Susan Graseck
Senior Fellow, Watson Institute;
Director, Choices for the 21st Century Education Program
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Interview
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(OH)
What kinds of classes does your curriculum turn up in?
(SG)
Our goal is to integrate these topics into the core curriculum.
We primarily work with the high school social studies—U.S.
history, world history, global studies, government. We have a grant
right now from the U.S.
Department of Education working with a number of school districts on teaching
American history. That grant is focused on working with teachers on turning points
in the history of American foreign policy, from the slave trade to the 21st century.
The slave trade after all was a foreign policy issue—and it casts a broad
shadow across all of American history. And the Declaration of Independence, that
is surely a foreign policy issue. There are a bunch of turning points we
look at: the Age of Imperialism and the Spanish American War, Woodrow Wilson
and the League of Nations debate, Hiroshima, the Marshall Plan, the Cuban Missile
Crisis, Vietnam War and now our role in the 21st century.
We are trying to get more international content into the standard U.S. history
course.
We’re
doing the same with world history, focusing on turning points that have particular
significance for our world today. And all of our current issues topics are designed
to teach history and apply it to the present day. The idea is that we study history
in order to understand the present and think about the future. History is relevant
today. “Explore the past; shape the
future” is part of our “branding.”
(OH)
Do you think that civics should be taught in the classroom?
(SG)
Yes. There’s a lot of discussion on this right now, looking
at the civic mission of schools. It’s a BIG conversation.
One of the things that we’re really concerned with is keeping international
relations in that conversation. It’s easy to think that when you are dealing
with
civics, you are dealing with founding documents and community service and
all of that. But teaching for democracy is more
than this. If we don’t make sure that civic learning includes looking at
who we are in relation to the world around us, I think we are missing the boat.
We are a nation that has to be part of the world, and students need the tools
and the inclinations to think
about this.
(OH)
Have we lost track of why we have public schools in the first place?
(SG)
I think we’ve gotten the idea that schooling is to help you
fit in economically. And sure it is, but that’s not all it is. It’s
really about how we make ourselves a nation and then how we proceed to govern
ourselves. If you don’t have a public that is both educated and engaged,
you’re not going to have a democracy.
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