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Legislative Report for Florida Council for the Social Studies (FCSS) and the Florida Association of Social Studies Supervisors (FASSS)
This is a quick legislative update on the current situation as the Florida legislature and Department of Education begin to prepare for theupcoming session. The FCCS/FASSS Legislative Committee has been working hard with the Lou Frey Institute, UCF, and other civic minded organizations to once again ask that Civics and History be given their rightful attention in the Florida K-12 public school system. Recently, former Governor Bob Graham and former U.S. Congressman Lou Frey have visited Tallahassee for two full days of meetings with Governor Crist and key legislative and educational leaders. Both of these leading Florida statesmen as well as other prominent citizens are asking for Civics and History to be added to the statewide student accountability system.
There have been a series of reports just issued recently that give credence to the alarms sounded for years by social studies educators across the state. First, the joint report endorsed by Governor Graham and Congressman Frey entitled "Enlisting A New Generation of Florida Citizens" outlines the current status of civic understanding and lays the foundation for returning it to its rightful place in our publicschools. Another report contains the executive summary of the Stetson University survey of approximately 1,800 elementary teachers from across
the state. It lends further evidence to the fact that Civics and History are not being adequately addressed in most Florida classrooms.
FCSS/FASSS is currently mounting another aggressive campaign this legislative session to restore these subjects to their rightful place in our K-12 educational system. Attached is a sample letter [file #3 below] we urge all Social Studies teachers and civic-minded individuals to adapt and send immediately to their local elected representatives. [We would also like to ask that copies of such correspondence be sent to FCSS Legislative Chair Jack Bovee at boveeja@collier.k12.fl.us or faxed to him at 239-377-0165.
Should you need some evidence or quotations about the longstanding commitment for the need for such a focus in our public schools, review file #5.
Additional favorite quotations are welcomed.
Due to the transition in Tallahassee and many other reasons, we are getting a late start this year, so thanks for spreading the word. Write or call your legislator, your newspaper editorial board, your local civic-minded groups, etc. etc.
Jack Bovee
Legislative Chair, FCSS/FASSS
File #3—Sample letter
Your address here
The Honorable Jim King (insert your legislator and appropriate address here)
9485 Regency Square Boulevard, Suite 108
Jacksonville, FL
32225-8145
Dear Senator King:
I am writing to urge your support of a statewide program to assess Civic education and Historical understanding of Florida's future citizens during this legislative session. As a Social Studies educator for the past 10 years, I have witnessed the impact of statewide assessment on social studies/ civic education. Unfortunately, our students' understanding of U.S. history and the workings of our republican form of government have been in a rapid state of decline in the past 20 years. It is our generation's duty to ensure that all students have a working knowledge of our political processes, an understanding of our nation's history, and the requisite skills to be positive contributors to their community, state and nation.
Social Studies educators along with civic minded groups such as the Florida League of Women Voters and the Sons of the American Revolution have long advocated for an increased emphasis on civic and historical understanding in Florida's public schools. Leading citizens in the state are sounding an alarm that a civic education crisis is imminent. I strongly urge you to submit and/or support legislation that initiates the statewide assessment of the Social Studies Sunshine State Standards, to take effect at the appropriate future date by which this may be most efficiently accomplished. I would suggest a date for such a state-wide assessment to be no later than 2012. The passage of such legislation at this time will serve not only to rekindle an awareness of the important civic mission of Florida's public schools, but will serve to give direction to the curriculum writing initiatives currently being undertaken by the Florida Department of Education.
I understand that the House and Senate are grappling with many difficult financial choices. However, investment in said assessment(s) will aid to ensure the continued growth and prosperity of our democracy. Currently,
- At present, more than 2.6 million students are enrolled in grades K-12 at public schools across Florida. If national percentages are any guide, nearly 1.9 million of these children either reached or will reach the fourth (4th) grade without being able to identify the Constitution as the document that sets basic rules for the federal government. Another nearly 2.4 million have reached or will reach the twelfth (12th) grade without being able to explain two ways that citizen participation in the political process benefits our democratic society. Even Florida’s best and brightest high school civics students – those juniors and seniors enrolled in Advanced Placement (AP) U.S. History and U.S. Government and Politics courses – lag behind students in comparable states in their understanding of those subjects.
- Eligible Floridians exercise their vote far less often than citizens in other states. According to a 2006 report, Florida ranked 39th in average voter turnout for the 2002 and 2004 general elections.
- For the November 2006 general election, turnout in Florida was a disappointing 46.8%. In September 2006, primary election turnout was an abysmal 19.6%. Both figures were nearly 20% less than the historical average between 1954 and 2004.
Recently, Former Governor and U.S. Senator Bob Graham commented during a state broadcast radio interview on Civic education:
"The reality is if a subject is not tested on the FCAT, it is extremely vulnerable to be dropped from the curriculum. If it is not tested it's not taught. It [civics and history] should be taught. [These subjects] should be tested."
