You Can't Teach What You Don't Know

By now, you’ve probably heard about the Pennsylvania school official who told teachers in his district not to discuss the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection with their students. But here’s what you might have missed: He was likely worried that the teachers weren’t sufficiently prepared to lead classes on the topic.

He’s probably right.

Not about the teaching of Jan. 6, of course, which every school should address in full. But he was correct about the preparation of history teachers, the people most often charged with explaining complex political and social issues to students. Simply put, most of our history teachers are not adequately educated for that task. And until that changes, our students won’t be adequately educated either.

In an email on Jan. 5, the day before the one-year anniversary of the Capitol insurrection, Pennridge School District social studies supervisor Keith Veverka told teachers not to “wade into” the matter, “due to the current polarization and strong emotions.” If students asked about it, Veverka added, teachers should “simply state that the investigation is ongoing and as historians we must wait until there is some distance from the event for us to accurately interpret it.”

Um, no. Historians interpret events as they happen, drawing on the past to understand them. But you can’t do that — at least not well — if you’re not trained in the methods and practices of the discipline.

And most of our history teachers aren’t. A majority of high school history instructors lack either a college major or minor in the subject. As late as 2013, a history teacher in New Jersey could be certified in the subject by taking one — that’s right, just one — college course in it.

True, most states require history teachers to pass the Praxis examination. But that’s a short multiple-choice test, which is significantly less rigorous than high school Advanced Placement tests. You read that right, too: The test we give teachers is easier than the ones we give kids.

And it’s hardly an indicator of real historical understanding, which can only be gained by in-depth study in the subject. I couldn’t teach physics or chemistry, because I don’t know enough about them. I could require students to memorize the periodic table, but that wouldn’t teach my students much of anything.