Education "Reform"

Another sad bit of news has emerged from the education front.  Once again, another school district has elected to deal with the problem of declining graduation rates not by addressing the problem, but simply by making it easier to graduate.

The public school district of Washington, D.C., is considering a proposal to eliminate social studies from the required curriculum.  Some pundits have already noted that course in civics and social studies have already been dumbed-down substantially in many areas, but this policy change would simply eliminate such study altogether.

To be fair, it should be noted that the Washington schools now require a minimum of two years of a foreign language, which is a major improvement, but this proposal strikes at the heart of American citizenship--ironically so in the very capital of the United States.

This development is a chilling reminder of the proposal floated awhile back in North Carolina to eliminate formal study at the high school level of American history prior to 1877.

Policies that lead away from the study of history and government are an affront to all, but particularly to minorities and any groups who struggled for rights and recognition and whose record of past activities would now be ignored.  Such an action is unconscionable in this supposedly "enlightened" era.

There is much good news in education, but dumbing-down of curriculum would scarcely fall into such a category.  As a nation, we need to realize that we have focused far too long on the funding of education, and far too little on what is being taught, what is not being taught, and how it is being taught.