During our discussion there were many great points made. Both articles had basically the same information and arguments. Both groups came to an understanding that the Texas school board should not take out important topics and historical figures on their students books. They need to put in information that is full, not put in parts of what happened. The obvious tie to the book “1984” is changing history, but they did not change it as severely as the government of Oceania.
There was a great point made on is they change the curriculum then the AP students would be affected when they take the test. We came up with the solution that AP teachers have their own curriculum to follow and abide by. Yet, we then found that it was weird that students in the same school would learn different variations of history. The AP students would learn history one way and the kids in the regular classes would learn it another way. So, when they ever would come together and they realize part of history has been cut off, the students will be wondering what really is the true history.
The other thing we discussed is the fact that the state of Texas is changing the history book, but there is no real proof that the teachers are actually sticking to the information in it. Some teachers will teach what they want even though they are given a curriculum. There was no mention of any teacher being interviewed about their thoughts about the new textbooks. They weren’t asked if the agreed with the curriculum or if they even use it to teach. So, in the end I believe that the last line of defense is the teachers. They are the ones who decide what actually is taught to their students. A good teacher would give their students the right information and the whole truth of history.
I believe that you prove a very valid point Chris. I too believe that the teachers should decide what we should learn, because they are the ones with the degrees and all of the knowledge. Also the idea about how there would be two different sets of curriculum going through one school, I also thought that it would be a bad choice to do that. Now that I think about it I do believe that some teachers might be teaching us ideas that they want us to know, but they might not be true or even benefit us in any way. That is not good because they might be putting their own bias into what we are learning and that could really throw us off from teacher to teacher if all of them decided to do that. Then technically it would be bias from the teacher on bias in the book, so there is just a whole lot of bias stuff going around.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with your point, Chris. I believe that it would be strange for teachers at the same school to be teaching such different curriculums. I know that for the most part AP classes go much further into detail and analysis, but for them to teach such different standards compared to general classes seems odd. This is especially strange because as you said it, kids from the same school would be learning different variations of history. I also like your point about how ultimately teachers decide what their students learn. For the most part teachers seem to follow the curriculum for the course, but are they actually being held accountable? This is a great topic of debate because not very often are administrators checking up on the teachers and confirming that they are teaching the requirements. Teachers do have a big say in history courses because if they want the students to learn about a certain subject, than it is in their hands. If they feel that a certain event is less important, then they have the freedom to completely skip over the topic.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about the teacher deciding what they want us to learn and not having someone else making them choose what they should teach us. When teachers teach what they want though, some other teachers may not want to teach that and therefore many students will be learning different material. This makes it difficult to understand for the students because they learned one thing but didnt learn the other. The fact that you said history is being cut off is true because students dont learn the same stuff.
ReplyDeleteI'm not really sure if the state of Texas is changing history; I would say that they just aren't telling the whole story. They are kind of using a single story to write the history book; which, we all know the dangers of that. But I do agree with you on your idea's about the AP students and the ap class. True, the teachers mush stick to a curriculum, but the way the teachers teach could be more or less ineffective. They could possibly just barely be talking about the subject because they feel a certain way about it. Overall, i thought you had and made a lot of good ideas and points.
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