Americentrism: Not only a problem for Petrolheads...

         There is a strong emphasis on American history, American government, American economics, and American sociology in the American public school system, but is it too much?  Public school districts start teaching American history as early as 1st and 2nd grade and they continue teaching often until 11th or 12th grade.  Often times students will only get on grading period worth of world history and often that is only ancient European history  I will not argue the importance of teaching this the American way of life to students, but is this encouraging Americentrism.  I don't mean strong American nationalism, I mean ethnocentrism and xenophobia toward any other culture.   Should we be teaching East Asian, African, Australian, and European History at the same time to the same extent as American history?  I don't know the answer to this question, but I do know we are living in increasingly globalized world.  Many people say China, India and Brazil may be the new world superpowers within in the next one hundred years.  If this is case are we as teachers responsible for educating the American youth about these cultures as well as our own?  I think so.

Have we lost our way?

Like all preservice teachers, the idea that middle school students cannot possibly listen to a forty-five minute lecture has been continually hammered into my head since my first day of class.  I would agree wholeheartedly that middle school students cannot listen to a traditional, overhead projector style fact filled lecture, but I don't think we should abandoned lecture entirely.  The modern interpretation of middle school education is more similar to elementary education then it is to high school and I don't know if that is the right approach.  I think that middle school should be a time to transition between the two opposing teaching styles.  I think that instead of emphasizing on activities and a hands on approaches to learning supplemented with lectures and presentations, I think that middle school teachers should be consciously aware of what their students are capable of learning and focus on teaching at the highest level possible.  Activities and hands on approaches should be used as aids, not as the focus of a lesson.  Activities can be used to illustrate points and to make connections to learning, but if the only focus of the lesson is the activity, valuable connections will be lost.  Limiting a lesson to ten minutes of teacher lecture is a slippery slope that new teachers should avoid, because it can seriously cripple a lesson.  The most important parts of activity driven lessons are the briefing and debriefing otherwise valuable learning and long hours of planning are completely wasted.

Alignment: What is Important?

Social studies education to tends to be taught from a historical perspective that focus on facts and figues, and names and dates.  Though this information IS very important, the chances that students will retain information taught in this way is very unlikely.  It is far more likely that students will recall patterns, social implications, and associations with current events if that becomes the focus of teaching.  Instead of saying there was a Native American uprising in August of 1862, known as the Dakota War and there were intense battles between Dakota Indians and Minnesota militia for several months.  History teachers need to focus on the implications of events for future generations of Minnesotans.  The Dakota War of 1862 was a defining moment in Minnesota and federal government policy regarding Native Americans, because it caused tension and distrust between both groups of people.  The locations of current reservations, the names of streets, towns, and parks all come from this time period.  Basically, history taught as a series static events that took place hundreds of years ago simply isn't interesting to many kids.  Kids need to be taught that everything is interconnected and that events in history aren't separate from things today.  Making connections should be the MOST important aspect of every lesson taught in a history classroom.