maturity."

How on earth is the most contemporary history in this country being taught?  How is it taught, knowing that teachers are members of the NEA, about the most leftist labor union out there?  How is it taught, knowing that the nation is so substantively divided, exacerbated by social media?  How is it taught, knowing that in a majority of homes, the students will come home to news programs that are severely slanted to the left?  How is it taught, when on-air opinion is no longer distinguished from actual reportorial journalism?

I want to have that conversation with my friend George, who ultimately went from teaching to school administration, and who therefore could clarify some of my concerns -- not assuage them, mind you, but clarify and offer some facts.

I want to ask him, "How would you teach today if you were in the classroom?  What would you expect to encounter?"

I'm not sure I even know where in the country he is, but I think I might want to try to find him and ask.

Copyright 2019 by Robert Sutton
Like what you read here?  There are over 1,000 posts from Bob at www.uberthoughtsUSA.com, and after four years of writing a new one daily, he still posts thoughts once in a while as "visiting columns", no longer the "prolific essayist" he was through 2018, but still around.  Appearance, advertising, sponsorship and interview inquiries cheerfully welcomed at bsutton@alum.mit.edu or on Twitter at @rmosutton