‘Dialogues with Democracy’ grant to elevate history teaching
Released: October 9, 2003
With knowledge of American history in a well-publicized tailspin, a University of Wisconsin-Whitewater project hopes to energize the subject with an $855,000 teacher-training grant from the U.S. Department of Education.
The Cooperative Educational Service Agency 2 (CESA 2), Wisconsin’s largest region of school districts, has partnered in the project with UW-Whitewater and the Wisconsin Historical Society. The goal will be to provide more than 50 teachers in the 4th to 10th grades with an infusion of history content and concepts that will refresh their curriculum and lead to broader changes in how history is taught.
Nikki Mandell, UW-Whitewater professor of history and project director of “Dialogues with Democracy,” said many issues have contributed to a decline in “historical literacy” in the nation’s public schools. State and national standardized tests focus on math and reading skills, shifting some teaching emphasis away from history and social studies, she said. And in many cases, little formal history education is required of those who teach history, particularly at the elementary school level.
Mandell said a few examples of historical illiteracy have stunned the public. One study of seniors in 55 elite U.S. universities gave 81 percent a “D” or “F” on basic questions about American history — such as the decade in which the Civil War was fought, or who said, “Speak softly and carry a big stick.”
A national test in 2001 found that fewer than one in three high school seniors knew the purpose of NATO; 65 percent of eighth graders didn’t know the purpose of Jim Crow laws; and 71 percent couldn’t partially explain Constitutional checks and balances.
The problem has been given priority by Congress and the Bush Administration, which recently doubled the funding available in the Department of Education’s “Teaching American History” grant program, now at $100 million annually.
The CESA 2 region includes 75 school districts that enroll more than 135,000 students in Dane, Green, Rock, Walworth, Racine and Jefferson counties. Mandell said teachers from districts that are underserved or have more disadvantaged students will receive priority in the selection process, which will be completed by March.
The grant program will start with summer teaching institutes, located at significant historical sites in Wisconsin, over the next three summers. Content areas will include immigration, war and democracy, and economic opportunity.
The long-term goal will be to create a permanent history-centered professional training program at UW-Whitewater, Mandell said. The partnership with the Wisconsin Historical Society will provide access to one of the world’s best collections of North American history.
More than memorizing names and dates and battles, Mandell said she is after a much broader understanding of American history and the struggle for democracy.
“I always tell my students, if you want to win at Trivial Pursuit, the names and dates will help you,” she said. “But if you don’t know why things happened or how they’re connected or what the significance is, then it’s a bunch of wasted knowledge.”
She added, “History is actually a study of the past, and study is the key word here. You bring in new information, see things in a different light, gain from analysis and interpretation. It’s a lot more fun to learn this way.”
Mandell said she expects to see tangible benefits from training a generation with a better grip on history and democracy, such as greater participation in voting and civic life. History can also teach strong analytical and research skills that apply to many other areas of life.
Understanding that building a democracy is a struggle, and not like simply flipping a switch, also has direct implications for U.S. foreign policy efforts globally and currently in Iraq. “If we want to build democracy in other places, we need to understand how it was built here. It wasn’t without conflict, it wasn’t without argument and it wasn’t without lots of mistakes.”
Mandell added: “We have to tell a history where we can reasonably get from the past to the present.”
- Brian Mattmiller,npa@uww.edu
