News Advisory: Neal to Testify on History Curriculum, Requirements

January 4, 2017

Indianapolis (Jan. 4) — The Senate Education and Career Development Committee was to hear testimony today on the state’s history curriculum and requirements from Andrea Neal, adjunct scholar of the Indiana Policy Review Foundation and author of a book celebrating the Indiana bicentennial.

“We continually lament the brain drain without seeking to understand all the causes,” Neal says. “Many of our young people do not have brand loyalty to Indiana. They are not proud of our state because they don’t know anything about it.”

Neal notes that Indiana history is taught in Grade 4. It must be taught in later grades to have an impact, she argues. Twenty-seven states mandate instruction in state history or state government at the high school level. In Alaska, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Hawaii, Mississippi and Washington state, a semester-long course is a graduation requirement. In Arkansas, schools must offer a semester of state history sometime between grade 7 and 12. Kansas schools offer a nine-week course of study.

She adds that elsewhere state history is taught in middle school when a child is developmentally ready for abstract thinking. New York, for example, offers New York history in grade 4 and as a two-year progression in Grades 7-8. North Carolina, Louisiana, Texas, Georgia and Utah teach state history in Grade 7 or 8.

“When you are proud of your name and heritage, you guard it,” Neal says. “As students learn about Indiana, they may find reasons to stay, seek jobs and raise their families.”

Neal, who teaches U.S. and Indiana history at St. Richard’s Episcopal School in Indianapolis, served on the State Board of Education from 2013 to 2015. She recently released “Road Trip – A Pocket History of Indiana,” a collection of 100 bicentennial essays available in book form from the Indiana Historical Society Press.

Our Site

Full use of this site, including access to the search function and the archive of past articles and journals, is now available to everyone.

Connect with Us

 

Our mission is to marshal the best thought on governmental, economic and educational issues at the state and municipal levels. We seek to accomplish this in ways that:

• Exalt the truths of the Declaration of Independence, especially as they apply to the interrelated freedoms of religion, property and speech.
• Emphasize the primacy of the individual in addressing public concerns.
• Recognize that equality of opportunity is sacrificed in pursuit of equality of results.

The Indiana Policy Review Foundation is a non-profit education foundation focused on state and municipal issues. It is free of outside control by any individual, organization or group. It exists solely to conduct and distribute research on Indiana issues. Nothing written here is to be construed as reflecting the views of the Indiana Policy Review Foundation or as an attempt to aid or hinder the passage of any bill before the legislature or to further any political campaign.

The foundation's white papers are intended to make scholarly research on Indiana issues more widely available to policy analysts and researchers. White Papers represent research in progress and are published to invite comment and discussion as preparation for their submission to academic journals and other professional publications. The authors are solely responsible for the content of their research and analysis.