Social Studies, Art, and Music

I participated in a conference call with Senator Lamar Alexander and eight other educational bloggers this afternoon. The call was more of a press conference for educational bloggers than anything else. People simply chimed in and asked questions. As somebody who is very interested in social studies education, I asked the Senator if he and his colleagues would consider including a mandate for social studies testing in No Child Left Behind. The short answer was "No." In the long answer, the Senator explained that rather than looking at the subject as social studies he preferred to see it as U.S. history. He wanted to fund continued teacher development for the teaching of U.S. history. But, the federal government, he explained should not get involved in developing local curricula.

Interestingly, I didn't ask the federal government to develop local curricula. I simply asked for the mandate of a test. If the government can do it for math, reading, and science, shouldn't they also be able to require tests for social studies? The Senator did explain that the NAEP was going to include a beefed up section on U.S. History. The NAEP? Isn't that a little bit like a non-binding resolution? As I've written before, non-binding resolutions are worth as little as the paper they are written on.

The Senator lumped social studies with music, art, and physical education. Thinking back on this comparison after the call, I became incredibly frustrated. How could a United States Senator compare civics education, which is contained within the social studies to band class? Social studies is the subject in which students will learn the importance of core democratic values. Have these values lost importance? Students will learn about social advocacy in social studies. Perhaps this is not important anymore, either?

The scariest part is that in no way does Senator Alexander stand alone in de-emphasizing the importance of social studies. Senators Kennedy, Reid, and McConnell are right with him. It's bi-partisan. The President of the United States hasn't emphasized the importance of social studies education, either.

If we get rid of social studies maybe we can just have another King George???