History Lessons
AP season is in full swing at school. Walking the halls, you see backpacks laden with review books, flashcards stuffed in pockets, and a general look of exhaustion on many faces. The AP United States History exam is exactly three weeks away. As we continue to march through the curriculum, wrapping up our analysis of the Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan administrations , we are also going back to the beginning to start a review of what we studied throughout the year. This past week, that review included a reexamination of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia and the formation of our democratic government after the Revolutionary War. As the students analyze the heated debates of our founders over issues of federalism, Congressional representation, checks and balances, individual liberties, and slavery, I am struck by certain similarities between those debates and our own discussions about educational reform.
The Founders agreed that the then-existing form of government needed improvement. The Articles of Confederation were not working. They failed to create a cohesive, workable nation. Likewise, most educators agree that our current education system needs fixing. With thousands of schools currently labeled as failing under one method of assessment or another, and 3.5 million students dropping out of school each year, there is clearly a lot of work to do. Combine that with 14 million children living in poverty, and the task appears overwhelming.
