In
1992 New Mexico's Board of Education changed its educational standards from what
had previously been entitled: "Educational Standards for New Mexico Schools" to
"Standards for Excellence.
The new Content Standard for social studies, grades 9-12 thereafter was changed from the way it had read in 1976 and 1982:
"Social
Studies. All programs should emphasize the value of cultural diversity and
recognize the intrinsic worth of each culture in itself"
to:
"Content
Standard 1: Students are able to identify important people and events in order
to analyze significant patterns, relationships, themes, ideas, beliefs and
turning points in New Mexico [since statehood], United States, and world history
in order to understand the complexity of the human experience. Students
will:
"9-12
Benchmark 1-A. New Mexico: analyze how people and events of New Mexico have
influenced United States and world history since statehood."
The
significance of this change was that textbooks used in grades 9-12 after 1992
could no longer address pre-statehood history: No longer could the thousands of
years of New Mexico's Indian history nor the hundreds of years of Spanish and
Mexican history be included in textbooks used by grades 9 thru 12.
Ironically,
the standards for grades 5-8 were not limited in 1992 as they were for grades
9-12. Upon inquiry I was advised that once students in grade 7 had studied
pre-statehood history there was no longer a need to teach the subject in high
school. My question regarding this response is: then why teach post-statehood
history again in high school as it had also been taught in the seventh
grade?
I
must qualify what I have said about the 1992 limitations New Mexico placed upon
grades 9-12 in regard to the textbook presently used for those grades. The
authors of A History of New Mexico Since Statehood, the book currently
used in grades 9-12, (which was published by UNM Press) namely, Richard Melzer,
Robert Torrez and Sandra K. Mathews are to be commended for their efforts in
stretching the limits of the regulation as far as they did.
At
the very least, their Introduction and chapters allow inquisitive
students to realize that New Mexico's history began centuries before January 6,
1912.
Mike
Scarborough
trespasseronourownland.blogspot.com
