Hillsdale Mailer Misled about Tennessee’s Social Studies Standards
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By Bill Carey
We’re half-way through an election cycle that is the ugliest I’ve ever seen. But no piece of campaign mail has angered me as much as something I received last week from the Michigan-based institution known as Hillsdale College.
The mailer was sent to thousands – maybe tens of thousands – of households in the Volunteer State. It warned that “activists” and “education bureaucrats,” using “critical race theory and other Marxist ideologies,” are corrupting the public-school curriculum. “It isn’t a secret that American civics education – education in American history and government—has been abandoned in far too many of our schools,” the letter said.
“Critical race theory and woke politics are found nationwide in K-12 classrooms, even in your state,” read its post-script. “These radical ideologies have pushed K-12 education in America to a crisis point, threatening freedom itself.”
The mailer asked people to donate money, which would supposedly be used to send copies of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution to public schools.
There are a few things I want to say about this mailer. I’ll start by explaining that Tennessee’s current social studies standards were created by a committee of 10 people – 4 of whom were appointed by a Republican governor named Bill Haslam, 3 by a Republican Lieutenant Governor named Ron Ramsey, and 3 by a Republican Speaker of the House named Beth Harwell.
I was on that 10-member committee. We were chaired by Jason Roach, a Hawkins County principal, Republican member of the Hawkins County Commission, and U.S. Army veteran. Our vice chair was William Curtis, then a history teacher in Cannon County Schools, and later the superintendent of that system. We had amongst our members two school system social studies coordinators (Davidson and Knox Counties); two teachers (Hardin and Knox Counties); two principals (Coffee and Shelby Counties); a Tennessee State University professor, and me (I live in Williamson County).
Our committee had about seven day-long meetings between July 2016 and March 2017. We had some heated discussions. We debated how to word the standards that cover the origins of world religions such as Buddhism, Christianity and Islam. We fought about when to teach Tennessee history, and in how much detail. We argued about whether it’s a good idea to teach the Holocaust to students at a young age, or whether to not teach the Holocaust until high school. We had a discussion about whether to require second grade students to learn the words of the national anthem when they haven’t learned about the War of 1812 yet, and they don’t know vocabulary words such as “perilous” and “rampart.”
There were many arguments, as there should be when 10 educated people revise a complex 260-page document.
But I’m afraid there weren’t any Marxists in the room. There also wasn’t anyone there from the Michigan-based organization now sending out mailers claiming there there WERE Marxists in the room.
The Tennessee social studies standards are on the internet for everyone to see. If you look, you will see that the U.S. Constitution is mentioned in 2nd grade (standard 2.21). Fourth grade students go through the first half of U.S. history, and so there are four U.S. Constitution standards in that grade (4.11 through 4.14). Eighth grade students go through the first half of U.S. history again, in more detail, and there are five U.S. Constitution standards in that grade. High school seniors take a semester class in government, where they go through yet another section where they study the U.S. Constitution.
By the time public school students graduate from high school in Tennessee, they’ve been taught (more than once) how the Articles of Confederation failed; who wrote the U.S. Constitution; the three branches of U.S. government; the big compromises at the Constitutional Convention; how the Constitution can be changed; what its most important amendments are; how Supreme Court decisions such as Marbury v. Madison and Brown v. Board of Education changed how we interpret it; and countless other subjects.
A conservative think tank called the Fordham Institute has studied every state’s social studies standards and judged them by their civics and U.S. history content. Tennessee’s standards were ranked “exemplary” – their highest mark – while many other states got inferior marks, such as “good,” “inadequate,” and “mediocre.”
What I want Tennesseans to understand is this: You are free to donate money to Hillsdale College or any other organization that claims to be sending pocket-sized Constitutions to public schools. (However, I’d rather see people choose a local entity that does something similar, such as your Rotary Club.)
But do understand that the original Declaration of Independence and Constitution are a rather mystifying documents to a fourth grader. Students need to learn the stories behind the Declaration. They also need to know not just what the Constitution says, but how it works; and how it has been changed over the years. That’s the tricky part; and that’s why teachers need our help – not lies.
If you are interested Tennessee’s social studies standards, google the words “Tennessee Social Studies Standards” and you should be taken to a pdf file. Print it out (I’ve printed out about 20 copies of the 260-page file over the years.) Read the printed version, or use your computer’s search function to see often the U.S. Constitution is mentioned.
Please don’t believe Hillsdale College when it says that “activists and educational bureaucrats” have unleashed “radical” and “woke” ideologies. Please don’t believe Hillsdale College’s claim that Tennessee’s public school teachers aren’t teaching the U.S. Constitution.
Bill Carey was a member of the Tennessee Social Studies Standard Review Committee in 2016-17. He was appointed by Lt. Governor Ron Ramsey.