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36 Historically Speaking · November/December 2006 BRIDGES Math and Reading: A Lament for High School History and Writing Wi Fitzhugh Many of the educators who are subject to the provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act complain that because they are forced to spend so much time on math and reading, they have no chance to display their creativity or to teach the social studies, including history. No one seems to have entertained the possibility that by having students read history, as they used to do in the McGuffey's Readers, they could not only improve their ability to read, they also could improve their knowledge of history at the same time. Joy Hakim's History of US, for example, is very good reading for younger students of history. High school students are assigned chapters in history textbooks, mosdy written by committees, and in some cases selected readings. But it seems very likely that the majority of U.S. high school students are never asked to read one complete history book during their four years. In many cases the history they do read is social history sprinkled with a few historical figures, facts, and dates, but military, diplomatic, political, legal, and economic history are often omitted. The way to learn and to enjoy history is to read it, and that is not allowed in most of our schools. An additional way to learn and to enjoy history is to write it—that is, at the school level, to do research on a historical topic and to write about it. Most public high schools, even including some elite exam schools such as Boston Latin School, no longer assign the traditional history term paper. In fact, in most public schools writing is under the control of the English department. The English department, for a variety of reasons , prefers personal and creative writing as its favorite kinds, along with the occasional five-paragraph essay. While the English department does assign complete books, of course they are fiction . Fiction, indeed, is all diat many high school students have heard of. Some even think that history books are correcdy referred to as novels, because they haven't heard anyone speak about nonfiction books. Regrettably, in my view, some historians have introduced fiction into their history books, but that news is not really current at the high school level. I recendy heard a high school teacher in a Teaching American History seminar ask an eminent historian what made him write his "novels." College professors almost universally bemoan the poor preparation of their students in reading and writing. A recent Chronicle of Higher Education survey found that nearly 90% of college professors Manchester, New Hampshire, High School, 1913. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division. interviewed thought their students were not well prepared in research, reading, or writing. And what have diey done about it? They complain. It is interesting to me that students can pass their state high school graduation tests, for example the MCAS in Massachusetts, and then find diat they must take remedial courses when they get to college. The Boston Globe reported last year that of diose students who graduate from Massachusetts high schools and go on to community college, 65% are in remedial courses, and of those who go on to the state colleges and universities, 34% are in remedial courses. Am I the only one who thinks the college assessment people and the high school assessment people may not be talking to each other? But while college professors of history take litde interest in the academic work of high school students of history (unlike the serious interest their coaching colleagues take in the athletic achievement of high school student prospects), there is not much they can do about high school instruction in history and in academic writing. Of greater concern is the fact that the majority of high school history teachers did not major in history (12% of diem majored in physical education). This may have something to do with 57% of high school students scoring "below basic" on the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress U.S. History test. One of the reasons coaches are given history teaching...

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