Teachers Threatened Over Contents of New AP US History Exam
Earlier this year, in March, I wrote a piece about the new and not so improved AP US history curriculum that is brought to us by our favorite “one man Encyclopedia Britannica” and history expert, David Coleman. Wait, can a man who never taught even one class in his entire life be a history expert?
In the Common Core world of education that answer is obviously a resounding yes! After all, the fellow knows more than anyone else when it comes to English Language Arts and Mathematics too!
Reading through the 98 page framework for the new AP US history curriculum will give an impressionable person the idea that George Washington is but a footnote and the architecture of Spanish missions are invaluable.
Those of us who know that’s a lot of bunk will not be surprised to learn that as with all things important these days there is definitely a lack of transparency. Maybe though, to quote the flat broke Hillary Clinton while discussing Benghazi, “what difference does it make” anyway?
It makes a whole lot of difference and if you didn’t think so before, perhaps learning that the AP US history exam must be so controversial that it is being kept under wraps and is only distributed to certified AP US history teachers. That seems normal, right?
What’s not normal is that according to National Review’s Stanley Kurtz is “Those teachers have been warned, under penalty of law and the stripping of their AP teaching privileges, not to disclose the content of the new sample AP U.S. History Exam to anyone.”
If the few sample questions that were included in the AP US history frameworks were any indication our children will not learn anything about the founders unless it involves examples of conflict and identity by class, gender, race, ethnicity, etc., according to Kurtz.
Granted, teachers are allowed to choose what examples they want to use, but it would be a great disservice to those students to learn about the Constitution in a truthful and factual way when the framework also insists that the examples must be used to highlight the ideas and concepts behind the official College Board vision which is decidedly not to learn about the founding of this great country but to politicize and polarize one of the greatest historical events of all time?
This test needs to be published and made available to the public. If it is as brilliant as the ever astounding Coleman, himself, then it should stand up to public scrutiny quite well, no?
