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STEM isn’t enough: Teach CHinG
Everyone’s pushing STEM education, writes Natalie Wexler on Forbes. But math and science won’t do young people much good if they don’t understand history, civics and geography. She asks for a new...
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Why Johnny can’t read very well
Why do so few American kids read well?, a teacher asks literacy researcher Timothy Shanahan. Only 37 percent of 4th graders are proficient readers, according to the 2017 National Assessment of...
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Teaching ‘Black Panther’
? Black Panther, a huge box office hit, is a “hit with teachers” too, reports Brenda Iasevoli in Ed Week. Teachers are building lessons based on the film, set in the super hi-tech, uncolonized African...
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Teaching slavery
To illustrate the horrors of slave ships, a middle-school teacher told three black students to lie on the floor and stepped on a girl’s back. The teacher — now reassigned — is white. Most of her...
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Simulating slavery: Is it ever a good idea?
New Jersey fifth-graders were asked to create posters advertising slave auctions and escaped slaves. The superintendent apologized for the history assignment. Simulating slavery in the classroom is...
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U.S. kids see history as ‘irrelevant, boring’
U.S. students don’t know much about U.S. history, concludes a study by the Woodrow Wilson Foundation. Researchers blamed schools’ focus on memorizing “irrelevant, boring” names and dates, writes...
View ArticleDon’t pick that bale
? Black parents in Lee’s Summit, Missouri are angry that a fourth-grade choir sang Pick a Bale of Cotton at a school concert, complaining it glorifies slavery. The school is predominantly white. At a...
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Concentration camp — or summer camp?
Oregon schools will teach about the Holocaust under a new bill. I wonder how they’ll do it. See the worksheet below that seeks to engage students’ multiple intelligences by letting them write a poem,...
View ArticleYouTube: WWII history is ‘hate speech’
? An award-winning history teacher’s YouTube channel, built up over 15 years, included “120 clips covering world history over the past 1,000 years,” reports The Telegraph. YouTube banned Scott Allsop’s...
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Imagine you’re a slave owner …
Imagine you’re a cotton plantation owner in the South before the Civil War. How would you defend slavery? That assignment, part of a national K-8 social studies curriculum called Studies Weekly,...
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An end to Civil War Days?
Civil War Days at Lakewood Forest Preserve in Wauconda, Illinois. Re-enacting the Civil War is a waste of time, says Angelo Kyle, president of the Lake County (Illinois) Forest Preserve board. Kyle...
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It’s all hate speech now
The Declaration of Independence includes hate speech, according to Facebook’s algorithm. Christian Britschgi explains on Reason‘s blog. The Liberty County Vindicator of Liberty County, Texas began...
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Learn, talk, think
Three girls are using prior knowledge, texts and images to rank five Civil War heroes in order of heroism. Then they’ll write essays justifying their choices. Two classmates are analyzing the...
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‘Nuts’ to whitewashing Washington mural
The mural’s depiction of a dead Native American and of slaves working at Mount Vernon “glorifies” oppression, activists charge. Credit: Dick Evans/CC BY Educators are trying to save the mural of...
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If we can’t agree on the flag …
The Birth of Old Glory by Percy Moran, 1917 The “Betsy Ross flag,” the symbol of our country in 1776, is “offensive” because it was created “in an era of slavery,” argues activist athlete Colin...
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Teaching ‘Black Panther’
? Black Panther, a huge box office hit, is a “hit with teachers” too, reports Brenda Iasevoli in Ed Week. Teachers are building lessons based on the film, set in the super hi-tech, uncolonized African...
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History is taught as texts without context
Who’s that man? Why is the crowd gathered? Teachers aren’t supposed to say. Studying texts, without context, is no way to learn history, writes Will Fitzhugh on Diane Ravitch’s blog. But it’s the...
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‘Victor narrative’ helps students learn
The young teacher confesses her privilege, declares herself an “ally” and tells students they are victims of a hostile society. Victimhood narratives don’t just waste time that should be spent teaching...
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Teaching ‘Black Panther’
? Black Panther, a huge box office hit, is a “hit with teachers” too, reports Brenda Iasevoli in Ed Week. Teachers are building lessons based on the film, set in the super hi-tech, uncolonized African...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Teaching slavery
To illustrate the horrors of slave ships, a middle-school teacher told three black students to lie on the floor and stepped on a girl’s back. The teacher — now reassigned — is white. Most of her...
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