In a nationally syndicated op-ed published last week, Roger Beckett, executive director of the Ashbrook Center at Ashland University, Ashland, OH; argues that teachers are being mistakenly blamed for U.S. high school students' pitiful understanding of our American history and unique form of constitutional government. Without this knowledge, he asks, how can we expect today’s students to exercise the rights and responsibilities of citizenship as adults? This may explain the low voter turnout in recent elections in Chattooga County and in the State.

Just 12 percent of all U.S. high-school seniors, for instance, scored at or above the "proficient" level in the most recent NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) U.S. history exam (2010).  In civics – the test covering the subject of U.S. government – the scores were somewhat better, but still, less than one fourth of all 12th graders (24 percent) performed at or above the “proficient” level.  (The results from the 2014 exam will be released later this spring.) It’s unfair to blame America’s 125,000 social studies teachers, however, Beckett writes.  The problem, instead, is the way teachers are educated. Teachers spend too much time learning how to teach – the mechanics of pedagogy – and not enough time learning what to teach.

The Ashbrook Center believes that without a major change in how teachers are taught, America will continue down the same path, raising generation after generation of students who do not understand what it means to be an American, who equate freedom of speech with “selfies,” who think our Founding Fathers – denigrated in popular culture as Dead Old Men – are irrelevant.

Beckett writes: “Teaching government and history involves more than just stringing together an agreed-upon chronology of significant dates and events and connecting them with names. It involves more than cursory familiarity with a handful of historically significant documents, such as the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, and Emancipation Proclamation.  “To successfully teach U.S. history and government, so students understand and appreciate the principles that define our American character, teachers need to rely less on textbooks and more on the writings and thinking of those who shaped our country.   “We have evidence – both anecdotal and statistical – that teachers who understand the importance of such documents and use them in the classroom will be better teachers.  Their students will learn more. And they’ll be better prepared for the responsibilities of citizenship as adults.” 

 

 Ashbrook Center- was founded in 1983, as an independent center at Ashland University, restores and strengthens the capacities of the American people for constitutional self-government through its education programs for teachers, students and citizens.