I have now had my first encounter with the Illinois learning standards.

When I watch a movie, if it begins with a cliché, I can almost guarantee that I need not continue watching. The movie will inevitably be bad. For example, a horror movie that begins with a car that refuses to start is a dead giveaway that I am not watching a Hitchcock-level film. The Illinois state history standards begin with this: George Santayana said "those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." This is the ultimate history education cliché. It's very language implies that the past was all bad.

As I read this cliché, I knew I was not going to like the standards. I was correct. Whereas Common Core do not attempt to standardize content, the state standards haphazardly attempt to do so, which is worse than completely ignoring content. The state standards include some skill-based, Common Core-like standards. Many are semi-broad content-based, like “Analyze the relationship of an issue in world political history to the related aspects of world economic, social and environmental history.” These I take no issue with. However, the more specific standards are so few that they should not be included. “Analyze the impact of westward expansion on the United States economy.” This is a very good standard, but there are only 8 or 10 such specific standards for high school. Many highly-important events are nowhere to be found. Karl Marx is mentioned, but not a single US President. These specific standards need to be significantly expanded or dropped.

Whoever wrote these standards has an obsession with environmental history. Of the 33 content-based high school history standards, 14 involve environmental history. 42%!!! Our students may not know what Watergate is or be able to name any President besides Washington and Lincoln, but they'll be experts on how the Suez Canal affected the environment. Ridiculous only begins to describe. It is no wonder that they are not used very frequently. There are some I can use for my scope & sequence that are very applicable. However, there will entire units where only one state standard applies. I really hope no schools are tailoring their curriculum to the state standards.