See what you didn’t get to read on Martin Luther King Day
And, as some of our earlier blogs make very clear (see here, here and here for just a few examples), it’s no secret that the Bluegrass Institute believes the standards need a lot more work.
But, what you probably don’t know is that BIPPS is far from alone with its concerns. Kentucky’s current social studies standards are even upsetting working teachers. One of those who want better standards is teacher Donnie Wilkerson, who was concerned enough to send the following Op-Ed to many media outlets in Kentucky for Martin Luther King Day.
Since none of the media chose to publish Wilkerson’s important comments, we present the text he provided below.
Kentucky Observes Martin Luther King Jr.’s Day but Drops him from New Social Studies Standards
Today Kentuckians fittingly honor the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., but Kentucky students are no longer required to learn about this most important, impactful, and iconic leader. For two decades Kentucky social studies standards have explicitly included Dr. King and his I Have a Dream Speech, but Kentucky’s most recently adopted standards do not. In a further slight to the African American community these new standards include specific references to only two U.S. presidents, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, both owners of enslaved people while the second president and non-slaveholder, John Adams, is left out as is Kentucky’s favorite son and author of the Emancipation Proclamation, Abraham Lincoln! The Civil Rights Movement itself is not included until high school. People of color, indeed all Kentuckians, should be outraged and embarrassed! For this reason alone, the current Kentucky Board of Education and the Kentucky General Assembly should act immediately to rescind these ill-conceived standards but there are even deeper systemic problems.
Tragically, the American history progression at the elementary level stops at 1791! Under the new standards elementary school students will no longer study Lewis and Clark, the War of 1812, the Trail of Tears, the Underground Railroad, the Oregon Trail, the Civil War, Ellis Island, Women’s Suffrage, World War I, the Great Depression, the Holocaust, World War II, the Cold War nor anything else from the last three centuries! Previous elementary standards did include all these seminal events. Unbelievably the study of Kentucky history stops before Kentucky even becomes a state (1792)!
Most egregiously, these new standards are wholly predicated on a high sounding but non-evidence-based approach to teaching called inquiry learning. This so-called “progressive” or constructivist educational philosophy where teachers are seen primarily as “guides on the side” while students, usually in small groups, “discover” and “control their own learning” has long been pushed by teacher education programs and government education bureaucracies. The focus is on stand-alone skills and process rather than factual knowledge or content. This so-called “student-led”, skills based, discovery education approach has limited efficacy, is not supported by research and has been anything but progressive. Instead, it has impeded academic growth and widened oppressive socio-economic and racial gaps. Fortunately, states around the country and countries around the world have recently begun to abandon this failed approach, opting instead for strong teacher-led, knowledge-based systems as supported by the science of how we learn and the overwhelming body of research. Unfortunately, Kentucky has not . . . instead doubling down, diving even deeper into this failed methodology as evidenced by the disastrous results of its current science standards and test. Now, with these new social studies standards, Kentucky's “edu-cracy” obviously wants to do to social studies what it did to science!
Former Kentucky Board of Education members recently wrote to the current board acknowledging their own mistake in adopting these standards and encouraged the current board to revisit them. The Kentucky Board of Education and the Kentucky General Assembly should heed that advice and correct this travesty!
Donnie Wilkerson is a 16-year veteran teacher, student advocate, civic leader and former mayor from Jamestown. He was Kentucky’s 2011 History Teacher of the Year and is the recipient of multiple teaching awards. He may be reached via the contact information above.
Added Note: Wilkerson can be reached at: donni.wilkerson@gmail.com