The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) has just released a report on state educational policies in the humanities. CCSSO is the national membership organization of the fifty state chief school officers who are responsible for working with school districts in curriculum matters. The report is a presentation of findings that grew out of a survey of state education agencies.
In his foreword to the report, Humanities and State Education Agencies: Policies, Perspectives and Prospects, CCSSO Executive Director William F. Pierce states that “the humanities cannot, indeed must not, be either ignored or diminished if students are to be as educated, and therefore, as wise as possible.” The results of the survey show that most states may not appreciate the urgency of Mr. Pierce’s appeal.
For one, the survey found little agreement among state agency personnel on what subject areas comprise the humanities. Most of the respondents, according to the report, did not clearly distinguish the humanities from the arts. There was a tendency to equate humanities courses with interdisciplinary, team-taught innovative classes, or with courses that emphasize “basic skills,” or help students become more “humane” and “socially responsible citizens.”
History in the schools. because it is viewed as part of the social studies, is seen as more a part of the social sciences than the humanities. The arts, on the other hand, are more consistently and highly identified as humanities subject areas.
Only one-fifth of all the states have a “unit” in their education agencies that has specific responsibility for the humanities. In other words, most states do not think of humanities as having a distinct identity, and as a result “state personnel, as well as local teachers and administrators, have little occasion to see their work tied to the humanities in any concrete way.”
The following are among the report’s more important recommendations: (1) that the states work together in developing a dear and concise definition of the humanities throughout all educational levels, from elementary to secondary to postsecondary education; (2) there should be an equal cooperation among higher education professional associations and professional secondary school teacher organizations, and (3) that the natural constituencies for the humanities (which should include state educational personnel and administrators as well as university and precollegiate teachers) should organize and push for better-quality curriculum and instruction in the humanities.
The report was funded by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Rockefeller Foundation. For further information, contact Hilda L. Smith, Project Director, CCSSO, 379 Hall of the States, 400 North Capitol Street, NW, Washington, DC 20001.
