But if the session I attended is typical of Mr. Nash's actual feelings, I am skeptical about the possibility of any real meeting of the minds between the Center and its critics. The other sessions on the standards at NCSS all appear to have been dominated by the Center for History in the Schools people or their backers, Again, I stress that I did not attend these sessions and may therefore be mistaken about them. Such a unified school-university front in the face of an angry public will only result in a disaster for the social studies. It will further discredit teachers in the public's mind and make it all the harder to achieve meaningful and worthwhile reform in the way history is taught. Such rigidity is already well advanced on topics having to do with multiculturalism and race.
Most conservative critics are neither fools nor knaves.
The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation is affiliated with the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research . The Foundation is neither connected with nor sponsored by Fordham University.