Algebra 2 vs social studies 1

 Algebra 2 vs. Social Studies 1

 

Our students are learning lots of algebra which only a fraction of them will ever use and next to nothing about history and civics which as a citizen in a democracy they should be using every day.

A recent Economist/YouGov poll found that one in five 18-29 year olds believe the Holocaust is a myth.  Another 30% said they are not sure!  Nearly 20% of Americans think the moon landing was faked. Half of Americans cannot name the three branches of government, yet we are reluctant to let immigrants gain citizenship through rigorous testing.

Most of this historical ignorance is among the young people.  So the question remains, where are we failing kids in our provision of an education?

Our young people are great consumers of social media.  They grab onto issues they really don’t understand and we, as educators, are not doing our job to help them.  The University of California-Berkeley recently conducted a pole.  Most students (86%) supported the popular media chant, “from the river, to the sea, Palestine will be free”.  But nearly half (47%) couldn’t name the river or the sea!  Maybe it’s the Mississippi River or the Mediterranean Sea.  Ten percent of these same COLLEGE students named Yassir Arafat as the first prime minister of Israel.   When the professor conducting the survey explained to students exactly what river and sea were in the chant, over half changed their views.

Only about 1/4^th of young adults subscribe to a print newspaper.  The rest get their news online or by watching TV with its 30 second reports.  

We are still teaching US history in one year, even though the history or our country increases every year. Our kids know more about the Pilgrims and the first thanksgiving than they do about the Gulf War.  We do not teach civics so young adults all get to vote but are hardly informed citizens and many are not voting at all.   We live in a capitalistic economy but don’t teach economics.  Many people think employers can increase employee salaries without increasing costs passed on to the consumer.

Educators need to grab back the curriculum from the politicians.  We need to decide what young adults need to know to be contributing citizens in a democracy.  That should be our basic curriculum plus reading and basic math skills.  That’s the cake, we can add the icing after that.