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Feb. 4th, 2005 05:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fabrisseI don't know how many of you have been following the articles that say our current crop of high school students don't believe in the First Amendment. If you're unfamiliar with it, please go to a news page that carries Associate Press articles and look up the one by Ben Feller from 1/31/2005. ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
siskodax is the one who brought this to my attention.
Now the first thing to remember is that we don't know what questions were asked or how they were phrased.eanja pointed this out to me a couple of days ago, and it is an essential point. If anyone has access to the original survey or can present anything that might skew the statistics, I'd really like to know about it.
Because, my first thought is, "it's true." During my year of tutoring at the local Boys and Girls Club there were two things that I found common to the students I talked to. The first was that there was nothing they could do to make the world better. Their own lives felt, to them, to be so predetermined that for many of them even thinking about college or a career was foolish.
The second was that, although the constant vulgarities that come out of their mouths are a prime example of it, they don't really believe in free speech. Some of this may just be that they've had too many authority figures tell them to shut up, but I believe, from the students that I tutored, it has far more to do with the way that American History and American Ideas are being taught.
Now some of you may know that the job that currently pays me so inadequately is as a textreader. What I'm reading are the state exams for 20 states. Every comma, plus sign, and page number is read out loud. And several things have struck me. The first is that fewer than half the states have a history or social studies requirement. Slightly more have a science requirement. The rest have only English and Math requirements. Of the English requirements only about half the ones I've read require written work (and I'd argue that only one or two of those states requires critical thinking in the written work).
On the social studies tests there are questions about map reading and geography and occasional questions about big events (Lewis and Clark seems to be everyone's favorite expedition). The Southern states are more likely to ask questions about the bill of Rights while the other states are more likely to ask questions about the Declaration of Independence. Several states ask questions that clarify the separation of powers, but they are more likely to do it using examples at the state level than the national level.
What I'm seeing only rarely is anything that asks what specific rights are defended by the Constitution and Bill of Rights. The Civil War gets some interesting play, but no one seems to ask about the meaning of such key phrases as "government of the people, by the people, and for the people." Basically every student understands "of the people" and a few get the whole "for the people" idea, and those are the pieces that I'm seeing reinforced in these tests. "By the people" keeps flying under the radar.
Let me be clear. I don't like these tests. I think that they favor the kids who do well on tests (I was one; my sister wasn't. I know both sides of the arguments.) often at the expense of any real understanding of the issues that they are being taught to parrot on the tests.
However, if these things are going to be required, then they should:
1) be more uniform from state to state.
2) cover history.
3) require critical thinking in areas other than the English section (for those that require critical thinking at all).
Without critical thinking, we are going to continue to breed students who cannot and will not think for themselves. Without addressing U.S. History, they are only going to know "facts" without contexts and without ideals.
I have a question for anyone who is reading this. How would you teach the little bastards to value their freedoms of speech, assembly, religion, and fair and speedy trial and their freedoms from established state religion and cruel and unusual punishment?
On a related note: Is anyone else appalled at the number of people on cop shows who don't ask for a warrant when the police come by? I'm even more appalled by the regular implication that people only request that the police get a warrant if they are guilty. It's one of the things that I see becoming ingrained in our culture, and it scares me because it's another step away from the Founding Fathers and the intent of "The American Experiment."
siskodax is the one who brought this to my attention.Now the first thing to remember is that we don't know what questions were asked or how they were phrased.
eanja pointed this out to me a couple of days ago, and it is an essential point. If anyone has access to the original survey or can present anything that might skew the statistics, I'd really like to know about it.Because, my first thought is, "it's true." During my year of tutoring at the local Boys and Girls Club there were two things that I found common to the students I talked to. The first was that there was nothing they could do to make the world better. Their own lives felt, to them, to be so predetermined that for many of them even thinking about college or a career was foolish.
The second was that, although the constant vulgarities that come out of their mouths are a prime example of it, they don't really believe in free speech. Some of this may just be that they've had too many authority figures tell them to shut up, but I believe, from the students that I tutored, it has far more to do with the way that American History and American Ideas are being taught.
Now some of you may know that the job that currently pays me so inadequately is as a textreader. What I'm reading are the state exams for 20 states. Every comma, plus sign, and page number is read out loud. And several things have struck me. The first is that fewer than half the states have a history or social studies requirement. Slightly more have a science requirement. The rest have only English and Math requirements. Of the English requirements only about half the ones I've read require written work (and I'd argue that only one or two of those states requires critical thinking in the written work).
On the social studies tests there are questions about map reading and geography and occasional questions about big events (Lewis and Clark seems to be everyone's favorite expedition). The Southern states are more likely to ask questions about the bill of Rights while the other states are more likely to ask questions about the Declaration of Independence. Several states ask questions that clarify the separation of powers, but they are more likely to do it using examples at the state level than the national level.
What I'm seeing only rarely is anything that asks what specific rights are defended by the Constitution and Bill of Rights. The Civil War gets some interesting play, but no one seems to ask about the meaning of such key phrases as "government of the people, by the people, and for the people." Basically every student understands "of the people" and a few get the whole "for the people" idea, and those are the pieces that I'm seeing reinforced in these tests. "By the people" keeps flying under the radar.
Let me be clear. I don't like these tests. I think that they favor the kids who do well on tests (I was one; my sister wasn't. I know both sides of the arguments.) often at the expense of any real understanding of the issues that they are being taught to parrot on the tests.
However, if these things are going to be required, then they should:
1) be more uniform from state to state.
2) cover history.
3) require critical thinking in areas other than the English section (for those that require critical thinking at all).
Without critical thinking, we are going to continue to breed students who cannot and will not think for themselves. Without addressing U.S. History, they are only going to know "facts" without contexts and without ideals.
I have a question for anyone who is reading this. How would you teach the little bastards to value their freedoms of speech, assembly, religion, and fair and speedy trial and their freedoms from established state religion and cruel and unusual punishment?
On a related note: Is anyone else appalled at the number of people on cop shows who don't ask for a warrant when the police come by? I'm even more appalled by the regular implication that people only request that the police get a warrant if they are guilty. It's one of the things that I see becoming ingrained in our culture, and it scares me because it's another step away from the Founding Fathers and the intent of "The American Experiment."
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no subject
Date: 2005-02-05 08:26 pm (UTC)I would lay the principles out and talk about the reasons behind them. Then I would break the kids into groups and give each group some sort of legal/ethical dilemma/case that they had to solve/legislate (you can even pull from real Supreme Court cases).
Afterward, they would present their judgement the class and their classmates would be given a opportunity to critique their conclusions--with emphasis on finding any loopholes, pitfalls, or weaknesses. Not only could this be lesson on the intricacies of law, but on society itself.
I think getting the kids to think about these things--setting it up like a problem solving exercise, gets them more motivated. Because they would feel more invested in the decisions, in the laws. I don't think you can't just lecture about freedom of speech or gun control or these issues. You have to encourage children (and everyone actually) to see these issues from both a personal and a objective standpoint.