On Sept. 17 the Mississippi Board of Education voted to begin the public comment process on whether or not to eliminate the U.S. history exam in high schools.
In the board’s news release, it said that a final decision will come after a public comment process and could take effect during the 2020-2021 school year. Students previously had to pass the test, as well as tests in biology, algebra I and English II to graduate, but in 2014 the state board lowered the graduation requirements to where a failed test could be supplemented by completing another course.
The reason why the U.S. history exam alone is potentially on the chopping block is because it is the only one out of the four tests not mandated by law.
The elimination of the test was proposed by the Commission on School Accreditation and the Mississippi Student Testing Task Force. Surprisingly a poll of high school teachers showed a majority favor eliminating the exam.
The fact that this is even being considered and somehow is supported by teachers is baffling to me. What this signals to me is that the school officials in this state don’t really care about the education of students. Their main priority is to continue the rise of graduation percentages no matter the cost. It creates the illusion that they’re succeeding and boosts state politicians. It’s hard for me to even fathom why teachers would support it. Do the teachers in favor of this proposal really believe the students would be better off if they aren’t tested on what they learn in school?
My main concern is what happens in the future if this proposal gets passed. If the students aren’t going to be tested on it, why even bother teaching it? Are we really about to head down a road where in 10 years a new proposal comes through to remove history classes from school altogether?
That’s how these things start, and we have to look no further than what has already been mentioned in this column. The board lowered the standard for graduating five years ago, and here we are considering removing one of the tests that used to be required for receiving a diploma.
History in grade school is already watered down enough as it is. I minored in history in college, and any time one of my college courses would begin to go over something I learned about in junior high or high school I would begin to think that it would be a waste of time only to find out that I only learned the bare bones of the true history growing up. And as our culture continues to morph into a politically correct society, history is going to be even more watered down because authors of text books won’t be writing the full truth if it’s considered offensive.
It’s basically a broken record at this point, but the only way not to repeat the same mistakes that happened in the past is to study and learn from them.
But what’s going to happen if children aren’t learning about our nation’s history in school? It’s said all the time that our children are our future, but what kind of future are we giving them if we’re cutting them down at the knees before they even get to the starting line?
The good thing is myself and the public have the opportunity to fight this proposal — whether our thoughts matter to the board is to be determined — but there is a chance.
Public comments will be presented to the board Nov. 7 and must be turned in by 5 p.m. Oct. 22. They can be mailed to Jo Ann Malone, Office of Accreditation, 359 N. West Street, Post Office Box 771, Jackson, MS 39205-0771 or emailed to accreditation@mdek12.org.
We have the opportunity to be heard and to show that education still needs to be valued above all else. Don’t let the state’s board get away with another fallacy that will only serve its own interests.
Joshua Campbell is sports editor of The Columbian-Progress. Reach him via email at joshuacampbell@columbianprogress.com or call (601) 736-2611.
