Yesterday morning, over breakfast, it came out that Jophiel Jr. (age 8, 3rd grade) had no idea that there was ever a Revolutionary War, that the 13 Colonies were under British rule or anything like that. He knew that George Washington was the first president but had no idea that he was a general. No idea of the Declaration of Independence. Nothing as basic and Americana myth as Paul Revere’s ride. He had a little knowledge about the pilgrims, having just come off from Thanksgiving.
Is this… normal? It’s been a long time since I was in 3rd grade (I’m 34) so maybe I’m just remembering it differently but I’m sure we at least understood that we fought the British and George Washington was the big hero and Paul Revere yelled “The British are coming!” and they all signed a paper saying that America was its own country. Maybe no one is getting taught this stuff anymore in 3rd grade. Maybe I’m just personally outraged because I’m personally interested in history and have unreasonable expectations. But… wow.
This all started with a coloring book picture of “Revolutionary Era Snoopy” where he imagines serving with General Washington and has rags tied around his feet and head. I tried explaining the “Crossing the Delaware” story to Joph Jr and quickly realized that I was starting at the ground floor.
Absolutely. And I gave him a quick rundown of why there was a war and what it was about. One time earlier I showed him a map of the world and explained (in 3rd grade level detail) about World War II and where his great-grandparents had come from (Poland) and which countries allied to fight which other countries, etc.
The amusing side-effect of which is that since he knows more about WWII than any other war, he automatically assumes any war-related story is about WWII.
But that’s neither here nor there towards whether or not it’s customary for them not to teach this stuff in gradeschool by third grade. Not the WWII bit, of course, but the Revolutionary War basics.
I clearly remember covering the era that you reference in 5th grade. (I memorized “Paul Revere’s Ride” by Longfellow for extra credit) It may be that the curriculum is designed such that they haven’t got to that point in history yet. That does not mean that they will not cover it.
You’ll have to check with your child’s school district. Their curriculum might not teach Revolutionary War history until fourth or fifth grade. I think ours was fifth.
But, by all means, teach him what you know. Your enthusiasm will teach him far more than he’ll learn in school!
I remember singing Yankee Doodle Dandee in third grade, and learning that the British were bad guys at some point. I don’t think we learned much about the Revolutionary War until fifth grade, but I’m pretty sure that I knew there WAS such a war by third. (Although whether I learned that in class is something I’m not certain of.)
I also have an 8 year old 3rd grader and I think the most he’s done with Social Studies is local history and not much of that. We live in Rhode Island so early settlers and Natives were covered. So he knows from Squanto, but the Revolution, not so much.
I recall learning a lot about my home town of Bangor, ME in third grade.
He knows that G. Washington was the first President, but only because he heard it somewhere else. As of yesterday, he knows that Henry VIII had an old lady chopped to bits for being from the wrong family but that’s because I told him. He’s really hoping that they’ll have her skeleton available for his viewing pleasure when we visit the tower this summer.
Well, the local curriculum doesn’t seem to be available online but it sounds as if I’m either misremembering my own experiences or else that my experience wasn’t the norm. I’d give 50/50 odds either way.
Did you go to school in the same county as your son? How about the same state at least?
If not, yeah, curriculum can vary wildly between places - if not counties than at least states.
And also, as more standardized tests come in to play, curriculum is shuffled around to “make room” for what the state decides the kids need to learn at each stage of education.
There’s a good chance that a 3rd-grader will be learning local history. Fourth grade is generally state history, and fifth grade is US history. It varies by state, of course, but that’s become pretty usual.
I agree with you though, that it’s a good idea for him to learn some basics before that. You might like to give him the D’Aulaire American biographies as a nice starting point, and tell him about the Revolution. A few are listed here and they ought to be at your library.
Same state and same region (Chicago western suburbia) but different districts and counties.
You’re preaching to the choir there. But I figured I’d better save my NCLB outrage until after I was sure the situation was new. Which it doesn’t really seem to be.
I don’t think they’ve taught Joph Jr. any non-holiday related history (President’s Day, Thanksgiving, etc). Certainly nothing local or even state-wide.
Grade three? I don’t remember taking history in school then… that may have been a little later. Doesn’t mean I didn’t soak things up on my own, though. It’d be interesting to go back to the school records and find out what I actually took.
Personally, I wouldn’t worry about it. An eight-year-old is still pretty little. Up till that age, their schooling, both formal and informal, has really been about developing skills and knowledge of their surroundings, rather than facts, particularly about things that happened in the past. The Revolution is actually quite complicated to explain, because the whole thing doesn’t make sense without knowing about the political dimension. Words like “independence” and “constitution” and “democracy” and “taxation” can be hard for third-graders to grok.
I went to visit the Tower in 2004, and there were no skeletons on display then. I don’t think they do that these days… The Yeoman Warders (sometimes called the Beefeaters) did have some interesting and gory tales to tell on the tour, though.
I do remember learning about the Revolutionary War by third grade, at least a little bit… But then again, I was in first grade for the Bicentennial (1976), and you can bet a lot of talk was going around about the Declaration of Independence.
Plus all those Schoolhouse Rock shorts at 12 every Saturday, what with catchy songs and animation like “take your powder, take your gun / report to General Washington” and “The Shot Heard Round The World” and “No More Kings”, any of which I can still play back in my head.
I swear, everyone in my generation knows the Preamble to the Constitution to a tune.
We covered it officially in 5th grade, but I knew about it beforehand. Mainly from reading the “American Girl” books about Felicity who lived through colonial times. So, the Boston tea party and Paul Revere and all that were basic knowledge. I think I read those books in 2nd and 3rd grade.
I had the same experience, but perhaps somewhat strangely, I learned a lot of American history at that age from children’s magazines. Every issue of Jack and Jill or Golden Magazine seemed to have some item on American history, usually dealing with the Revolutionary War somehow. I can still remember reading about Valley Forge and Molly Pitcher and Paul Revere and so on in those kiddie magazines. But as I said, this was on my own, and not at school. So, being in Canada, I was (needless to say), somewhat confused when we studied civics and such, and had to relearn a few things. Those evil, British-loving traitors who chose to leave the new republic weren’t traitors at all–they were Loyalists!
This was pretty much my understanding from the magazine articles. Mind, they were aimed at children, so they avoided a lot of the political philosophy and other abstract items, and focused on the more tangible things: Valley Forge was where the soldiers were in a cold winter, Paul Revere rode through Boston, the Boston Tea Party was where the colonists dressed up like Indians and threw tea chests into Boston Harbor because they didn’t want to pay tax on it. Pretty simple stuff, and I have to admit, interesting to my eight-year-old self (lots of action in these articles) on whom any discussion of political philosophy probably would have been lost.
My oldest daughter is in Kindergarten and she knows a lot about early American history. Then again, our house and property were built before 1760 and we have been restoring it for her entire life. It is basically a hands on exercise and she better know about it based on all the work we do. We also live in the Boston area where early American history is everywhere.
That doesn’t apply to all kids but I am pretty sure that I knew about American history by first grade growing up in a poor school district in Louisiana. It went along with the Pilgrims, Ben Franklin, George Washington, and things like that. Like all good Southern children, we were also well versed on the intricacies of the Civil War soon after we learned to read give or take.
I first learned about the Revolutionary War and a lot of other things on Schoolhouse Rock (albeit at a superficial level) before it was covered in more detail in school. If you have the DVD or can rent it you might consider showing the one about the Revolutionary War and other topics to him.
I also learned a few things from a Bugs Bunny episode where he teaches his nephew Clyde about the war. I wouldn’t consider this a reliable source, though, since Clyde came home with a dunce cap on his head that day.
