Go, Virginia, go! The brainwashing is disgusting. Do they give out tobacco bubble gum too?

We are definitely traveling a lot during 4th grade for our own learning adventures.

How about...increases your RE value. I love the way people talk about how they hate the "teaching to the tests" & SOL's. But then, when anyone is about to move into a new neighborhood, what do they look at? School test scores. And the schools with the highest test scores consistently have higher RE value because the schools are considered "good." At the end of the day, no matter how much research you do on a school, there is nothing as concrete and black and white as test scores. Everything else you hear about a school is opinions, rumors, and just depends on who you talk to. But test scores...you can't fudge that.

My kids have LDs and have mixed profiles when taking the SOLs (ie some are accurate reflections of what they know, others are not). I have no problem with the tests as I believe there needs to be some method of assessing learning and I don't believe schools have adequate resources to do better assessments. I think choosing Mali to study is fine. We don't have very people from Mali in this area and it's got a very rich history. it's a nice introduction to another culture and another part of the world (it was highlighted at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival a few years ago). I also think VA history is a great thing to start learning about. In the younger grades, many kids struggle to understand the concept of town/state/country and why would you not start with where they live? There's also not enough time or brain capacity for them to learn it all at once. How many of your kids thought George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr. knew each other? Mine did. It took a while for that concept of time to sink in.

But, back to the SOLs. I don't place a lot of importance on my kids' SOL scores. I want them to do their best but not get stressed about it. For us, it's not that big of a deal.

Fourth graders study state history in every state. In California, it's the missions, and every child chooses one mission and writes a research paper on that mission. It's partially about the subject matter, but it is also about learning how to learn about history. Knowing how to write a research paper is what's important, it doesn't really matter what it is about. Learning their state's history allows kids to learn about the local first and then as they progress in school. to move on to national and then world issues.

Yes, some subjects are studied again and again, but that is because they are approached in a different way as children mature and are able to understand more depth and complexity. Teachers in higher grades can build on what children have learned when they are younger. I studied American history in grade school, middle school, high school, and college, but each time there were more and different aspects of a time to read and think about. You learn the basics in the earlier grades and then you fill in the picture with more detail as you grow and become more capable of understanding complex issues.

As PP's have said, VA history is important to VA. And Virginia's role from an historic perspective pretty much is diminished after the civil war. I wish they would put more emphasis on civil rights, but while VA had issues, most of the action was further south.

So, it is appropriate to have the kids learn about pre-revolution, founding fathers, and civil war. Not much happened in VA during WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, etc.

By comparison, VA is why we have the bill of rights. 4 of the first 5 presidents were from VA. And VA was the front for much of the civil war.

Proud Parent of child at the Vienna School for the Colored.

SOLs become important to the student in 8th grade. Then they have to pass English to graduate. There are several SOLs that a student needs to take and pass to graduate from HS.

4th grade is state history in many states, they will get to WWI and WWII and more when they study US History in 6 and 7th grade. When I grew up in Massachusetts, it was the same way. It was pilgrims, pilgrims, pilgrims. Here is it Jamestown Jamestown Jamestown. There it was Lexington and Concord, here it is Williamsburg and Yorktown. The Civil War was a minor event in MA, here it is huge. I think our children are lucky to be here when they study US history. My children have gone on field trips to Mount Vernon, Williamsburg, Yorktown, Jamestown, Gettysburg, Pamplin Park (Siege of Petersburg), Capitol Hill...all without requiring a hotel stay.

Virginia history in 4th grade is important because it covers so many topics of US and European history on a small canvas and provides a framework of understanding for branching out into other historical topics. It covers the exploration of the New World (and why European nations were seeking colonies and the living conditions and social pressures that drove people to come to this country). It covers slavery and the history of women's rights. It covers the displacement of Native Americans and the formation of early democratic government systems. It covers the role of the Founders such as Jefferson and Washington and the Enlightenment ideals ( influenced by French history) that underpinned the American revolution and the drafting of our Constitution. Virginia played a major role in the Civil War and Lee is a giant figure in US history. The migration of black southern farmers to Northern cities is played out in VA history as is the story of black Americans struggle for civil rights. Virginia history offers lessons in economics, geopolitics and art history. Students will revisit these topics, writ large, in US history as high school students. And maybe in college they'll take a history seminar on Mali in which they will remember what they learned in 4 th grade about the slave trade in Mali and make some connections to the material they are studying.

And if you don't understand why all of this is useful and important, that only betrays your own lack of education limited.understanding o the ways in which the past is connectedness to the present and a country in Africa is connected to the US. Imagine if 30 years ago the case study country for the Middle East that all kids learned about in school was Iraq...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rarely is the question asked: Is our posters learning?

ARE our posters learning?

President Bush reference.

Anonymous wrote:Rarely is the question asked: Is our posters learning?

ARE our posters learning?

Little did I know that using a word that is used quite often throughout multiple threads on this forum would create such a furor - my sincere apologies - I should have just said "your child".

"Snowflake" poster - you happy with yourself?

Rarely is the question asked: Is our posters learning?

Perhaps all of you complaining about 4th grade history spending too much time on VA history should move to WV where the ENTIRE 8th grade yr is devoted to WV history!!! Wanna talk about a waste of time....

Anonymous wrote:I don't get it, the original poster with the foul mouth is ok, but the one who said snowflake has been reported? Seriously??!? And where is the slur based on a disability?

No, the deleted poster is the one who came on and laced every post with a generous helping of f-bombs, c words, tw-t, and other colorful phrases. They were posting continuously and used more slurs than actual language.

Those posts have already been deleted by Jeff.

There were several posts deleted. Just delete this whole thing at this point.

F SOLs.

F stupid VA history.

F thread police.