The Trouble With National Standards
Dear Diane,
Following up on our recent exchange leads me try to spell out where we stand with regard to another old disagreement on what you probably call National Standards and I call A National Curriculum: a requirement that all kids study the same things and thus that schools be held accountable for covering the same content year by year. It's what I understand the search for a set of national standards seeks to do—and then assess. Of course, if the assessment is not attached to high stakes (or even low ones!), many of my fears are mitigated—but then why do it?
Since you and I were both students of history (although I switched from studying history to studying 5-year-olds!), there is good reason for us to think aloud about "standards" in our field. (Actually, I feel the same about standards in other academic fields, too.)
Standards as a flag to lead us forth contrasts for me with standards as a way of standardizing our minds. (Readers can find much of what I say below in Will Standards Save Public Education? Beacon Press, 2000.)
When I studied at the University of Chicago, history was offered in the graduate department of either the humanities or the social sciences. I chose humanities because I preferred taking literature as my minor. Also, while I was a leftist with