Life in an American Fourth Grade: George Washington’s and Abe Lincoln’s Twelve Minutes of Fame
By Barry Rubin
I’ve been waiting to see how the class dealt with George Washington and Abraham Lincoln on the occasion of their birthdays. inally, the topic came up today.
My son says that he and a foreign student (not an immigrant) were looking at a book containing short biographies of every U.S. president. Seeing them the teacher said something about not letting this occasion go by without saying something about these two presidents. (Does this mean that if they hadn't been reading the book nothing at all would have been done in class? Quite possibly.)
The teacher then took the small book and read from these two entries, which took only about ten minutes. This was followed by a very brief discussion. My son estimates the discussion took two minutes. That’s it for George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.
Interesting question: Does the county curriculum tell teachers to do something about Washington and Lincoln or not?
Then the class returned to one of the two favorite interlinked topics that have taken up more than 90 percent of the social studies' time. The two topics are: American racism, that is, mistreatment of other racial groupings, and immigrants (recent ones, not historical immigration). The only other topic discussed at any length has been global warming.
Please understand that this is NOT an exaggeration. I have been asking about what happened every day after school and except for a homework handout involving learning the names of the thirteen original colonies and a couple of dates this has been the sum total of social studies during five months of class.
Next, a short film was shown about four immigrants, coming from El Salvador, Togo, Taiwan, Russia (thus covering Latin America, Africa, Asia, and Europe equally). My son asked about illegal immigration. This set off the class which began talking about various anecdotes or things they had seen. The teacher told them to stop it and added that this wasn’t the subject of discussion at the moment.
Teaching kids that they should not be racist and that (legal) immigration is a good thing is quite reasonable. Teaching them almost nothing else about the American system or history (except that it is characterized by slavery and racism) isn’t. Once again I ask: Aren't any other parents simply asking their kids what happens in class every day and being shocked by the answers?
I’ve been waiting to see how the class dealt with George Washington and Abraham Lincoln on the occasion of their birthdays. inally, the topic came up today.
My son says that he and a foreign student (not an immigrant) were looking at a book containing short biographies of every U.S. president. Seeing them the teacher said something about not letting this occasion go by without saying something about these two presidents. (Does this mean that if they hadn't been reading the book nothing at all would have been done in class? Quite possibly.)
The teacher then took the small book and read from these two entries, which took only about ten minutes. This was followed by a very brief discussion. My son estimates the discussion took two minutes. That’s it for George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.
Interesting question: Does the county curriculum tell teachers to do something about Washington and Lincoln or not?
Then the class returned to one of the two favorite interlinked topics that have taken up more than 90 percent of the social studies' time. The two topics are: American racism, that is, mistreatment of other racial groupings, and immigrants (recent ones, not historical immigration). The only other topic discussed at any length has been global warming.
Please understand that this is NOT an exaggeration. I have been asking about what happened every day after school and except for a homework handout involving learning the names of the thirteen original colonies and a couple of dates this has been the sum total of social studies during five months of class.
Next, a short film was shown about four immigrants, coming from El Salvador, Togo, Taiwan, Russia (thus covering Latin America, Africa, Asia, and Europe equally). My son asked about illegal immigration. This set off the class which began talking about various anecdotes or things they had seen. The teacher told them to stop it and added that this wasn’t the subject of discussion at the moment.
Teaching kids that they should not be racist and that (legal) immigration is a good thing is quite reasonable. Teaching them almost nothing else about the American system or history (except that it is characterized by slavery and racism) isn’t. Once again I ask: Aren't any other parents simply asking their kids what happens in class every day and being shocked by the answers?
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