Our children deserve better then C+ textbooks. Many of you know I have been searching for a U.S. History Textbook. After doing volumes of research I am more discouraged then ever.
First stop
Thomas B. Fordham Institute – Consumer’s Guide to High School History Textbooks
Sadly Glencoe’s American Journey: Building a Nation got the highest marks at a whopping 78% C+ (Acceptable). It only got worse. I don’t know about you, but I want an A+ textbook for my children, especially at the prices they expect you to pay. This should be one battle that both public school parents and home school parents can unite on.
And it’s not like they are not aware of the problem. There are tons of articles lamenting the poor quality of textbooks and U.S. History textbooks in particular.
According to the Washington Times Special Report –
Social studies textbooks used in elementary and secondary schools are mostly a disgrace that, in the name of political correctness and multiculturalism, fail to give students an honest account of American history, say academic historians and education advocates.
'Deadly dull'Historian David McCullough, who won two Pulitzer Prizes for his biographies of Presidents John Adams and Harry Truman, also calls school history and social studies textbooks "deadly dull." "It is as if they were designed to kill anyone's interest in history," he said in an interview. "A child made to read these books would ask, 'What did I do wrong today that I am being so punished?'"
Textbooks written to be "politically correct" do not tell the truth about struggle and conflict through the ages in order to avoid offending minorities, ethnic groups, women and other advocates, he said. "History is a story, cause and effect. And if you're going to teach just segments of history, women's issues, these youngsters have almost no sense of cause and effect," he said. Mr. McCullough said, "I would do away with the textbooks. ... Get rid of all the state commissions that write the textbooks" because they fail to instill in students a sense of gratitude for the country's leaders over the centuries and what the American people endured and accomplished in order to pass on a legacy of freedom and prosperity. "I think that to be ignorant or indifferent to history isn't just to be uneducated or stupid. It's to be rude, ungrateful. And ingratitude is an ugly failing in human beings."
Read the full article.
Textbook Troubles by
Rebecca Jones has this to say
The American Textbook Council issued a report earlier this year criticizing the latest history textbooks for dumbing down and reinventing history. "Content is thinner and thinner," according to the report, and is "increasingly deformed by identity politics and group pieties." Because textbook-adoption committees and teachers look for this sort of thing, the report says, "editors have moved diversity lessons to front and center, at risk to student interest and accuracy." So there are more stories about Sacajawea and fewer about George Washington.
Recommend History Book –
The Story of America by John A. Garraty Sandra Stotsky at EducationNews.Org wrote
Why American Students Know So Little American History and What We Can Do About It.
And if you REALLY want to know why textbooks are such a mess read
The Muddle Machine Confessions of a Textbook Editor by Tamim Ansary. Be sure to check out her ideas for fixing American Textbooks.
Since I don’t expect the problem to be fixed anytime soon, I plan to create my own U.S. History Program …………………It’ll take awhile and be more work for me, but at least I have until Fall 2007 to pull it together. I promise to keep you updated.
