Education Panel Calls for More History Courses

American schools should require students to take more and broader history courses, a special education commission said in a report released today.

The report by the 17-member Bradley Commission on History in Schools said that the history programs offered to students at all levels are too narrow and that teachers have too little time to provide the proper context for historical facts.

The panel recommended that history be required of all students, regardless of whether they plan to attend college.

“History should not just be a mad dash through the centuries with teachers trying desperately to get to the 1980s before school lets out in June,” said commission Chairman Kenneth T. Jackson, Mellon Professor of History and Social Sciences at Columbia University.

The report said that 15% of high school students do not take any American history and that at least 50% do not study either world history or Western civilization.

Created in 1987

The commission was created in 1987 in response to widespread concern about the quality of history teaching in elementary and secondary schools.

The report said the number of required courses in history has declined while other social disciplines and new fields--including sex and health education and computer courses--have expanded their roles in the basic public school curriculum.

It said only four states require world history for high school graduation.