is understandable that teachers want to manage their situations.
76 Albert Shanker, “The Efficient Diploma Mill,” advertisement in New York
Times, 2/14/1988.
77 Admonitions from 1893 and 1934 quoted by David Jenness, Making Sense
of Social Studies (New York: Macmillan, 1990), 262. See also Gagnon,
Democracy’s Half-Told Story, 17-19.
78 Paul Goldstein, Changing the American Schoolbook (Lexington, MA: D.
C. Heath, 1978). In history, the proportion is even higher. See Kirst, Who
Controls Our Schools? 115. J. Y. Cole and T. G. Sticht, eds., The Textbook in
American Society (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1981), 9, hold that
textbooks and similar instructional material structure 95 percent to 100 percent
of classroom instruction and 90 percent of homework time. Matthew Downey
and Linda Levstik question the conventional wisdom that textbooks dominate
history instruction, however, holding that little reading of any kind takes place.
See “Teaching and Learning History: The Research Base,” Social Education
52, no. 9 (September 1988): 336-41, esp. 337. This pessimistic finding offers
only ironic encouragement, however, and does not square with information
from my students, most of whom report that their high school history classes
spent much time doing the same things that mine did, like answering the boring
exercises at the ends of each chapter.
79 Tyson-Bernstein, “Remarks to the AERA Textbook SIG,” 10. Her
assessment may be too harsh: in my experience teachers are anxious not to
spread outright misinformation. Most teachers work hard to learn and pass on
correct information, but then, these are the teachers who attend workshops, not
a random sample.
80 Tracy Kidder, Among Schoolchildren (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1989),
evokes the nearly impossible job teachers do. See also John Goodlad, A Place
Called School (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1983).
81 Mark Schug, “Why Teach Social Studies?” The Social Studies 80, no. 2
(3/1989): 74. His sample was unfortunately only twenty-nine teachers.
82 Crabtree and O’Shea, “Teachers’ Academic Preparation in History,” 4, 10.
Some of these teachers majored in a social science, however, which is useful
preparation for teaching American history. Crabtree and O’Shea also report
that one in twelve history teachers has a BA in physical education; probably
most of these are coaches. See also Robert A. Rutter, “Profile of the