American History MUST Be Taught !!!

I saw this comment posted in the HN today...it disturbed me greatly.

" mountainview76
1 day ago
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I hope school committee members will address MMB's shameful decision to remove American history from this city's middle schools. This is the second year now that thousands of middle school-aged students have not received ANY American history lessons. Shouldn't the study of our own country's history be one that is studied in all grades every year by the students in this city's public schools? Is any excuse acceptable? She will tell you that American history is not covered on any middle school MCAS exams. That is the reason she has moved the study of American history to the high school. It is part of the Grade 10 MCAS testing program. Because it is not on the MCAS test, the students will not learn anything in Grades 6, 7 and 8 about our own country. Ridiculous. Shameful. Un-American. Talk about teaching to the test...at a time when patriotism and pride in being American is being challenged in so many different areas. This issue is not about money...it is an issue that should be very easy to rectify. Show some pride,school committee members, and stand up for the thousands of kids in the middle schools who are being denied the opportunity to learn about the great country they live by MMB's ridiculous decision. No one wants to talk about this. No one wants to hold her accountable. Veterans' Day is right around the corner. What have middle school students learned about this day in schools where the teachers are not allowed to teach American history? Perhaps parents, guardians, veterans and other members of the Fall River community will attend the next School Committee meeting scheduled for Monday night, November 16, 6:30 PM, at the Henry Lord Middle School, to let MMB know this policy has to be changed. I wonder if any School Committee member will address this topic."

I am not some slave to fashion, or some apologist for any particular cause. But I am the son of a man who served in World War II and finished the war in a POW camp in Germany after his capture in the Battle of the Bulge. Prior to that he was in the Citizens Conservation Corps , the "CCC", during the Great Depression. I am a distant relative of John Adams as well as the great grandson of an Irish couple who landed in Boston and knew the discouragement of "Irish Need Not Apply" signs when they went to find work. I remember the day JFK was shot because I was in school that day and everything stopped as the nuns turned on television sets in the classrooms and we watched everything in horror and shock. I clearly remember the Cuban Missile Crisis, and also watching the Vietnam War on TV each night at dinner time. And I most certainly remember Woodstock, Bull Connor sicking dogs on Civil Rights protesters, and the takeover of Administration Buildings on the Harvard Campus by anti-war protesters. That was the history I've known, and the history I wish my children to know. And they did come to know it because their mother and I could conceive of no other possible way for them to go out into the world. To not know your country's history is to walk into the larger world blind and without the ability to speak.

The purpose of learning history is far more than the simple adage "those who are not aware of history are doomed to repeat it". It is our own identity, how we became what we are, why it happened, and the factors involved in getting there. It is the gateway to our future, because every time you look back, you understand where you are today and what the possibilities are for tomorrow. The past influences what we are able to see today, and our dreams of the future help us see things in the past differently, all in a continuous cycle that never stops. Learning history, if you are a thinking person, helps you analyze all you do and all you wish to do, not just what has already happened.

History only starts with dates, places and names. History, and your knowledge of history, reminds you of exactly who YOU are and what YOU are all about. It defines us all in the most important ways. It feeds our identities, our imaginations and can inspire us in incredibly intense and wonderful ways. And most importantly, it has the power to change lives!

So when I see the comments above, and I have other people tell me it's true, is it any wonder that in a City full of immigrant families and indigent families with little hope that teaching history is abandoned
with such ease in order to meet some arbitrary notion of what to teach the children in our community. MCAS is important, but why does learning history have to be disposed of so effortlessly? This is both a shame and an abomination. It's not as if all the rest of the day is actually being spent on teaching English and math so successfully! On the contrary, according to any measurement.

What we cannot have in the City of Fall River are three distinct de facto tracks - one for brilliant students with all AP classes, including history, one for poor students who can barely read and write OR speak acceptable English, and one huge track in the middle for everyone else to learn only English and ARITHMETIC (because "math" means "the calculus", which I am sure is only understood by track one students) in order to pass this terrible MCAS test. And you and I both know that this process starts in Middle School. Instead of "No child left behind", it's more like "No child left with a mind"

This cannot stand. You can not justify this, other than to say School Administration is only trying to build efficacy numbers and not minds. I tell you one thing, all my years of studying history tells me this is all about cowardice by the School Administration and nothing else. THERE IS NO REASON WHY AMERICAN HISTORY CANNOT BE TAUGHT WHILE PREPARING CHILDREN TO PASS THE MCAS TEST CHECKPOINTS AS THEY GROW OLDER. NONE. To make this argument is not leadership it is the complete abdication of responsibility and cowardice. Our students and our community deserve better. If our schools cannot accomplish teaching English, Arithmetic and American History at the same time, maybe it's time to rip it all down and start over. What a shameful set of affairs.