Will grant influence cutting into history class?
"History is the only laboratory we have in which to test the consequences of thought," French philosopher Etienne Gilson said.
Gilson did not have Elgin Area School District U-46 in mind when he wrote that.
Still, the thought applies directly to the district's recent receipt of a $1 million grant.
In February, I wrote about a group of Larkin history teachers who filed a union grievance accusing the district of undermining their classes.
At Larkin, juniors were regularly taken out of U.S. history classes for computer training designed to increase scores on the WorkKeys portion of the upcoming Prairie State Achievement Exam.
U.S. history was chosen because of the high percentage of juniors who take the class.
Only 45.2 percent of Elgin Area School District U-46 juniors met or exceeded state standards on the state test last year, compared to 52.6 percent of juniors across the state. Schools face No Child Left Behind sanctions if scores do not improve.
Along with state-test tutoring sessions for students who received low scores on practice ACT tests, all U-46 high school juniors learn to use KeyTrain software, said Tom Donausky, the district's executive director for secondary education.
In addition to being inadequately trained to conduct the computer courses during one class each week, the Larkin teachers said targeting their class diminished the value of their subject.
Both components were considered violations of the recently negotiated teachers contract. The KeyTrain sessions are now considered a voluntary option at Larkin.
KeyTrain sessions are administered at all U-46 high schools during U.S. history courses. The district still must re-evaluate the use of the computer program at the district's four other high schools, said Tim Davis, president of the Elgin Teachers Association in February.
Interesting timing, given that Monday, U-46 announced it received a $985,448 Teaching American History grant to support American history classes and programs.
U-46 will use the grant money for a three-year professional development program, said Jeff Feucht, Bartlett High School's social studies and world languages department chair and project director for the new grant.
The "Roadmap of American History" project partners U-46 high school history teachers with the Illinois State Historical Library, the Elgin Area Historical Society, Northern Illinois University, and the Constitutional Rights Foundation of Chicago.
Teachers will attend a series of workshops on specific areas of the U.S. history curriculum.
The program will help teachers discover ways to make American history more engaging and relevant to students, Feucht said in a news release.
U-46 was one of six districts in the state to receive the U.S. Department of Education grant -- a testament to the district's many dedicated and talented history teachers. Investing so much time and energy in a subject certainly communicates its importance.
Will such a sizable chunk of change make administrators rethink cutting into history class?
Only time will tell.