RALEIGH, N.C. — State education officials are backing away from a proposal to begin requiring North Carolina third grade students to study and highlight monuments such as Confederate statues.
The latest draft for new statewide K-12 social studies standards includes a new requirement that third grade students “summarize how monuments and memorials represent historical events and people that are valued by a community.” Some teachers complain the language about monuments and other changes in the standards are a backdoor effort to inject a conservative focus into the curriculum.
“All the changes seem to go in one partisan direction,” Angie Scioli, the founder of the Red4EdNC teachers group, said in an interview Wednesday. “You seem to feel that there’s partisan decision making.”
Amid all the complaints, the state Department of Public Instruction says it’s recommending dropping the new wording on monuments when the next version of the standards is released for public comment. The State Board of Education could approve the new K-12 social studies standards later this year.
The state is revising the social studies standards both as part of a periodic review and to reflect changes required by state lawmakers in high school graduation requirements.
Newly approved changes mean high school students will have to take a course on personal finance before they graduate. But squeezing in the financial literacy course means other changes to the social studies curriculum, such as eliminating one of the two U.S. history courses now required in high school.
The first draft of the new standards was released in December. A second draft was released April 6 for a public comment period that ended Monday.
Scioli said Red4EdNC noticed several changes between the first and second draft that concerned the group, including:
— Removing references to sustainability, climate change, natural resources and consumption of resources and empathy from World History standards.
— Eliminating objectives in the civics class such as “determine the effects of institutional discrimination on cultural and national identity” and learning about how governments maintain the welfare of the public and protection of citizens.
Red4EdNC also is concerned about the new wording in draft two on monuments.
The first draft said third grade students should categorize ideas and contributions that different groups made in terms of influence on local history. By the second draft, the standards included suggested activities such as third grade students writing tweets that summarize how “monuments represent values by a community.”
“Are changes designed to ensure our children value North Carolina’s monuments but reduce their exposure to content about climate change and discrimination really indicative of what professional educators thought was best for students?” Scioli and Justin Parmenter, a member of Red4EdNC’s board, wrote in a blog post. “Or are influential individuals with access to the process reshaping North Carolina education to match their particular worldview?”
The proposal comes at a time when people in North Carolina and the rest of the nation are hotly debating what to do with Confederate statutes erected after the Civil War. Towns around the state have Confederate monuments, although some groups are calling for their removal.
In 2015, the General Assembly passed a law limiting how public monuments could be removed.
In February, an Orange County judge voided a settlement requiring the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill to pay $2.5 million and give the Silent Sam Confederate monument to the Sons of Confederate Veterans, the News & Observer reported. Protesters had toppled the statue in August 2018.
In November, Chatham County removed the Confederate statute located in downtown Pittsboro, the News & Observer reported.
The monument issue is so contentious that several North Carolina towns canceled Christmas parades out of concern that it could lead to conflicts between Confederate heritage groups and their opponents, the News & Observer reported.
“There are 100 counties in NC,” Katrina Smith, a fifth grade social studies teacher in Nash-Rocky Mount Schools, said in an email. “I’m more than positive that you’d get 100 different sets of values. This standard is too broad, and can be used to leave negative thoughts of values in minds that are so impressionable.”
Smith said it would be more appropriate to have it taught to middle school or high school students who have the capacity to question why the landmarks are up or argue for or against them. Smith, who isn’t a member of Red4EdNC, said she doesn’t think there was an intention to give credence to Confederate statutes and monuments.
The state Department of Public Instruction is distancing itself from the monument recommendation for third grade students. Lori Carlin, DPI section chief for K-12 social studies and arts education, noted that students already learn about monuments in fourth and seventh grades and in high school.
“We were pleased with the objective in draft one and are unsure as to where or why the writing team determined a more specific focus was necessary for the 3rd grade,” Carlin said in an email. “At this time, we are recommending that draft 3 revert to the original language from draft 1.”
Scioli, a social studies teacher at Leesville Road High School in Raleigh, said they’ve been unable to find out how the changes were included because the teachers on the writing teams signed a confidentiality notice.
She says Red4EdNC will continue to track the revision process for the new standards.
“I think the lack of transparency in the process prevents us from feeling great about the process,” she said.
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