North Carolina’s teacher-union loving teachers (and not all of them are, by the way) were gathered in protest in Raleigh two days ago making the questionable assertion that eliminating teacher positions will harm educational outcomes. Those of us who went to classrooms with more than 30 students in each, and who actually know what the Bill of Rights is, might beg to differ:
Fewer than half the country’s eighth-graders were able to identify the purpose of the Bill of Rights on the 2010 National Assessment of Educational Progress. Most high school seniors couldn’t identify a power granted to Congress by the Constitution or define the term “melting pot.” Relatively few fourth-graders understood the concept of majority rule, as expected for their grade level.
The findings came from the national test, given every four years to thousands of the nation’s fourth-, eighth- and 12th-graders.
Some of the protesting teachers were, ironically, dressed in period garb from a period in American history when children actually learned something about civics, our country and our special place in history.
(Photo by David N. Bass of Carolina Journal)
