Social Studies Standards of Greatest Concern

INTRODUCTION:

Here are the standards of greatest concern.  Detailed quotes, footnotes, and links will be available in the final written testimony that I will submit along with suggested amendments.  Readers interested in an excellent book that chronicles the battle against the education and media establishment to develop rigorous social studies standards actually considered exemplary by the MN social studies standards committee that accurately portray the good America has done and well as her faults and have children learn well the foundational principles of America, please read TEXAS TROUNCES THE LEFT’S WAR ON HISTORY by Bill Ames, a citizen activist and member of the social studies standards committee, available here.

CIVICS AND GOVERNMENT:

Civics Standard 1: The student will understand that democratic government depends on informed and engaged citizens who exhibit civic skills and values, practice civic discourse, vote and participate in elections, apply inquiry and analysis skills, and take action to solve problems and shape public policy.

The concept of unalienable rights is relegated to the level of untested examples instead of in the mandatory benchmarks as in 2004. Unless students learn the uniquely American foundational principle that the purpose of government is to protect unalienable rights of life, liberty and property (pursuit of happiness), the civic skills and abilities described above are useless and empty. Students will not have the knowledge base to perform any of them and do what is necessary to maintain our republic and our freedoms.

Civics Standard 2: The student will understand that the civic identity of the United States is shaped by historical figures, places, and events, and by key foundational documents and other symbolically important artifacts.

The American identity is far more than “artifacts” of a bygone era. It is shaped by a set of timeless, “self-evident” principles that many have sacrificed “their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor” to protect and perpetuate. Many of these “historical figures, places and events” and “key foundational documents have been lowered in importance from standards to benchmarks or to untested examples or removed altogether from the 2004 standards document.

Civics Standard 3: The student will understand that the United States is based on democratic values and principles that include liberty, individual rights, justice, equality, the rule of law, limited government, common good, popular sovereignty, majority rule, and minority rights.

It is critically important for Minnesota children to learn that the source of their rights is natural law (“nature and nature’s God” as described in the Declaration of Independence), not governments instituted by man – in other words that their rights are inherent. Without that understanding, they will not be able to adequately analyze the effects on American sovereignty and our unalienable rights of international documents and agreements that various bodies are attempting to foist on the US with ever increasing frequency. Being able to critically analyze the effects of these agreements on America is far more important than being trained to become “effective global citizens” as advocated by the Department of Education in their Statement of Need and Reasonableness (SONAR – p. 45).

Civics Standard 11: The student will understand that international political and economic institutions influence world affairs and United States foreign policy.

Students need to have a better understanding of the radical difference in philosophy of rights between the United States and these international bodies and their member nations than is embodied in this standard. The US protects inherent rights. International bodies do not.

ECONOMICS:

Economics Standard 7. The student will understand that resource markets and financial markets determine wages, interest rates, and commodity prices.

This standard neglects the effect of the Federal Reserve on interest rates.

Economics Standard 8. The student will understand that market failures occur when markets fail to allocate resources efficiently or meet other goals and this often leads to government attempts to correct the problem.

This standard completely fails to help students understand that government interference and over-regulation can be every bit if not more responsible for market failures than markets failing to “allocate resources efficiently.” A prime example would be the housing bubble and crash caused in large part by the Community Reinvestment Act and other federal laws and regulations related to housing and finance.

Economics Standard 11. The student will understand that the overall performance of an economy can be influenced by the fiscal policies of governments and the monetary policies of central banks.

There is no place in the economics standards where students are required to compare and contrast market and command economies with regard to the principles of private property ownership and economic liberty and the outcomes of prosperity and freedom from deprivation.

GEOGRAPHY:

Geography Standard 7: The student will understand that the characteristics, distribution, and complexity of the Earth’s cultures influence human systems, such as social, economic, and political systems.

This standard neglects to mention that governmental philosophy more than culture determines political systems. This is evidenced by the motto of the United States, E pluribus unum, which means “Out of many, one.” The American political system arose from immigrants from many cultures.

Geography Standard 10: The student will understand that the meaning, use, distribution, and importance of resources changes over time.

This is one of the standards that seems to relate to the “stewardship” goal explained in the SONAR on page 52 explained as reflecting “the concerns for the positive relationship between people and the environment through sustainable interactions. Responding to challenges of global changes in climate, population changes, natural resources availability, and land use are within the realm of stewardship.” Although the SONAR quotes the P21 21st Century Skills Map, the language is remarkably similar to language found in Chapter 36 of Agenda 21 and UNESCO’s framework for the Decade on Education for Sustainable Development. Both of these documents  promote using education as a means to promote the highly disputed concept of global warming or climate change that in the view of the United Nations requires massive economic changes and relinquishing of sovereignty to international organizations to make changes that would have minimal effect on a problem of unknown extent.

HISTORY:

The problems with the history standards are marked as much by what they take out and how they, the benchmarks, and examples are prioritized as what is in them. These issues have been covered by others (here, here, and here, as well as a new John Fonte article just today at National Review Online) and won’t be repeated in this alert. Examples of this type of problem include the removal of references to Western Civilization, the Global War on Terror, and important historical figures from a broad array of cultures and ethnic groups. However, there are two glaring examples of misprioritization and lack of objectivity that are important to mention:

History Standard 20. The student will understand that as the United States shifted from its agrarian roots into an industrial and global power, the rise of big business, urbanization and immigration led to institutionalized racism, ethnic and class conflict, and new efforts at reform between 1870 and 1920.

The elevation of the term “institutionalized racism” to the standard level when discussing the time period between 1870 and 1920 is quite odd given that the US had just finished a civil war with more than 600,000 lives lost in large part as part of a fight to free the slaves and that the country had just passed constitutional amendments ending forced servitude and promoting equal protection under the law. It also shows a great bias against business and commerce to list those things as a cause of “institutionalized racism” when slavery had existed in America for several hundred years up to that point.

History Standard 23. The student will understand that the end of the Cold War, shifting geopolitical dynamics, the intensification of the global economy, and rapidly changing technologies have given renewed urgency to debates about the United States’ identity, values and role in the world between 1980 and the present.

This standard and the accompanying benchmarks emphasize globalism and fails to mention historically significant events such as the global war on terror or terrorism at all even though it is mentioned under this standard in the SONAR (p. 72). There is also no discussion of any American accomplishments such as the US contribution to the end of the Cold War or the liberation of Iraq. There is also no mention of prominent historical figures from that era, such as Ronald Reagan or Mikhail Gorbachev.