The National Center for History in the
Schools worked for more than two years with experts in academia and distinguished
veteran K-12 teachers to develop a comprehensive set of United States and World history
standards. Although these standards are not mandated by the U.S. government, they have
profoundly influenced the writing of standards in the states and are increasingly used by
teachers throughout the country as curriculum guides. NCHS, based at UCLA, has produced a
number of teaching manuals and curriculum units to further aid teachers. These are listed
on the NCHS website and those focusing on Asia are included in the CEAS K-12 Curriculum Resources
pages.
Not everyone embraced these standards, however. The Wall Street Journal quoted
Albert Shanker, then president of the American Federation of Teachers: "It's a
travesty, a caricature of what these things should be -- sort of a cheapshot, leftist
point-of-view of history. Everything that is European or American, or that has to do with
white people is evil and oppressive, while Genghis Khan is a nice sweet guy just bringing
his culture to other places." Ross Dunn, editor of the standards and a professor at
San Diego State University, "said he would rather have students graduate from high
school knowing less detail about European history, than for them to graduate 'not knowing
anything about the history of China, the industrial revolution in Japan or the Middle
East, where we just fought a war.'"
[Please note that these are selections from the relevant sections of the standards.]
Introduction || Emergence || Early Civilizations ||
Expanding Zones of
Contact
National World History Standards
Selections
from Chapter 1 (Introduction)
Developing Standards in World History for Students in Grades 5-12
Significance of History for the Educated Citizen
Setting standards for history in the schools requires a clear vision of the place and
importance of history in the general education of all students. The widespread and growing
support for more and better history in the schools, beginning in the early grades of
elementary education, is one of the more encouraging signs of the decade. The reasons are
many, but none are more important to a democratic society than this: Knowledge of history
is the precondition of political intelligence. Without history, a society shares no common
memory of where it has been, what its core values are, or what decisions of the past
account for present circumstances. Without history, we cannot undertake any sensible
inquiry into the political, social, or moral issues in society. And without historical
knowledge and inquiry, we cannot achieve the informed, discriminating citizenship
essential to effective participation in the democratic processes of governance and the
fulfillment for all our citizens of the nation's democratic ideals.
Thomas Jefferson long ago prescribed history for all who would take part in
self-government because it would enable them to prepare for things yet to come. The
philosopher Etienne Gilson noted the special significance of the perspectives history
affords. "History," he remarked, "is the only laboratory we have in which
to test the consequences of thought." History opens to students the great record of
human experience, revealing the vast range of accommodations individuals and societies
have made to the problems confronting them, and disclosing the consequences that have
followed the various choices that have been made. By studying the choices and decisions of
the past, students can confront today's problems and choices with a deeper awareness of
the alternatives before them and the likely consequences of each.
Current problems, of course, do not duplicate those of the past. Essential to
extrapolating knowledgeably from history to the issues of today requires yet a further
skill, again dependent upon one's understanding of the past: differentiating between (1)
relevant historical antecedents that properly inform analyses of current issues and (2)
those antecedents that are clearly irrelevant. Students must be sufficiently grounded in
historical understanding in order to bring sound historical analysis to the service of
informed decision making.
What is required is mastery of what Nietzsche once termed "critical history"
and what Gordon Craig has explained as the "ability, after painful inquiry and sober
judgment, to determine what part of history [is] relevant to one's current problems and
what[is] not," whether one is assessing a situation, forming an opinion, or taking an
active position on the issue. In exploring these matters, students will soon discover that
history is filled with the high costs of decisions reached on the basis of false analogies
from the past as well as the high costs of actions taken with little or no understanding
of the important lessons the past imparts.
These learnings directly contribute to the education of the public citizen, but they
uniquely contribute to nurturing the private individual as well. Historical memory is the
key to self-identity, to seeing one's place in the stream of time, and one's connectedness
with all of humankind. We are part of an ancient chain, and the long hand of the past is
upon us - for good and for ill - just as our hands will rest on our descendants for years
to come. Denied knowledge of one's roots and of one's place in the great stream of human
history, the individual is deprived of the fullest sense of self and of that sense of
shared community on which one's fullest personal development as well as responsible
citizenship depends. For these purposes, history and the humanities must occupy an
indispensable role in the school curriculum.
Finally, history opens to students opportunities to develop a comprehensive
understanding of the world and of the many societies whose traditions and values may in
many ways be different from their own. From a balanced and inclusive world history
students may gain an appreciation both of the world's many peoples and of their shared
humanity and common problems. Students may also acquire the habit of seeing matters
through others' eyes and come to realize that they can better understand themselves as
theystudy others. Historical understanding based on such comparative studies in world
history does not require approval or forgiveness for the tragedies either of one's own
society or of others; nor does it negate the importance of critically examining
alternative value systems and their effects in supporting or denying basic human rights
and aspirations. Especially important, an understanding of world history can contribute to
fostering the kind of mutual patience, respect, and civic courage required in
ourincreasingly pluralistic society and interdependent world.
If students are to see ahead more clearly, and be ready to act with judgment and with
respect for the shared humanity of all who may be touched by the decisions they as
citizens make, then schools must attend to this critical field of the curriculum.
Definition of Standards
Standards in history make explicit the goals that all students should haveopportunity
to acquire, if the purposes just considered are to be achieved. In history, standards are
of two types:
1. Historical thinking skills that enable students to evaluate evidence, develop
comparative and causal analyses, interpret the historical record, and construct sound
historical arguments and perspectives on which informed decisions in contemporary life can
be based.
