Senator Marc Basnight Defends Teaching of Founding Fathers

North Carolina made national news when it revealed that they were changing the history curriculum in high school. It was reported that students would skip the study of our founding fathers and the American civil war; instead they would begin study of the progressive era, which began in the 1870's.

A massive outpour of indignant rage inundated the offices of North Carolina's public officials, prompting Senator Marc Basnight (D) president pro tempore, to write a letter to the state superintendent of public instruction June Atkinson, and state board of Education chairman Bill Harrison. The letter stated the following as reported by the Washington Daily News:

“Any changes the state makes to teaching U.S. History must be an enhancement to what students learn in high school and not downshifting in any way. As a reader of history myself, I think that no one should graduate from high school without a thorough understanding of the Declaration of Independence, the Founding Fathers, the writing of the Constitution, and the personalities involved. Furthermore, it is my belief that only high school students have the capacity to understand complex and awful parts of our nation’s history such as slavery and the Civil War. To exclude the founding of our nation at its early struggles from our high school curriculum would be doing a disservice to our students and teachers alike,” Basnight wrote.

Currently, ninth-grade students take world history, 10th-grade students study civics and economics and 11th-grade students take U.S. history in a survey course that goes back to the nation’s founding.

The proposed changes would provide a year of U.S. history in elementary school and middle school. The high-school civics course includes learning about the nation’s development and foundation. The high-school U.S. history course would begin with 1877, the end of Reconstruction. The years before Reconstruction would have been covered with students in fourth grade, as part of North Carolina history, in fifth grade and in seventh grade, according to the Department of Public Instruction.

“Sadly, students know very little about history as it is,” Basnight wrote. “We should be doubling, maybe even tripling, our efforts and enhancing the course work that is now taught in high school. . . In fact, I would like to see history taught in expanded and unique ways, perhaps as an extracurricular activity outside of the school day if time cannot be found during the regular school hours, even as a means of extra credit. However do not carry on with the thoughts of the changes as presented. U.S. History is too precious and important and must be taught in its entirety during the high school years.”

Kudos to Marc Basnight.

Source: http://www.wdnweb.com/articles/2010/02/14/news/doc4b77171c997db700078673.txt