{"id":1647996,"date":"2022-09-20T03:17:54","date_gmt":"2022-09-20T07:17:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1647996"},"modified":"2022-09-20T03:19:11","modified_gmt":"2022-09-20T07:19:11","slug":"south-dakota-is-debating-what-could-be-the-best-k-12-history-curriculum-in-the-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/south-dakota-is-debating-what-could-be-the-best-k-12-history-curriculum-in-the-country\/","title":{"rendered":"South Dakota Is Debating What Could Be The Best K-12 History Curriculum In The Country"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fsouth-dakota-is-debating-what-could-be-the-best-k-12-history-curriculum-in-the-country%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1647996&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p><em>The following is invited public testimony to South Dakota\u2019s Board of Education Standards on September 19, 2022, as written in advance of the hearing.<\/em>\u00a0<em>Monday\u2019s was the first of multiple hearings that will occur around the state as part of a curriculum process that began after massive public outcry against a 2021 history curriculum plan that pushed far-left politics.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Gov. Kristi Noem\u2019s chief of staff, Mark Miller, chaired a new commission that started with curriculum guidelines proposed by Hillsdale College and refined them with in-state teachers, tribal leaders, and historians. The state board of education is scheduled to decide on the proposal in March 2023 after  opportunities for changes, political pressure, and public debate.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Thank you for inviting me to speak to you today. I am an education research fellow at the Heartland Institute. In 2014 I received a Robert Novak journalism fellowship to investigate and write a book about Common Core. As a result of that work, I have testified to at least 15 state legislatures about their K-12 standards.<\/p>\n<p>I have taught world history and literature to high school students based on a Great Books curriculum I created. I am also the founding board member of a classical Christian school, whose elementary American history curriculum I constructed.<\/p>\n<p>Currently, I am researching a list of recommended American history books for children, for which I have read hundreds of history books. I am also the mother of six children and the executive editor of The Federalist, where I cover education.<\/p>\n<p>One of the most beautiful experiences in my life has been to watch my 6-year-old son\u2019s class recite the preamble to the Declaration of Independence, as <a href=\"https:\/\/doe.sd.gov\/contentstandards\/ss-review.aspx\">the curriculum standards<\/a> under discussion would require of South Dakota first graders. Hearing \u201cWe hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness\u201d in the voices of those precious children is written on my heart forever.<\/p>\n<p>These historic words define the American spirit and elevate its character. South Dakota\u2019s proposed standards would require children to memorize such great words, revisit them over time, and build upon them with deep historical knowledge from source documents. As these words shaped the great Abraham Lincoln\u2019s leadership of our country in time of great peril, so these standards\u2019 sustained meditation on our country\u2019s greatest documents would help young fellow citizens grow in knowledge, purpose, and service for the rest of their lives.<\/p>\n<p>I know that all children can learn what these standards require, because our school and hundreds if not thousands of others teach curricula that reflect these standards to children of all ethnic backgrounds, immigrant children who speak English as a second language, and children with special needs.<\/p>\n<p>These standards are among the highest quality I have ever reviewed. Every American would benefit simply from reading them. I thank the Social Studies Content Standards Commission members who created this draft for their act of patriotism. These standards are a gift to the nation that I ask you to make sure South Dakotan children are first to receive.<\/p>\n<p>I have read many K-12 standards, and the first standout in these was their clarity. Most curriculum mandates are laden with jargon. Clear language allows everyone to understand what children are expected to learn. This creates unity and accountability for parents, children, teachers, taxpayers, school boards, and state lawmakers.<\/p>\n<p>These requirements are rich in key information and beautifully represent what every American citizen should know (excluding the South Dakota-specific standards, of course). They reflect what research and experience find ensures a high-quality education for all children: core knowledge, carefully arranged and frequently reinforced.<\/p>\n<p>Excellent instruction in the story of humankind helps us all understand human nature, benefit from others\u2019 experiences, and understand our rights and duties. Distributing such core human knowledge broadly, as University of Virginia researchers E.D. Hirsch and Daniel Willingham, and other academics, have shown, reduces social inequality.<\/p>\n<p>Their work also shows what\u2019s wrong with the \u201ccritical thinking\u201d canard that pretends filling one\u2019s brain with knowledge is somehow at odds with thinking soundly. It is not, and anyone who says so is poorly informed about cognitive science. Indeed, as Ethics and Public Policy researcher Stanley Kurtz <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/corner\/noem-must-fix-south-dakota-standards-fiasco\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">has written<\/a> of South Dakota\u2019s struggle to update its social studies curricula, \u201ccritical thinking\u201d jargon is usually used as a cover for political indoctrination.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, instruction rich in factual knowledge, such as these proposed standards require, is exactly what\u2019s required for critical thinking \u2014 because <em>knowledge<\/em> is the basis of all critical thinking. And it\u2019s clear from almost any data you look at that American children are not being given such core knowledge in most publicly funded schools.<\/p>\n<p>The latest National Assessment of Educational Progress results, from 2018, show just <em>15 percent<\/em> of eighth graders are \u201cproficient\u201d in U.S. history. Just one-quarter of eighth graders rated \u201cproficient\u201d or \u201cadvanced\u201d in their civics knowledge on that test.<\/p>\n<p>A 2019 poll by YouGov <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20190812193841\/https:\/www.flagusa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/FLAG-Patriotism-Report-11.13.2018.pdf\">found<\/a> that, of Americans age 39 or younger, more than 80 percent could not say what rights the First Amendment protects, and three-quarters couldn\u2019t name any authors of The Federalist Papers. Appalling results like these reflect the education establishment\u2019s effective systematic disenfranchisement of American citizens through failed teaching methods.<\/p>\n<p>South Dakota\u2019s constitution rightly observes, \u201cThe stability of a republican form of government depend[s] on the morality and intelligence of the people.\u201d Therefore, the lack of strong history and civics instruction is an existential crisis.<\/p>\n<p>The people and institutions who have for decades failed to educate their fellow citizens to assume the rights and duties of American citizenship have disqualified themselves from having any say in what children should learn. It\u2019s time to replace their failures with instruction that has a track record of success and ends the use of public education as a political weapon against constitutional self-government.<\/p>\n<p>Thank you.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<div class=\"article-author-description fst-italic\">\n  Joy Pullmann is executive editor of The Federalist, a happy wife, and the mother of six children. <a href=\"https:\/\/forms.gle\/iX1dsZnedpJjPMoP7\">Sign up here to get early access<\/a> to her next ebook, &#8220;101 Strategies For Living Well Amid Inflation.&#8221; Her bestselling ebook is &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/payhip.com\/b\/R1JL\">Classic Books for Young Children<\/a>.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>Mrs. Pullmann identifies as native American and gender natural. She is also the author of &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Education-Invasion-Parents-Control-American\/dp\/1594038813\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1486730068&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=education+invasion\">The Education Invasion: How Common Core Fights Parents for Control of American Kids<\/a>,&#8221; from Encounter Books. In 2013-14 she won a Robert Novak journalism fellowship for in-depth reporting on Common Core national education mandates. <\/p>\n<p>Joy is a grateful graduate of the Hillsdale College honors and journalism programs.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The following is invited public testimony to South Dakota\u2019s Board of Education Standards on September 19, 2022, as written in advance of the hearing.\u00a0Monday\u2019s was the first of multiple hearings<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":519,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1647996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1647996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/519"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1647996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1647996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1647996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1647996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1647996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}