State Radically Revises Ways of Teaching History

Addressing dismal test scores that show California students to be woefully lacking in their knowledge and understanding of history, the state Board of Education on Friday unanimously adopted a dramatically different approach to the teaching of the subject.

The board, which sets broad guidelines for local districts to follow, approved a new history “framework,” a document that is revised every several years and recommends principles for district officials to use in developing courses.

Unlike the previous framework, the new document emphasizes history and geography, instead of social studies--a catchall approach popular through the 1960s and 1970s that included history along with a variety of other subjects. It recommends an additional year of world history and stresses in-depth study of particular epochs and an understanding of how historic events influenced current affairs.

According to state Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig, who led earlier drives to upgrade the teaching of mathematics and science, the history guidelines will send a message to the nation’s textbook publishers that they will have to provide higher quality texts that do not duck sensitive topics.

The new framework “hits a number of controversial issues,” Honig said. For instance, at nearly every level, from kindergarten through 12th grade, the framework encourages teachers to teach about the role of religion in shaping history. It also urges more teaching about democratic ideals, the contributions of women and minorities, and civil and human rights violations.

State Department of Education officials will meet with representatives of 100 textbook publishers on Monday to introduce the newly adopted guidelines. Honig said publishers will have three years to get their books ready for California, which will adopt new history texts that reflect the new guidelines in 1990.

In order to sell textbooks to California, which buys more texts than any other state, publishers will have to extensively revise or rewrite the books they currently have on the market, he said.

Last year, the state board made headlines when it forced publishers to rewrite mathematics books.