密歇根新闻广播 美国的社会科学课程都学些啥

This week, the public can start weighing in on the latest draft of revised social studies standards for Michigan's K-12 schools.

The standards lay out guidelines on what content should be covered in social studies classes and lessons for different grade levels. State officials have been working on revising them for the past five years.

Wrapped up in that process has been a lot of political arguing over what should and shouldn't be included in the standards, particularly when it comes to controversial topics like abortion¹ rights or the influence of Christianity on United States history.

Those arguments came to a head last spring when draft standards received major public backlash for what critics said was a clear conservative bias². Now, another round of revisions has conservatives crying foul³.

Tom McMillin is a former Republican state representative and current treasurer⁴ of the State Board of Education. Democrat⁵ Casandra Ulbrich serves as the Board's president. They joined Stateside to share their differing perspectives on the updated standards.

McMillin says that social studies are inherently political because the subject covers topics like history, civics, and of course, politics. But he says the state standards themselves shouldn't be influenced by political bias.

It's important — if we're going to have standards at a statewide level — that they are as neutral as possible, and I think [the current proposed standards] start very far left, McMillin said.

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Ulbrich notes that there's a difference between standards and curriculum. The former focuses on what a student should be able to do and know at any given grade level, but individual teachers create their own curriculum. While the standards do include examples of specific topics a teacher might cover, Ulbrich says they are not meant to be an exhaustive list.

So, when someone says that they're left-leaning, what they're really saying is, We don't like the examples that are being put into the standard, not necessarily that the standards themselves are inappropriate, Ulbrich said.

McMillin says he wants the state standards to be more balanced. He cites the history of climate change science and the tension between LGBTQ rights and religious freedom as examples of topics that are not holistically⁶ represented in the current draft.

I think that in order for kids to make decisions, they have to have clear facts, McMillin said. There's a lot of things, a lot of facts, that are left out.

Ulbrich says that she hopes to hear from people all over the ideological⁷ spectrum⁸ during the ongoing⁹ public comment period.

We open a wide net so that anyone who has any thoughts or opinions is welcome to share them and give us feedback. The feedback is what makes the standards better, Ulbrich said.

If you want to read the revised social studies standards, click here. If you'd like to leave a comment about the standards online, click here.

The department has scheduled nine public meetings across the state to gather feedback on the new draft of social studies standards. All meetings are scheduled from 6:00pm to 8:00pm on the dates listed below.

April 24, 2019: Detroit Historical Museum, 5401 Woodward Ave., Detroit, MI 48202

April 25, 2019: Saginaw ISD Transition PD Center, 3860 Fashion Square Blvd, Saginaw, MI 48603

April 29, 2019: Oakland Schools, 2111 Pontiac Lake Road, Waterford, MI 48328

April 30, 2019: Kalamazoo RESA, 1819 East Milham Ave., Portage, MI 49002

May 2, 2019: Michigan Historical Center & Library, 702 W. Kalamazoo Street, Lansing, MI 48915

May 6, 2019: Kent ISD, 2930 Knapp Road, Grand Rapids, MI 49525

May 7, 2019: University Center Gaylord, 80 Livingston Boulevard, Gaylord, MI 49735

May 8, 2019: Eastern Upper Peninsula ISD, 315 Armory¹⁰ Place, Sault Ste. Marie, MI 49783

May 9, 2019: Delta¹¹ Schoolcraft ISD, 2525 3RD Avenue S., Escanaba, MI 49829

This post was written by Stateside production assistant Isabella Isaacs-Thomas.

1 abortion   

n.流产，堕胎

参考例句：

• She had an abortion at the women's health clinic.她在妇女保健医院做了流产手术。
• A number of considerations have led her to have a wilful abortion.多种考虑使她执意堕胎。

2 bias   

n.偏见，偏心，偏袒；vt.使有偏见

参考例句：

• They are accusing the teacher of political bias in his marking.他们在指控那名教师打分数有政治偏见。
• He had a bias toward the plan.他对这项计划有偏见。

3 foul   

adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规

参考例句：

• Take off those foul clothes and let me wash them.脱下那些脏衣服让我洗一洗。
• What a foul day it is!多么恶劣的天气！

4 treasurer   

n.司库，财务主管

参考例句：

• Mr. Smith was succeeded by Mrs.Jones as treasurer.琼斯夫人继史密斯先生任会计。
• The treasurer was arrested for trying to manipulate the company's financial records.财务主管由于试图窜改公司财政帐目而被拘留。

5 democrat   

n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员

参考例句：

• The Democrat and the Public criticized each other.民主党人和共和党人互相攻击。
• About two years later,he was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter.大约两年后，他被民主党人杰米卡特击败。

6 holistically   

adv.holistic（整体的，全盘的）的副词形式

参考例句：

• Menu items and dialogs, when they are translated, to be considered holistically. 在翻译菜单项和对话框时，需要全盘考虑，确保翻译的界面保持整体的一致性很重要。 来自互联网
• If we examine this entity holistically, we can discover how incredible it really is. 如果我们整体检查这实体，我们可以发现它真的是多么让人难以置信。 来自互联网

7 ideological   

a.意识形态的

参考例句：

• He always tries to link his study with his ideological problems. 他总是把学习和自己的思想问题联系起来。
• He helped me enormously with advice on how to do ideological work. 他告诉我怎样做思想工作，对我有很大帮助。

8 spectrum   

n.谱，光谱，频谱；范围，幅度，系列

参考例句：

• This is a kind of atomic spectrum.这是一种原子光谱。
• We have known much of the constitution of the solar spectrum.关于太阳光谱的构成，我们已了解不少。

9 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。

10 armory   

n.纹章，兵工厂，军械库

参考例句：

• Nuclear weapons will play a less prominent part in NATO's armory in the future.核武器将来在北约的军械中会起较次要的作用。
• Every March the Armory Show sets up shop in New York.每年三月，军械博览会都会在纽约设置展场。

11 delta   

n.（流的）角洲

参考例句：

• He has been to the delta of the Nile.他曾去过尼罗河三角洲。
• The Nile divides at its mouth and forms a delta.尼罗河在河口分岔，形成了一个三角洲。