DCPS Social Studies Curriculum Concerns

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Check out the Story of the World Series, Pandia Press, Usborne books on historical events and person. I’ve been doing this with my kids since 1st grade (now uppper elem) with great results. You can’t rely on most schools to treat these subjects properly as most adults are clueless.

I'm the PP who wrote about the challenges with teaching this stuff in schools and I appreciate this -- looks like a great resource. My DC is in 1st now and loves reading/learning about science, I bet he'd be interested in some of this too.

[Anonymous]

Oh sure. These “idiots” are all over DCPS. Sorry but this failure is on you.

OP this is yet another reason my kids are in private schools. Just saying.

Very constructive feedback, thank you for being so very helpful indeed. It's great being called a failure for trying to rectify your child's clearly subpar education. I take you're also a DCPS graduate???
I will just reach into my endless pit of a bank account and pay for private tuition, how did I never know that private schools in DC were an option?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
The outline for DCPS social studies themes by grade can be found here: https://dcps.dc.gov/page/social-studies.

This article also does a good job of outlining the current standards and differences in the new standards that are being adopted. https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/02/12/dc-schools-new-social-studies-curriculum/

Wars and conflicts are generally introduced in later grades in the standards.

Thank you for these. What is laid out in the article is quite far from what we have actually seen in reality. I understand that in 4th and 5th grade we were in a pandemic and a lot of ground was lost. These two years are pretty important for knowing the basics, and the teacher has informed me that they have no intentions of doing anything to cover what was missed during those two years. This is quite dismaying.

[Anonymous]

Dcps does math and reading because that's what kids are tested on and how teachers are assessed. Many of the kids are so far behind and have so many obstacles to learning that dcps can't even teach those subjects successfully in the time they have. There's not enough time to do science, social studies, or anything else. It's sad.

[Anonymous]

DCPS like many schools has way deprioritized content in all academic areas. The emphasis is on “learning to be an activist” and “doing projects” instead of learning facts.

[Anonymous]

I know OP. My 6th grader has zero knowledge of how big the US is or where it is in relation to other countries. He was shocked that it takes less time to fly to the Dominican Republic than San Francisco. I said, “Look at the map - California is much further away.” He said “We learned in Social Studies that maps are bad because they make Africa look small.” 🤡

[Anonymous]

The only history my kid seemed to learn in her DCPS ES (around 5% poor kids) was about the CRM, from K to 5th grade. The school supposedly covered the Revolutionary and Civil Wars in the upper grades, but none of the facts, dates, players seem to sink it. We left for a private middle school. No comparison - she seems to have learned all kinds of history in 6th, 7th and 8th grades. We couldn't wait to get out of DCPS. You might want to do the same, OP, or at least start homeschooling for social studies (and English? math? languages? we got fed up with paying tutors).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The only history my kid seemed to learn in her DCPS ES (around 5% poor kids) was about the CRM, from K to 5th grade. The school supposedly covered the Revolutionary and Civil Wars in the upper grades, but none of the facts, dates, players seem to sink it. We left for a private middle school. No comparison - she seems to have learned all kinds of history in 6th, 7th and 8th grades. We couldn't wait to get out of DCPS. You might want to do the same, OP, or at least start homeschooling for social studies (and English? math? languages? we got fed up with paying tutors).

OP here. Yes, my kid can tell you about the CRM forwards and backwards but nothing about how we got there in the first place. I'm not sure who is served by that kind of ignorance. If you don't learn about it, you can't avoid it repeating. Your experience mirrors mine. I wish private were an option. We have turned to homeschooled social studies every night. So far it's going well. But what about all the other DCPS kids whose parents don't have the time, resources, or wherewithal to do the same? It's terrifying to think about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The only history my kid seemed to learn in her DCPS ES (around 5% poor kids) was about the CRM, from K to 5th grade. The school supposedly covered the Revolutionary and Civil Wars in the upper grades, but none of the facts, dates, players seem to sink it. We left for a private middle school. No comparison - she seems to have learned all kinds of history in 6th, 7th and 8th grades. We couldn't wait to get out of DCPS. You might want to do the same, OP, or at least start homeschooling for social studies (and English? math? languages? we got fed up with paying tutors).

OP here. Yes, my kid can tell you about the CRM forwards and backwards but nothing about how we got there in the first place. I'm not sure who is served by that kind of ignorance. If you don't learn about it, you can't avoid it repeating. Your experience mirrors mine. I wish private were an option. We have turned to homeschooled social studies every night. So far it's going well. But what about all the other DCPS kids whose parents don't have the time, resources, or wherewithal to do the same? It's terrifying to think about.

What is the CRM? My kids are older, but I recall they spent a ton of time studying ancient civilizations (Greeks, Romans, etc.), and then ancient civilizations and US History in middle school (Deal).

