Heritage, 2010, Volume 1 Page: 26
31 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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TCHNGT AS H
A veteran Texas history professor looks at the way that
Lone Star students learn about their past in today's classrooms.
And he doesn't like what he sees.
Why Johnny Doesn't Remember the Alamo
By Stephen L. HardinWhat does one look for
in public school history
teachers? Mastery of sub-
ject matter, dedication to
one's students, and an
exuberance that brings
the past to life would
seem like appropriate cri-
teria. Unfortunately, that
doesn't seem to be the
case nowadays. Increasing- -
ly, school districts seek
out and reward instructors
who practice a slavish
adherence to the latest
buzz phrase: "Scope and
Sequence."
So what is "Scope and Sequence?" It is the belief that teachers
throughout a district should be covering the same material at the
same time-and woe to those independent individuals who pre-
sume to structure their own classes. The rationale is that if stu-
dents transfer to schools within the district, they will not have
missed any previously covered material. Such a justification might
be laudable were it not utter claptrap.
On the most elemental level, "Scope and Sequence" is a cynical
application of administrative control. The "No Child Left
Behind" mandate introduced another buzz word into the aca-
demic vernacular: accountability. And who can argue against the
idea that educators must be measurably effective? Yet, to demon-
strate accountability, administrators must have common stan-
dards; inevitably that results in a cookie-cutter curriculum geared
toward ensuring that students will perform well on standardized
exams. Principals and superintendents can then boast to parents
and politicians that they have met "accountability standards."
Because so much hinges upon exam results, administrators
encourage teachers to "teach to the test." During a faculty meet-ing, the principal told my
wife, who is a seventh-
grade Texas history teach-
er, "It's all about the test
scores."
Many districts lay out
dwindling resources to
purchase "management
S { systems" developed by "a
team of content experts."
There was a time when
districts trusted classroom
teachers to craft the con-
tent of their lesson plans.
That was then, this is
now. In their defense,
administrators face an
impossible situation; young people are entering the teaching pro-
fession with a woeful ignorance of history-and one cannot teach
what one does not know. Canned programs that promise com-
mon language, structure, and process merely protect mediocre
teachers who, in effect, are only reading from a mandated script.
Administrators embrace these pre-packaged curriculums
because they no longer need to locate and reward excellent
teachers who know history and love to teach it. The outstand-
ing feature of these programs, administrators claim, is that any-
body can deliver it. We no longer require historians to teach
history because faceless so-called experts have already devel-
oped the content. And these management systems have
accountability covered as well, promising "clarified and speci-
fied TEKS/TAKS expectations assembled in a vertical align-
ment format." In other words, say what we tell you, and your
students will pass the tests. All this is fine for inadequate teach-
ers. They continue to do what they've always done: show up, go
through the motions, and collect their paychecks. Real teach-
ers-those who are engaged, informed, and dedicated-resent aHERITAGE Volume 1 2010
a
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Texas Historical Foundation. Heritage, 2010, Volume 1, periodical, 2010; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth254216/m1/26/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas Historical Foundation.