(Editor’s Note: The following article was submitted by Betsy Armstrong, Cum laude graduate of George Mason Law School (Arlington, VA), 1976, Editor on the Law Review Licensed attorney in the Commonwealth of Virginia since 1976, member of the U.S. Supreme Court Bar, Becker school board member (two terms, 1994-2001), Mock trial coach for the gifted and talented program, 1992-2002).
The Minnesota Department of Education (“MDE”) is required to review the academic standards of various subjects in the K-12 curriculum every ten years. It is now in the process of reviewing the standards for social studies (history, geography, economics, government and citizenship, and civics) which will be implemented in 2025.
As part of the process, the MDE Commissioner must ensure that the standards incorporate technology and information literacy, college and career readiness, along with the contributions of Native American tribes.
In 2020, MDE established a committee of 44 members from across the state that was to be “representative of the communities the standards will serve.” The racial composition of the committee is 56% white (Minnesota is 83.8% white), 24% black (Minnesota is 7% black), 18% Native American (Minnesota is 1.4% Native American), 10% Latino (Minnesota is 5.6% Latino), and 7% Asian (Minnesota is 5.2% Asian).
A first draft of the revised standards was issued Dec. 1, 2020. The next meeting of the committee is scheduled for March 25 and can be watched online by linking to https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRI0jx4k72Jgkjr0X5gqwEg?view_as=subscriber. Following that meeting, a second draft will be issued, followed by an open comment period. There will be additional meetings currently scheduled for April 8, and May 6, and a final draft will be sent to the MDE Commissioner for review and approval in the Fall. There is no formal legislative review process of the standards approved by the Commissioner.
One paragraph of the “Career, College, and Civic Life Readiness Statement” in the first draft states:
“Social studies prepares students to live and interact in diverse communities through examining their identities, respectfully engaging with different perspectives, and addressing powerful social, cultural, and political inequities, as well as their connections to other axes of stratification, including gender, race, class, sexuality, and legal status.”
There are 22 proposed standards in the first draft, and each has corresponding “benchmarks” to be used to determine whether the standards have been met. These benchmarks are specific and detailed and make up 28 of the 32 pages of the draft.
Three comparisons of current Standards versus the equivalent new proposed Standards are:
1st grade:
Current: “Ask basic historical questions about a past even in one’s family, school or local community; describe how people lived at a particular time in the past based on information found in historical records and artifacts.”
vs. Proposed: “Learn to recognize unfairness, stereotypes, and bias on the individual level (e.g., biased speech) and injustice at the institutional or systemic level (e.g., discrimination); explore how individuals and groups in the past have fought against bias and discrimination through social justice movements.”
6th grade:
Current: “Define the establishment and expansion of rights over time, including the impact of key court cases, state legislation and constitutional amendments.”
vs. Proposed: “Describe the goals of activists in their quest for their voice to be heard, especially anti-war, racial minorities, immigrants/refugees, women, LGBTQ, and indigenous people.”
9th grade:
Current: “Define and provide examples of foundational ideas of American government which are embedded in founding era documents: natural rights philosophy, social contract, civic virtue, popular sovereignty, constitutionalism, representative democracy, political factions, federalism and individual rights.” and “Analyze how constitutionalism preserves fundamental societal values, protects individual freedoms and rights, promotes the general welfare, and responds to changing circumstances and beliefs and limiting the powers of government.”
vs. Proposed: “Identify how Europeans and Euro-Americans developed new legal justifications for slavery and settler colonialism in the Americas by creating new racial categories (i.e. Whiteness), and new ideas about gender (i.e. partus sequitur ventrem).” [That Latin phrase, literally meaning “offspring follows belly,” means that the legal status of a child is determined by the legal status of the mother, thus a child born to an enslaved mother is also enslaved.]
And, “Develop a respectful awareness about how ideas and norms about gender have changed over time, and how members of the LGBTQ+ community have responded to persecution or marginalization by building coalitions in order to promote gender equality/equity.”
Missing or minimized from the proposed Standards are:
• The American Revolution (excluding significant people like Washington and Jefferson) ;
• The Civil War (excluding the main ideas of the debate over slavery and states’ rights);
• World War I and WW II;
• The Holocaust (excluding references to the Nazi regime and Jews);
• The Rise of Communism and Socialism;
• The Vietnam War;
• September 11, 2001;
• China;
• Genocide (other than Indigenous peoples);
• Presentation of the symbols of patriotism, such as the Pledge of Allegiance and American flag.
Newly proposed Standards include:
• Climate change;
• Systemic racism since the founding of the US;
• Gender equality/equity and LGBTQ+ awareness;
• How the ideology of Manifest Destiny is based upon white privilege, Christianity, and capitalism.
To see the complete report of proposed Standards go to https://education.mn.gov/MDE/dse/stds/soc/PROD034381 and click on the link provided.
To see the existing Standards go to https://education.mn.gov/MDE/dse/stds/soc/ and click on the link Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards in Social Studies 2011.
The proposed standards for Social Studies show a very different teaching model from the traditional model that has been in place for decades. The new standards place a much greater emphasis on the history of Indigenous people in Minnesota, LGBTQ civil rights struggles, and the impacts of climate change on people and communities of color. The question then becomes whether the new narrative adequately prepares students in historical literacy if it fails to include, or diminishes, a thorough and accurate presentation of the principles upon which our nation was founded and the actions taken and sacrifices born to establish it. If implemented, our high school graduates will embark upon their duties as citizens with little knowledge or appreciation of what has made the US an exceptional nation.
We can provide a role model of civic engagement to our children by reading the proposed Standards, and sending comments to the responsible officials -- but time is of the essence and now is the time for action.
1). The Honorable Mary Cathryn Ricker, Commissioner, Minnesota Department of Education, 1500 Hwy. 36 West, Roseville, MN 55113 or via email: mde.commissioner@state.mn.us.
2). Doug Paulson, director of academic standards & instruction: doug.paulson@state.mn.us.
3). Andrew Mathews, District 15 State Senator: fill out form at https://www.senate.mn/members/email-form/1222 .
4). Shane Mekeland, District 15B representative: rep.shane. mekeland@house.mn.
5). Aaron Jurek, Becker school board chairman: use link at https://www.becker.k12.mn.us/home/school-board, and
6). Jeremy Schmidt, Becker school superintendent: use link at https://www.becker.k12.mn.us/departments/superintendent.
