Letter: History, government should be taught

I write this letter as a community member who will have a child in the Rangely school system in a few years. It has recently come to my attention that the school board has decided to cut the middle school social studies and history/government program. Instead they are offering a “topics” class in which the course of study will be determined by the teacher and could possibly include some social studies. Our students will not be receiving a formal and full education in U.S. and Colorado history for the three years they are at the middle school. We often hear the expression “those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it.” How true, and how sad that we are setting up our community to be full of those who have not been educated in the foundations of our country or our state, those who will be doomed to repeat our past mistakes. In a time when the Constitution is often under attack by politicians and the media, how can we chose to not educate our kids on what it really says? Both Denver and Washington, D.C., are full of those who would love to see our Constitution torn down, our founding forgotten and our society forever changed. If we as a community accept that the history of the greatest nation on Earth is not important enough to be a central part of our school curriculum, how can we expect our future leaders to stand up to any issues that are unconstitutional, how can we expect them to better our society? Just because history and civics are not part of the state-mandated CSAP doesn’t mean we should turn our backs on it.
Jennifer Hill
Rangely