Surratt House participates annually in the national Blue Star Museums program administered through the NEH. Through this, active and retired members of the military receive free admission to participating museums between Memorial Day and Labor Day. They may bring up to five dependents with them, but all need to show a current military ID.

I have been working with our gov't. agency's Public Affairs and Marketing Division to advertise this, and one of the reps put together a teaser to send out to various news media in hopes that reporters would pick up on the human interest angle.

The following quote from that teaser shows a depressing statistic about the state of U.S. history among our middle school students. I suspect that the statistic does not change much, even on the college level...

"The most recent study conducted by The National Assessment of Educational Progress found only 18% of more than 11,000 eighth graders were ‘proficient’ in U.S. history."

That would mean 82% were antificient?
Or would it be inefficient?


They probably ain't to good in grammer neither.

(05-23-2017 03:09 PM)L Verge Wrote:  Surratt House participates annually in the national Blue Star Museums program administered through the NEH. Through this, active and retired members of the military receive free admission to participating museums between Memorial Day and Labor Day. They may bring up to five dependents with them, but all need to show a current military ID.

I have been working with our gov't. agency's Public Affairs and Marketing Division to advertise this, and one of the reps put together a teaser to send out to various news media in hopes that reporters would pick up on the human interest angle.

The following quote from that teaser shows a depressing statistic about the state of U.S. history among our middle school students. I suspect that the statistic does not change much, even on the college level...

"The most recent study conducted by The National Assessment of Educational Progress found only 18% of more than 11,000 eighth graders were ‘proficient’ in U.S. history."

Laurie, I deal with this every day on students lack of historical knowledge especially American History. A few examples
1. While watching the Alamo. one student asked who won?
2. While watching Gods & Generals, one student remarked who are the soldiers in blue.
3. Another student commented when seeing the Confederate battle flag, Isn't that a racist flag?
4. Still another student asked if this war was in the 1900s.
5. Many students think there are 52 states and that Canada is part of the United States.
And the list goes on and on.

And we spend billions upon tens of billions upon hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars on education.

(05-23-2017 06:41 PM)ELCore Wrote:  And we spend billions upon tens of billions upon hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars on education.

Agreed. My mother used to complain that the more taxes she paid in the name of education, the worse the schools became. She also noted that she had only one child and one grandchild in those schools, while multiple welfare babies (whose parent(s) paid no taxes) were overloading the system.

I taught some of those welfare children and had no qualms about it. Education for all is part of our system, but it would be nice if everyone could assist in raising those dismal performances. Unfortunately, it is not just the history field that is taking a beating. Education is not fair and equitable in the arts and humanities subjects any more.

We in this Forum have been mentioning this sad fact for years. Even recent history--say going to JFK--is largely unknown to most. When I have asked other about history, I often hear: "Oh, that was my least favorite subject in school."

(05-23-2017 06:41 PM)ELCore Wrote:  And we spend billions upon tens of billions upon hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars on education.

As with most things in life, money isn't the answer. It is frequently used as a substitute for personal involvement and caring.
Unless more parents become more involved and caring about their children's education, more money spent will not solve the problem.
It takes an adult to show an interest in the child and to encourage them. And that also takes time.
Schools need to encourage the parents to be involved in and out of the classroom.

And while we are at it, religion and history go hand in hand. Religion and morality are leading factors that influence historical events, changes in society.
We hurt our children when we do not properly and honestly teach them about the worlds religions, how they are different, and their impact on history.

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You might likes to read this:
http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/linc...ducate.htm
Gene, your first passage is spot on. Neither money nor school can come up for lacking parental personal care and engagement.

(05-25-2017 03:56 AM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  You might likes to read this:
http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/linc...ducate.htm
Gene, your first passage is spot on. Neither money nor school can come up for lacking parental personal care and engagement.

I agree with you completely. However, having watched the transition from a society where Mom stayed home and also where the teachers knew best to one where parents are often in the shadows or where the teachers and principals are always wrong, we can't expect much to change.

Our economic situations now almost demand that Mom become part of the work force in order to pay the mortgage, and this leaves children unattended (with parents not having a clue as to what really goes on in their lives). The increased higher education levels of many parents may also tend to make them think they know more than the teachers (and in some cases they do!). This gives parents a power level not present fifty years ago. They use this power to intimidate school officials.

And, unfortunately, there are many weak teachers in our national system. There is a great demand for teachers to fill classrooms, so many of them are hired without proper credentials, certification, etc. My daughter is a mentoring teacher here in our county schools. She doesn't mentor students; she mentors teachers who are struggling in the classroom.

Working here in the museum, I sometimes have a hard time distinguishing the students from the teachers in the upper grades -- no professional behavior, no professional dress code, and no setting ground rules for the students.

I will probably get in hot water here, but I remember forty years ago the upheaval in our county system when the school board (political appointees with little background in education) decreed that we would no longer group students in a track system according to their abilities and needs. The theory was that mixing the needy children in with the high achievers would bring the needy ones up to speed. Teachers said it would have the opposite effect, and it did. When the achievers saw that they didn't have to work very hard in order to pass, they stopped achieving. Water seeks the lowest level.

Anyhow, I am rambling, and I sincerely wish that parents and society in general would work with educational systems to improve attitudes as well as curricula. I suspect, however, that the increased use of computers will create an environment where our students are one-on-one with a machine, where no one is actively monitoring what that machine says, and where good teachers are obsolete.

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One last thought: School budgets are controlled by politicians. Few items on an agenda can gain an elected official more votes than promising to throw more money into school systems - whether it is needed that year or not.