Bill,
If you take the time to look at the content I provide for learning
about the Famous Americans in the primary SOLs, you will notice that it is
mostly heroic, sweetness and light. The only person with negatives is
Christopher Columbus and they are gentle hints.
http://www.educationalsynthesis.org/famamer The pages linked for primary
students are the ones I wrote. I did it because there was a need for
content written at an understandable level for primary children. We tested
the usefulness of the links that year by sending the URL home as a resource
to use on the 2nd graders "Famous American Report". After the reports were
graded, they were hung up on the walls of the building, and walking around,
it was rare to see ones that did not include pictures or text from the
site. The time that went into making the pages turned out to be well spent.
As for whose "filter or interpretation" we "let" children know, it
is a rather wide range. The SOLs, as I've said before, are compiled and
updated every 3-5 years to reflect the best beliefs of what we want
children to learn and when. In Virginia this process is used in all
academic areas and has been in use for more than a decade. There are
complaints that the SOLs are too tough for kids to master, and there are
complaints that the SOLs are too easy to provide a challenge for kids.
Further, children do not learn only from school. Homes, families,
neighborhoods and churches strongly influence what children remember from
their lessons.
Anne
At 10:56 AM 2/27/03 -0500, you wrote:
>In a message dated 2/27/03 10:25:24 AM Eastern Standard Time,
>[log in to unmask] writes:
>
>
> > The SOLs provide the framework that allows educators to walk through the
> > extremes and present a fair side of history to students
>
>and there is the problem... thru who's filter or interpretation who we let
>children know. As an adult I agree with Tom's approach....for children at 6
>years I don't believe that they need to know "the dirty" side of a hero...
>all you are doing is developing a very negative view of historical figures
>and culture and possibly biasing them. Some things 6 years don't understand
>why ( as some adults don't)....to understand the events sometime you have to
>understand the world the characters lived in.....I know if I told my 6 yr old
>about how the Spanish had galley slaves ( remember in those days slavery was
>an excepted institution) she would relate it to today's standard and think
>ill of the Spanish......
>
>Just a thought.
>
>Bill
>
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Anne Pemberton
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http://www.erols.com/stevepem
http://www.educationalsynthesis.org
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