In all fairness, I never spent much time on 20th century US history back in middle or high school. Even my AP US History back in the late 1980s essentially ended with Reconstruction. Only passing mention of WWI or WWII, Sufferage, Great Depression or Civil Rights.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a 6th grader in a DCPS middle school who knows about all of the things you referenced. Some from school, some from reading, some from family/friends conversations… not sure this is a DCPS problem so much as anecdotal evidence that you need to pay more attention to your kid and their activities?

Thank you for such a patronizing response, truly, very constructive. I pay a lot of attention to my kid and her activities (hence my growing concerns, resorting to home schooling her for social studies, and... this post), and I'd been wondering for a while why they don't seem to be discussing any of the most basic concepts of history and social studies. After reading about Gen Z and Gen Alpha's views on some events, I decided to start asking her point blank what they learned about it in school, only to find out that in fact, they simply do not appear to cover... anything. My child is a good student who is pretty diligent about her homework and getting good grades, I can't chalk it up to her simply being not that bright or horrendous parenting, as you so helpfully suggest.

Clearly you must have a better DCPS school than we do.

You sound like a troll

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: I'm as progressive as they come politically, but I do feel like schools basically steer clear if a lot of history and civics these days because it's "too complex" to communicate to young kids.

I just do not understand what "progressive" has to do with a bunch of 12 year olds not having a grasp of what the Renaissance was or why the explorers went out sailing in the first place. Implying that progressivism means that we have to skip over the most basic, major events of human history is not exactly making me want to be a progressive anymore.

I am the PP and I'm on your side. But next PP also make a good point (about "bible thumpers"). The criticisms come from both angles and the result is that educators get caught in the crosshairs and don't want to deal with it. For instance, if you go to teach the Renaissance, you will be accuse of Eurocentrism and too much focus on white men and European culture. You will be asked to spend as much or more time on the same period in Africa or Asia or the Americas. The attitude is that if you cannot teach all of history from all perspectives than whatever you pick and choose to teach should not be overly focused on white Europeans. This puts people in a bind because while there is some truth to this criticism, it's also a fact that our current culture, language, and political structures are directly derived from European political and cultural movements.

But likewise if you want to teach, say, the Spanish Inquisition or the Protestant Revolution, you risk pissing off religious groups who will argue that any criticism of the Catholics or the Protestants is prejudicial and ostracizing for kids. If you try to teach history of non-European peoples which includes discussion of non-Christian belief systems, you will be accused of indoctrination and violating religious freedom, which of course some extremists view as the freedom to never have to think or consider a religious history different from their own.

And on and on. No matter what you teach, people get mad at you for not having taught something else, or for exposing kids to ideas they find scary. It sucks.

+1. I agree on all counts. My kids are not in public school (I homeschool, but am not religious), and I have long considered social studies/history/geography one of the most important subjects. Although it has been challenging to find comprehensive curriculum, I have no worries about teaching the true and unbiased history of the world and our country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know OP. My 6th grader has zero knowledge of how big the US is or where it is in relation to other countries. He was shocked that it takes less time to fly to the Dominican Republic than San Francisco. I said, “Look at the map - California is much further away.” He said “We learned in Social Studies that maps are bad because they make Africa look small.” 🤡

I'm sorry, did you expect us to believe this? What a dim view of educators you must have, to think that parents would believe such clearly fabricated nonsense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know OP. My 6th grader has zero knowledge of how big the US is or where it is in relation to other countries. He was shocked that it takes less time to fly to the Dominican Republic than San Francisco. I said, “Look at the map - California is much further away.” He said “We learned in Social Studies that maps are bad because they make Africa look small.” 🤡

I'm sorry, did you expect us to believe this? What a dim view of educators you must have, to think that parents would believe such clearly fabricated nonsense.

this is what he told me! if your DCPS child had lessons in basic geography - identifying states and countries on a map - let us know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know OP. My 6th grader has zero knowledge of how big the US is or where it is in relation to other countries. He was shocked that it takes less time to fly to the Dominican Republic than San Francisco. I said, “Look at the map - California is much further away.” He said “We learned in Social Studies that maps are bad because they make Africa look small.” 🤡

I'm sorry, did you expect us to believe this? What a dim view of educators you must have, to think that parents would believe such clearly fabricated nonsense.

this is what he told me! if your DCPS child had lessons in basic geography - identifying states and countries on a map - let us know.

6th grade at Deal last year and there was a lot of emphasis on maps and geography. He was better at identifying countries in Africa and Eastern Europe than I was. They covered maps of the whole world by continent and the US by state.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dcps does math and reading because that's what kids are tested on and how teachers are assessed. Many of the kids are so far behind and have so many obstacles to learning that dcps can't even teach those subjects successfully in the time they have. There's not enough time to do science, social studies, or anything else. It's sad.

This was closest to my family's experience in DCPS elementary up to 4th (then the pandemic happened). All social science/history and science education kind of petered out partway through every school year as the teachers became more and more preoccupied with basic math/reading and with classroom management. The school had beautiful science rooms and I think the teachers tried sometimes to spend time on other subjects, but they were not prioritized.