From The Moorefield Examiner:
We carried a guest editorial last week on the latest effort for the West Virginia Board of Education to dumbing down our high school graduates by cutting the number of credits required to graduate.
Not only is this wrong, it’s aimed at the one aspect of education that is so terribly missing in today’s world: a total lack of understanding as to how our government works and why that’s important to everyone who lives in this country.
You need to know what it means to be a citizen. You need to know the process of governing. You need to know why it’s important to vote. You need to understand that what is happening today is greatly due to people who don’t think such things are important.
West Virginia’s Board of Education apparently falls within this last category. They don’t think that it’s important to know history or civic responsibility both of which are taught in courses the Board doesn’t think are worth while.
One thing was left out of the Clarksburg editorial: the fact that the State Board of Education is accepting comments about their proposal until January 24. That’s Friday a week from now.
You may disagree with us, but we hope you will strongly consider opposing cutting out social studies – history, both American and World, and civics, the study of how our government works.
Why is history important? Because if we don’t know what went before we won’t know how to stop it from happening again or even why we should.
That’s why it’s important.
Please send your comments before Jan. 24 to the WV Board of Education regarding Proposed Policy 2510 to the following address/email or phone number:
Jan Barth, Ed.D. Assistant State Superintendent
Division of Teaching and Learning
West Virginia Department of Education
Capitol Building 6, Room 215
1900 Kanawha Boulevard, East
Charleston, West Virginia 25305-0330
E-Mail Address: [email protected]
Telephone No.: 304.558.8098