Culture clash comes to Colorado history course (AP US History)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/changes-in-ap-history-trigger-a-culture-clash-in-colorado/2014/10/05/fa6136a2-4b12-11e4-b72e-d60a9229cc10_story.html

A recent change to the AP United States History course curriculum has led to protests by parents, students, and teachers in Jefferson County, Colorado. The changes mean an addition of two time periods to the curriculum, 1491 to 1607 and 1980 to the present. Also, the College Board says that the test is meant to be based more analytical thinking rather than memorization. Protesters say that the new course material shows a more negative view of American history. The area is densely populated by conservatives, many of which reject Common Core in education, see this as an attempt to censor our history. A direct quote from the article says that it "paints a darker picture of the country's heritage and undervalues concepts such as 'American exceptionalism'".

I was very interested in this article, since it had to do with a class a lot of us have taken. I was almost appalled at the response to this change in curriculum in Colorado. I think that those who are protesting the change are fearful of something that really isn't there: censorship of history and losing our "American exceptionalism" (whatever that is). The College Board is trying to base the test on more than memorization of facts, which should be good news to students. Teachers are still free to teach material not specifically outlined in the course as well, so it can hardly be deemed censorship. I agreed with James Grossman from the American Historical Association who said that the issue is between "a more comfortable national history and a more unsettling one." This idea of "American exceptionalism" that protesters kept talking about seems wrong to me. Sure, we should support our country, but we shouldn't have an education that gives the impression that we are always "exceptional", because it isn't true. I think all students should have a balanced view of history, and the United States. Just because we don't always look good throughout history doesn't mean we are all going to join ISIS (as one person told the media).

There are problems with the new curriculum. After reviewing the College Board website, in some ways I preferred the old test questions to the new ones. The revised multiple choice questions seemed more manageable than the old ones that were simply a test of memorization; however, the questions are more vague. This could mean more flexibility on the part of the student, or it could just make it harder to know what the College Board is actually looking for. At this point, it is hard to know how all of this will turn out until students take the AP test in May. Hopefully this change will mean a higher pass rate on this test, without compensating the difficulty of the course.

Unit 2