Sobering History

Israel. Lebanon. What's going on? Yesterday, a group of us gathered around to debate what it all means. We agreed on some things, disagreed on others. I think we settled on the fact that the histories of these places are tied to other histories, including our own. And that to understand what's happening today, we need to be reminded of what happened in years past.

So it seemed fitting to point out that NCES just released a new study about who's teaching history to the nation's high schoolers. In short, it says that most high school students (86 percent) are taught by teachers with state certification in social studies. Poor kids get short shrift again and are more likely to be taught by uncertified or "out-of-field" teachers, but the numbers still aren't bad. On the other hand, the study also reports that fewer than half of high school history students are taught by teachers who majored or minored in history.

I wondered, are there fewer college students majoring in history? I checked and it seems that, in terms of bachelor's degrees, history has declined a lot since the 70s. It actually hit its all time low in 1985, and has inched up slowly since then. Still, the numbers are low- just 2 percent of all degrees earned.

Of course, you don't necessarily need a history degree to teach history well. But still I think we might all be better served by paying a little more attention to history.