The Ohio legislature wants to mandate what’s on school reading lists, all in the name of Amurica.
According to the Dispatch, yesterday the house debated and passed a bill that will require schools to teach and test students on the documents central to American history. It’s all the big names you’d expect — the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and Bill of Rights, a smattering of the Federalist and Anti-Federalist papers, plus the Ohio Constitution and the Northwest Ordinance. So we’re not talking about the course load for graduate level at U of Chicago, but some heavy intellectual lifting, nonetheless. Under the bill, students would get acquainted with the Founding Docs as earlier as 4th grade.
As an idea, we think this is pretty great. Kids need to take a whack at these documents, they’re obviously important. We begin every Scene editorial meeting with a dramatic reading of the Declaration. Unfortunately, this being the thought-stunted frat house we call the state legislature, the debate over the documents became a Blue v. Red head-to-head.
This article appears in Dec 7-13, 2011.