doodledee

Minnesota is in the midst of one of those phases where the government tries to redefine all the stuff the schools are supposed to be teaching our kids. It seems to happen every couple of years, which is funny because when the standards are set they're intended to last for like decades or something. Kind of like the how the Met Council under Ventura spent 2 years coming up with this master plan that was supposed to guide the development of the metro area for like the next 20 years and then when Pawlenty's team took over they shitcanned the whole thing and started over. Money well spent, I'm sure.

The big issue during the current go 'round of standards redefinition has to do with social studies. Back when I was in school, social studies class was mostly just learning about current events. Our teacher would make us read the paper or watch some 'political' show he/she had recorded on TV or something. We'd discuss stuff as a class. We'd have debates. We'd write some papers. It was fun. Those of us that were super dorks would maybe even parlay our 'social studies' knowledge into a speech team or model UN club membership. (Assuming we could squeeze it in, of course. Quarterbacking the football team and dating a cheerleader can take a lot of time.)

The current argument about social studies standards doesn't seem to have anything to do with current events and everything to do with history. That doesn't make sense to me, as we had separate History classes, but it makes sense to everyone else because they're all worked up about it.

Here's the quick and dirty:

1. Back in September, the state - via Education Commissioner Cheri Pierson Yecke - proposed a bunch of things that kids should learn. [read them here]
2. People freaked out.

Surprisingly, though, it all seemed well behaved. The state was listening to what people had to say and seemed to be in no hurry to settle on something until it was deemed 'reasonable' by most everyone. And most everyone seemed to be okay with giving some input and iteratively working through the process until something 'reasonable' was produced. And that's how I got suckered in. Hey, I thought, here's a situation where everyone seems to be taking the high road. It's gonna work out. Hooray for decency.

Well I was wrong. The process has now become insane. Once the wackos got the news that the state may actually be listening to input, they went to Defcon 1. Take for example this column in today's Strib from the Center for the American Experience. Just read it, that's enough. The debate has been hijacked by irrational jerks. On both sides. Ah boo jerks.

Fortunately as a parent I can take solace in the fact that of all the disciplines in school, I think the social studies stuff is the easiest to teach your kid. It's all just talking and reading and watching tv and putting signs in your yard, right? Piece of cake.