World War II should be added to Colorado’s history standards
As we recall the end of World War II, and especially when we say goodbye to those who served, we feel a new urgency to insist that Colorado’s history standards ask students to study World War II.
Seventy years ago this spring, my dad was completing his junior year in high school, but he was desperate to do what he could in the war effort. He was 18. After being hit in the head with a baseball at age 13, there were two operations on his brain and a year out of school, so the military branches disqualified him. But he had buddies his age off fighting.
President Franklin Roosevelt died in April. The war in Europe ended in May. Still, no one knew how much longer before the Allies could defeat Japan. Dad managed to sign up with the American Field Service (AFS). By June 1945, he was on his way to the India-Burma theater of war.
My dad died this spring, at 88. I informed the AFS, as I was happy to see that he was given recognition for his time in India. In its annual publication, AFS Janus, a section is reserved for “AFS WW II Ambulance Drivers Last Post.” There were photos of the young men in wartime, and a paragraph about their recent deaths — ages 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92.
I admire the fact that my father jumped in as soon as he could. He did what he was allowed to do. Was he envious of those who could call themselves veterans, as he could not? Of his older brother, who flew three tours in the South Pacific as a fighter pilot in the U.S. Marine Corps?
All I know is that he did what he could.
What I can do, in Colorado, is to protest once more that World War II is not mentioned in the history standards in our state, and to ask — before
`all who served then have left us — that we correct this. I expect a number who remain active might feel this is one more battle, however small, worth a fight.
Go to our social studies standards, with its four categories: history, civic, economics, and geography. Under the history standards, we read: “Investigate causes and effects of significant events in United States history. Topics to include but not limited to WWI, Great Depression, Cold War.”
Search for World War II. Not there. Search for Roosevelt, Churchill, Hitler. Try Pearl Harbor, D-Day, Hiroshima, A-Bomb. Nothing.
In 2011, when the Thomas B. Fordham Institute graded the states’ history standards, Colorado — along with 17 other states — was given an F. Some explained that a “local control state” cannot be specific in listing topics of study, as in states that received A’s, such as Massachusetts, Indiana, and California.
Fritz Fischer, professor of history at the University of Northern Colorado and chairman of the National Council for History Education, told Education Week: “Colorado officials are prohibited from dictating curricula to school districts.”
But surely it is not “dictating curricula” to insist that every Colorado student understand the essentials of what many call the most significant event of the 20th century.
I was proud to teach in a Core Knowledge school in Parker with strong expectations for what our middle school students needed to learn about World War II. This English teacher knew his students spent weeks studying World War II, so I could build on that in teaching Anne Frank’s diary and speeches by Churchill and Roosevelt from 1940 and 1941.
Large districts like Denver Public Schools and Jefferson County have written their own academic standards, which address World War II. But most districts refer to the Colorado Academic Standards as their guide.
Our history standards, certainly in this instance, are too vague.
Let’s fix this. It is past time that we expect all students to have a solid understanding of World War II.