I respectfully request that you and your fellow legislators take the following action:
- test civics & history on the florida comprehensive assessment test (FCAT): Florida currently assesses students on Reading, Writing, Mathematics, and Science – in short, every core academic subject but civics and social studies. Without a system of statewide accountability, civic knowledge will remain under-emphasized. A state-wide assessment program whereby districts may be held accountable and comparative data collected is vital to our future.
- make civics education an integral part of our public school curriculum: Florida’s current learning standards treat civics as an afterthought. We must utilize the scheduled 2007 revision of the Sunshine State Standards in Social Studies to update and strengthen those guidelines so that schools give students all of the skills they need to be effective citizens.
- encourage and support the teaching of civics in florida’s K-12 schools: Students will not be transformed into active citizens without teachers who are properly trained and empowered. We must make civics instruction an essential part of teacher education at Florida’s colleges and universities and help teachers already in the classroom enhance their civics instructional skills and methods.
- liberate teachers from the current system of textbook adoption:
Even the best educators cannot motivate students to embrace the full range of civic knowledge and skills without the proper tools. Unfortunately, Florida’s cumbersome and rigid textbook adoption process often denies teachers the support materials they need. We must examine and reform this process generally for all subjects, but specifically in Civics.
- Establish a Strategic Center for Florida Citizenship:
Civics education is currently championed by a diffuse and independent array of students, parents, educators, elected officials, public policy centers and advocacy organizations. We must establish and fund a center to support and help coordinate these efforts, monitor Florida’s civic health, and keep us on track to produce educated and effective citizens.
I invite you to spend some time and review the recently released report “Enlisting a New Generation of Florida Citizens” released by Representative Lou Frey and Senator Bob Graham and the upcoming report done by the Florida Association of Social Studies Supervisors in partnership with Stetson University on “Social Studies Instruction in the Elementary Grades.” Your support of Civic Education legislation your respective house is greatly appreciated. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to call or email me. I would be more than happy in discussing this matter of such great importance with you.
Sincerely,
Your closing here
File #5
The Demise of Our Collective Memory
Recent Quotations
HISTORY
“It is disgraceful that high school seniors score lower on U.S. history than on any other subject,” Being an American is not based on race or where you came from but on a few principles that unite us as Americans.
Senator Lamar Alexander’s Press Release on S860, April 29, 2005
“That such a campaign is necessary is all too apparent, as survey after survey reveals pathetic levels of knowledge about our history. In one survey, students aged 8-12 could name more alcoholic beverages than presidents of the United States . . . . How can Americans fight for freedom if they have no idea how their own was won? How can they spread democratic views to the rest of the world if they have so little understanding of the sources of their own?”
Princeton Professor Theodore Rabb, editorial for Boston Globe, April 18, 2005
"We could certainly use improvement in the teaching of American history. According the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP), commonly referred to as the "Nation's Report Card," fewer students have just a basic understanding of American history than have a basic understanding of any other subject which we test -- including math, science, and reading. When you look at the national report card, American history is our children's worst subject.
Yet, according to recent poll results, the exact opposite outcome is desired by the American people. Hart-Teeter recently conducted a poll of 1,300 adults for the Educational Testing Service (ETS), where they asked what the principal goal of education should be. The top response was "producing literate, educated citizens who can participate in our democracy." Twenty-six percent of respondents felt that should be our principal goal. "Teach basics: math, reading, writing" was selected by only 15 percent as the principal goal of education. You can't be an educated participant in our democracy if you don't know our history."
- Senator Lamar Alexander speech to the American People on introducing S2721 - July 23, 2004
"These results are shameful and appalling. Not only are our grade-school students ignorant about their own history, so are our college students. Our children are being allowed to complete their formal educations without any semblance of historical context. To put it simply, young Americans do not know why they are free or what sacrifices it took to make us so."
Senator Robert Byrd speech to the American People on the results of the Elite College History Survey, February 15, 2001
"Such collective amnesia is dangerous. Citizens kept ignorant of their history are robbed of the riches of their heritage . . . If Americans cannot recall whom we fought, and whom we fought alongside, during World War II, it should not be assumed that they will long remember what happened here on September 11. And a nation that does not know why it exists, or what it stands for, cannot be expected to long endure. " (italics added)
From "The Urgency of Memory", NEH Chairman Bruce Cole, June 7, 2002
“We are creating a young generation that does not know traditional political and military facts, events, persons’ names, and instead is interested in other [things], where the criteria is often race or neglect of the past.’Victor Davis Hanson, author of “Mexifornia: The Problem of Illegal Immigration” in a “Booknotes Interview” with Brian Lamb,September 29, 2003
"The findings were so discouraging that the allusion to the 1965 Sam Cooke tune 'Wonderful World' was one even Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley could not help making. 'It's clear, as the song says, students don't know much about history,' Mr. Riley said in a statement accompanying the [N.A.E.P History] results. " Education Week, November 8, 1995
See article: Dismal NAEP History Results
"More students performed 'below basic' on the history test than any other NAEP subject, including math and science." Evidence of American Amnesia, National Endowment for the Humanities Research See article: "Evidence of American Amnesia"
"We're not conveying to young people forcefully enough the American heritage, the American way of life," said Lee Hamilton, president of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and a former Democratic congressman from Indiana [and Co-Chair of the Congressional Commission on Terrorism].
