Posted on 06/06/2006 12:33:12 PM PDT by WestTexasWend
DALLAS (AP) - Texas ranked lowest among the nation's four southern border states in its standards for teaching Latin American and Mexican history, according to a national study released Monday.
The study by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, said on a scale of zero to 10, Texas scored a five - just above the national average of 4.2.
California, meanwhile, scored a 10. Arizona scored a six and New Mexico scored an eight, said Walter Russell Meade, a senior fellow for the council on foreign relations who conducted the study based on a review of state education standards.
"It's likely that the state of world history education is a little worse than the standards since there isn't required testing," Meade said. "The subject might not be getting the kind of emphasis that it deserves."
Pat Hardy, a member of the state board of education and a history and geography teacher for the Weatherford Independent School District, disagreed with the analysis.
She said Texas uses a "spiraling curriculum" to teach world history which has more depth than most states because it introduces concepts at different levels and expands on them later.
"They have to understand that our standards are written in strands," Hardy said. "Students have been exposed all along the way to all aspects of the history, the government, the economics, the culture of the world. I think it's brilliant. The Fordham Institute doesn't know jack about teaching."
But at least one Texas lawmaker said the state still needs to increase its standards.
"It's a sad commentary that Texas, a border state, that's history is so intertwined with Mexico and Latin America, ranks so low on the scale," said Rep. Ruben Hinojosa, D-Mercedes.
Many states fared even worse than Texas, where Hispanics made up about 35.3 percent of the populace in 2003, according to the U.S. Census.
Thirty states have vague education standards for world history and Latin American and Mexican studies, said Michael Petrilli, vice president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.
Alaska, Idaho, Missouri and Montana each received a score of zero for having "superficial or cursory" standards on how to teach World History.
"It's as if many states were not aware that there are countries and cultures south of the Rio Grande," Petrilli said.
We know south of the border sucks. What more do we need to know?
Which culture would that be? The one that had human sacrifices, and canabalism, or the current socialist slavery one?
I have to agree, we need to teach just how inferior and terrible these arcane forms of culture ARE!
History education is often slanted to the preferences of the instructor. I challenge most of you to question their kids about their last completed history course and see how far it went. Often the instructor gets mired down in what interests them many times never getting to the 20th Century or much further than the Civil War. That is why many kids don't know much about Mexican history, or World War I or World War II, korea or Vietnam.
All the history of Mexico I need to know is contained in the PLACEMATS AT THE LOCAL MEXICAN RESTAURANT..........
So that's what administrators are paid for. Inventing new ways to say nothing.
Remember, the Alamo.
And I'd recommend seeing the film of the same name. It's fairly accurate and well done. It's no small wonder Texans are so proud of their state.
Let's see...The Mexican 1824 Constitution, it's betrayal, Santa Anna, The Alamo, Goliad, San Jacinto and the surrender of Santa Anna. Texas as a nation 1836 to 1845 and then the US-MExican War starting in 1846 once Texas joined the Union. The defeat and occupation of Mexico and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848.
That history was taught me as a child in Texas...and it said all that needed to be said IMHO.
"cry me a rio".
LOL. That's funny.
I'll take Texas History, thank you very much. (Aren't we one of the only states that teaches as many years of Texas history as we do?) I think it makes all the difference between Texas' conservativism.
Mexico is a medieval pit. The less wee know about it and the less we have to do with it, the better
Same here, even if I do now live in Idaho...see my post 12.
They sold a good part of their country (just one year before the California Gold Rush) and now they're whining ...
If we hadn't bought those lands they'd be just as forsaken as the rest of Mexico.
...and the events that led up to it...not the least of which were The Alamao, Goliad, and San Jacinto and that earlier treaty that created the new Republic of Texas in 1836.
So where do they stand in teaching American history, If the Mexicans want to learn Mexican History they can go back to mexico and learn all they like.
I think I remember what I was taught about Mexican history back quite a few years ago:
It's the country just south of the USA
They won a battle then we crushed them
Thank God you live here and not there
Thought you'd find this interesting.
"Texas ranks at bottom among border states on standards for Mexican history."
I wonder how the border territories of Mexico rank on standards for United States history....
Depends on whether they get any points for the much edited, highly revised version of the facts they teach those few children who get a chance to attend school for any length of time.
