The AP History Thing

I homeschooled my children for many years before they entered public school. And one of the things I tried very hard to do was to give them an accurate history of the United States, not just the white-guys-from-Texas version, starting with a more realistic account of how the first Thanksgiving came to be. And now that they are in school, I've continued the dialog about what they are learning in history, filling in things that are being left out, and correcting inaccuracies. Mostly, I've taught my children to look at history from the perspective of all who were involved in the events, and to not just believe what anyone tells them with blind faith, because everyone tells it from their own perspective.

So it was with interest that I learned that David Coleman is re-writing the AP History Syllabus. David Coleman is the head of the College Board, the "non-profit" company that produces the SAT, the GED, and all the Advanced Placement (AP) tests, and is also one of the "chief architects" of the Common Core. He inspires a lot of hatred, and as a result, anything he does is seen through a this-can't-be-good lens. Nevertheless, I have been trying to educate myself with a little bit more of an open mind.

The problem is that the partisan bickering has begun and threatens to spread in full force. The first article I read about it says “We are witnessing a coordinated, two-pronged effort to effectively federalize all of American K-12 education, while shifting its content sharply to the left,” and after half a dozen or so, the last article I read says "...conservatives no more want to understand the past than they do participate in our shared reality. They prefer a fantasy America, built up around their ideology, to which the record of the past must be bent in subjugation, much like those blacks, Indians, women, and religious minorities they still despise."

Ugh.

When it comes to American History it is simply impossible to be bi-partisan. Everyone wants their version of what happened to be what's focused on. My personal feeling is that history should be left out of the conversation when trying to mobilize people to take action against Common Core; it should not be mentioned on Fight Common Core websites or Facebook pages. But since my voice is not being heard in those forums, I want to use this one to talk about realities of the issue so you can decide for yourself where you stand.

First, this is all regarding a high school AP course. That is, a student takes it in high school and can theoretically get college credit for it. It's therefore optional; it's not going to be taught to every student in high school, just the ones who agree to pay the $89 to take the test at the end. So this is not a class that is going to be forced on your kids like the rest of Common Core. Maybe it will be in the future, but not now.

Next, you can read all about what will actually be taught yourself, here. You can then decide whether it's something you want your child to do. Unlike the rest of the Common Core curriculum.

And finally, my own two cents. Yes, as far as what I've read, it is clear that more of the uglier aspects of our history are being included in the class. But I don't have a problem with that. My problem is that, like with everything that actually is Common Core related, learning facts is taking a back seat to "critical thinking". In all I've read (so far) Education News puts it best:

The new AP U.S. History courses focus on “historical thinking skills” aims at turning high school students into “apprentice historians.”... It tells the students they are no longer merely students striving to get a foundation in facts and understanding, but rather young professionals in a learned academic discipline ready to develop their command of sophisticated analytic and synthetic skills.

This very much falls within the zone of contemporary education where colleges and universities—and schools—trip over themselves to assure students that they possess such insight and blazing intelligence that they can skip the learn-how-to-swim courses and go straight to the Olympic relay team.

To be sure, really bright high school students should indeed begin to work on chronological reasoning, comparing and contextualizing, crafting historical arguments using historical evidence, and interpreting and synthesizing historical narrative.  But they aren’t going to get very far on these sophisticated skills if they are not also acquiring a well-landscaped understanding of the big picture, a richly detailed recall of historical sequence, and a genuine familiarity with key people and key documents.  These are what the new AP U.S. History framework plays down.  The mentality seems to be, ‘if it is something the student can look up, we need not expect him to learn it.’

My personal opinion is that the AP course should not be allowed to replace American History in high schools, but that if students want to take it, they should be required to wait till after they take the class our local districts put together; they should get the real facts first (insofar as the white-guys-in-Texas textbooks will enable them to) and then take the analytical class as an elective.

And I definitely feel that this issue is a completely separate one from Common Core.