From Sept. 9, 2003 article: "Group Assails Schools On U.S. History"
"Widespread ignorance of American history among students and teachers at high schools and colleges is a major threat to the nation's security, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and author David McCullough told a Senate panel yesterday. 'We are raising a generation of people who are historically illiterate' . . . the past president of the Society of American Historians said."
From April 11, 2003 Washington Times Article, "Ignorance of U.S. history called threat to Security"
"We need to know the Constitution, and we don't. When you have students at our Ivy League colleges saying they thought Germany and Japan were our allies in World War II, you know we've got a very serious problem," Mr. McCullough testified.
From April 11, 2003 Washington Times Article, "Ignorance of U.S. history called threat to Security"
"If you wish to destroy a people, you must first cut them off from their past."
Alexander Solzhenitsyn -
Bruce Cole, chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, called widespread ignorance of history "our American amnesia."
From April 11, 2003 Washington Times Article, "Ignorance of U.S. history called threat to Security"
"At their core, the lessons of history are lessons of appreciation. Everything we have, all our great institutions, our laws, our music, art and poetry, our freedoms, everything is because somebody went before us and did the hard work, provided the creative energy, faced the storms, made the sacrifices, kept the faith. Indifference to history isn't just ignorant; it's a form of ingratitude."
David McCullough "On History" See article: "McCullough on History"
. . . Finally, there is a great tradition of warnings in Presidential farewells, and I've got one that's been on my mind for some time . . . An informed patriotism is what we want. And are we doing a good enough job teaching our children what America is and what she represents in the long history of the world? . . . So, we've got to teach history based not on what's in fashion but what's important-- . . . . . I'm warning of an eradication of the American memory that could result, ultimately, in an erosion of the American spirit. Let's start with some basics: more attention to American history and a greater emphasis on civic ritual.
Farwell Address to the American People – President Ronald Reagan
A nation which does not remember what it was yesterday, does not know what it is today, nor what it is trying to do. We are trying to do a futile thing if we do not know where we came from or what we have been about.
Woodrow Wilson
CIVICS
"These results are not only disturbing; they are dangerous," said Hodding Carter III, president of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which sponsored the $1 million study (on what students know about the First Amendment). "Ignorance about the basics of this free society is a danger to our nation's future."
1-31-2005 See article: "First Amendment No Big Deal Say Students"
Educating our youth for citizenship is our most important public work . . . . We must purposefully nurture the value of service and civic engagement in each generation if our country is to be caring and just. . . . Preparing young people to be citizens requires us to embrace civic learning as a purpose of education. Yes, education is about preparing students for college and career, but a third vital component of schooling, one that is often left out, is preparation for citizenship. . . . our country must do much more to prepare young people to become effective citizens.
Commentary - Education Week, 2-16-2005 John Glenn and Margaret Wright Edelman
But it’s not just something that we should be sad about, or worried about, that these young people don’t know any history. We should be angry. They’re being cheated. They are being cheated and they are being handicapped, and our way of life could very well be in jeopardy because of this.
Now since September 11, it seems to me that never in our lifetime, except possibly in the early stages of World War II, has it been clearer that we have as a source of strength, a source of direction, a source of inspiration--our story. Yes, this is a dangerous time. Yes, this is a time full of shadows and fear.
But we have been through worse before and we have faced more difficult days before. We have shown courage and determination, and skillful and inventive and courageous and committed responses to crisis before. We should draw on our story, we should draw on our history as we’ve never drawn before
David McCullough in the July/August 2002 issue of Humanities in a conversation with NEH Chairman Bruce Cole
[Massachusetts] State Senator Richard Moore, Democrat from Uxbridge . . . noted that not enough students here, or nationally, are grasping the gut-level lesson of democracy. He said the National Conference of State Legislatures did a survey last year and found that more young people knew the hometown of the TV cartoon family "The Simpsons" than could name their own state capitals. America is probably more vulnerable to democracy declining from within than it is to a terrorist attack," said Moore, who has worked on an advisory group within the National Conference of State Legislatures to encourage Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge and the Department of Defense to promote civic education. , , ,[Former Congressman David Skaggs stated of the current Civics deficit] "If this were national defense, people would be outraged, We have unilaterally disarmed."
9-12-2004 See Boston Globe Editorial, "A Civics Revival"
Alexis de Tocqueville gave us a tall order a century and a half ago. He opened Democracy in America with his plea to American and French leaders alike: "First among the duties that are at this time imposed on those who direct our affairs is to educate democracy."
From Paul Gagnon's "In Pursuit of a Civic Core: A Report on State Standards"
"The generational gaps in civic knowledge, attitudes and participation are greater than they have ever been," said Karl Kurtz of the NCSL and a report co-author. "The baby boomers, the World War II generation and our schools have failed to teach the ideals of citizenship to young people."
See article: "Civic Education A Failure"
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