Ouch, that's gonna leave a mark.
hehehehehehe
Who cares about Mexican history?
Gheesh.
Kids need to be taught that it borders our country, and that millions of Mexicos citizens are living here illegally.
Spend the rest of the time teaching kids about our history and how we need to protect our heritage by keeping undersireables from Mexico out.
That history was taught me as a child in Texas...and it said all that needed to be said IMHO.
Damn straight. When I was in Jr. High, we called it "Texas History".
We don't teach German history either. Or Czech ... or Asian ...
You don't habla Spanglish?
Spoken like a true Texan. Yee Haw!
Although there is a good deal of German and Czech cultur here. Visit Muenster or West sometime.
No it means you do things a little at a time. First the very broad outline, at a level the kids can understand, then more details and more sophistication later. Just because a term isn't familiar to the general public, or is used differently in a particular profession or area, doesn't indicate it means nothing.
What do you know about positive and negative feedback for example. The way those words are used in popular culture are not what they originally meant in the engineering and science community.
Ouch! You must have been in my high school history class. According to the time spent on it, the most important event in US history was the Seneca Falls convention for women's rights in 1848. It got more time than WW I and WW II combined.
Seems like the Texans did a pretty good job of writing Mexican history though. (at least the part that counts)
--and it's the same program that Texas is using now. It's what I've just gone over with my daughters per a State of Texas home-schooling program.
A couple of things about this "study" are beginning to smell. One is that it's not available for us to download so we can make our own evaluation. The other is that there's a different study that is available, also this year and also by the same institute, ranked Texas at the top.
And even then, from what I understand, it's just an overview! (I immigrated to Texas.) Texas history is *still* something that people discuss here, and debate the finer points of.
I believe that at least one of the state universities offers a degree program in Texas history.
You do realize that the Church is heavily suppressed in Mexico. Not as heavily as after the last revolution, but suppressed none the less.
You would prefer they were Muslims perhaps. There are Muslim "recruiters" working in Southern Mexico, and making some inroads, trying to convince the peons that they were robbed of their Islamic heritage when the Castillians and Andalusians kicked the Muslims out of Spain. They don't mention that the last kicking was in 1492, or thereabouts.
Which is part of why many people here feel that teaching "Mexican history" in addition to Texas history is pretty much a complete waste of time.
There is a good deal of Mexican culture already here as well. Just drive around Houston for a while. Go on Richmond and see a traffic jam at 3 am. (The Mexicans love to drive their souped-up hoopdees back and forth down the street). However, you don't have to teach it. It's not like Mexicans learn American histroy
Generally we lump them all under World History, although in some cases European history is taught separately. But that's generally at the college level. Much of the teaching comes not in "history" classes per se, but rather in literature, foreign language etc.
So did I, 29 years ago. However my wife is a teacher, and had to take the college level Texas History course(s) to be certified to teach in Texas, and I got to sort of follow along. Similarly my daughter also took it at the college level, but only a few years ago. And now my granddaughter and two grandnieces will be taking it, but maybe not (or maybe so) at the college level. They are only 1, 6 and 7 respectively.
I agree that Texas students needs to know that Mexico has been a mess since 1820, that there were only a handful of Mexican inside what is now the United States in 1836 when Texas won its Independence. That the Revolution of 1910 established a quasi-socialist government that vests most of the wealth of the country in the hands of a few thousand families.
Yeah, and those world history courses are (of course) biased all to heck.
I still take offense at how most courses depict the Mongols and Ghengis Khan. They *all* take the Muslim worldview that Ghengis was an unprovoked conquerer and one of the most evil men of all time, when research since the 1600's has shown exactly the opposite.
Of course, they also don't mention WHY Ghengis decided to try to destroy the Muslim world - because they chopped off the head of his *trade* ambassador and good friend for no good reason. I don't know about you, but if someone did that to my friend and I had uncontested control of the most powerful army on the planet, I'd start taking the world apart to get to those responsible and make sure they would never do that again.
>>>> We don't teach German history either. Or Czech ... or Asian ...
I'm of Scottish and Irish decent. I don't believe that I ever had a history class on either of them.
I've always been a history buff, and Texas had always interested me.
Numbers didn't help the Mexicans at San Jacinto. And that's the one that really counted.
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