New AP exams
Dear Editor: Historically and constitutionally, education is the function of local and state government. It was recently brought to my attention that a new history curriculum and test that initiates from the College Board which writes the SAT and AP High School American History is being sent to high school AP teachers.
Past AP American History exams have been fairly neutral, testing for students’ knowledge of significant and important names, dates and facts of U.S. history.
The College Board has now taken it upon themselves to take over these tests and slant them sharply. The Board has set up a detailed curriculum that they have sent to high school AP teachers, a document on how educators are now supposed to teach U.S. history in order to cover the items that our kids will be tested on the AP U.S. History exam.
A few highlights of the new curriculum:
The Declaration of Independence is mentioned once.
George Washington is mentioned once, and only in connection with his farewell address.
James Madison and Benjamin Franklin -- no mention whatsoever.
There is a large focus on Andrew Jackson who is portrayed as killing the Indians who are migrating West, the suppression of Native Americans and slavery.
Columbus is given no credit for discovering the Americas but responsibility is laid on him for the importation of disease and conquest of the peaceful Indians of the New World.
World War II: no mention that the United States saved the world from Nazism and fascists, but instead is taught in terms of the Japanese internment during the war.
The whole process of this new curriculum is one of “blame America;” an outline for the new “apology tour”!
Because local and state government control education ( to some extent), no one can require that high schools teach this new slant on American history. But by slanting the AP exam in this direction, this assures that our children’s classes will also be slanted in this same direction because the kids will have to pass a test that is slanted in this direction.
The best and brightest of our high school students take the AP History course. They will be the future leaders of America. These kids need to learn the facts about George Washington and the other brave men who helped found the United States of America and the process and the reasons that went into the writing of the Declaration of Independence. Our children should receive an in-depth lesson on the many fronts of World War II and in turn, why America was the leader of the free world for 70 years. The fact of the Holocaust should be taught, not the question of whether or not it really occurred.
I encourage you to register your concerns with the chairman of the House Subcommittee on Higher Education. Write to Rep. Virginia Foxx (N.C.) and ask for Congressional hearings into the blatant bias in the new AP History tests being given in America.
Also notify your own local representatives about your dismay concerning this new curriculum. This new way of teaching American history has received no publicity. Americans need to know about this.
Paula Mayfield
Downey
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Published: July 31, 2014 - Volume 13 - Issue 16