As curriculum director for history/social studies in the San Diego Unified School District, my goal and my passion is to bring history back into the curriculum for our students. Because history is not a part of the federal No Child Left Behind testing requirements, the district for several years de-emphasized the teaching and learning of this important subject. It may be that administrators in the past followed the adage that “If it’s not important enough to be tested, it’s not important enough to be taught,” but such is no longer the case in SDUSD.
And, here’s something else to consider: In the midst of the historic election just concluded, we actually had parents questioning why teachers in history/social studies classrooms were devoting time to teaching about the presidential election.