2. Historical understandings that define what students should know about the history of
their nation and of the world. These understandings are drawn from the record of human
aspirations, strivings, accomplishments, and failures in at least five spheres of human
activity: the social, scientific/technological, economic, political, and
philosophical/religious/aesthetic. They also provide students the historical perspectives
required to analyze contemporary issues and problems confronting citizens today.
Historical thinking and understanding do not, of course, develop independently of one
another. Higher levels of historical thinking depend upon and are linked to the attainment
of higher levels of historical understanding....
Criteria for the Development of Standards
The development of national standards in United States and world history presents a
special challenge in deciding what, of the great storehouse of human history, is the most
significant for all students to acquire. Perhaps less contentious but no less important is
deciding what historical perspectives and what skills in historical reasoning, values
analysis, and policy thinking are essential for all students to achieve.
The following criteria, developed and refined over the course of a broad-based national
review and consensus process, were adopted by the National Council for History Standards
in order to guide the development of history standards for grades kindergarten through 12.
1. Standards should be intellectually demanding, reflect the best historical
scholarship, and promote active questioning and learning rather than passive absorption of
facts, dates, and names.
2. Such standards should be equally expected of all students and all students should be
provided equal access to the curricular opportunities necessary to achieving those
standards.
3. Standards should reflect the ability of children from the earliest elementary school
years to learn the meanings of history and the methods of historians.
4. Standards should be founded in chronology, an organizing approach that fosters
appreciation of pattern and causation in history.
5. Standards should strike a balance between emphasizing broad themes in United States
and world history and probing specific historical events, ideas, movements, persons, and
documents.
6. All historical study involves selection and ordering of information in light of
general ideas and values. Standards for history should reflect the principles of sound
historical reasoning careful evaluation of evidence, construction of causal relationships,
balanced interpretation, and comparative analysis. The ability to detect and evaluate
distortion and propaganda by omission, suppression, or invention of facts is essential.
7. Standards should include awareness of, appreciation for, and the ability to utilize
a variety of sources of evidence from which historical knowledge is achieved, including
written documents, oral tradition, popular culture, literature, artifacts, art and music,
historical sites, photographs, and films.
8. Standards for United States history should reflect both the nation's diversity,
exemplified by race, ethnicity, social and economic status, gender, region, politics, and
religion, and the nation's commonalities. The contributions and struggles of specific
groups and individuals should be included.
9. Standards in United States history should contribute to citizenship education
through developing understanding of our common civic identity and shared civic values
within the polity, through analyzing major policy issues in the nation's history and
through developing mutual respect among its many peoples.
10. History Standards should emphasize the nature of civil society and its relationship
to government and citizenship. Standards in United States history should address the
historical origins of the nation's democratic political system and the continuing
development of its ideals and institutions, its controversies, and the struggle to narrow
the gap between its ideals and practices. Standards in world history should include
different patterns of political institutions, ranging from varieties of democracy to
varieties of authoritarianism, and ideas and aspirations developed by civilizations in all
parts of the world.
11. Standards in United States and world history should be separately developed but
interrelated in content and similar in format. Standards in United States history should
reflect the global context in which the nation unfolded; and world history should treat
United States history as one of its integral parts.
12. Standards should include appropriate coverage of recent events in United States and
world history, including social and political developments and international relations of
the post-World War II era.
13. Standards in U.S. history and world history should utilize regional and local
history by exploring specific events and movements through case studies and historical
research. Local and regional history should enhance the broader patterns of U.S. and world
history.
14. Standards in U.S. and world history should integrate fundamental facets of human
culture such as religion, science and technology, politics and government, economics,
interactions with the environment, intellectual and social life, literature, and the arts.
15. Standards in world history should treat the history and values of diverse
civilizations, including those of the West, and should especially address the interactions
among them.
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Emergence of Civilizations
Students Should Understand: The processes that led to the emergence of agricultural
societies around the world.
Students Should Be Able to:
2A Demonstrate understanding of how and why humans established settled communities and
experimented with agriculture by:
5-12 Inferring from archaeological evidence the technology, social organization, and
cultural life of settled farming communities in Southwest Asia. [Draw upon visual sources]
9-12 Describing types of evidence and methods of investigation by which scholars have
reconstructed the early history of domestication and agricultural settlement. [Evidence
historical perspectives]
9-12 Describing leading theories to explain how and why human groups domesticated wild
grains as well as cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs after the last Ice Age. [Evaluate major
debates among historians]
7-12 Identifying areas in Southwest Asia and the Nile valley where early farming
communities probably appeared, and analyzing the environmental and technological factors
that made possible experiments with farming in these regions. [Incorporate multiple
causation]
Grades 5-6 Examples of student achievement of Standard 2A include:
Define wild and domestic plants and animals and draw charts illustrating differences
between wild and domestic crops during the early agricultural period.
Draw upon resources such as Skara Bare by Oliver Dunrea, the story of a prehistoric
village in Scotland, in order to create illustrations or dioramas of early farming
villages. Dioramas can include cultivated fields and domesticated animals. How did the
practice of agriculture influence patterns of human settlement?
Create a "you are there" travel brochure for the early agricultural era.
Include information on geographic sites, food production, shelter, specialization,
government, and religion.
Grades 7-8 Examples of student achievement of Standard 2A include:
Write an account comparing the daily life of a hunter-gatherer and of an early farmer.
What problems and benefits are associated with each way of life?
Analyze illustrations of some of the new tools and other objects, such as sickles,
grinding stones, pottery, blades, and needles, that appeared in the early era of
agriculture. In what ways are these objects likely to have affected daily life in early
far ming settlements?
Use a source such as Richard Leakey's Dawn of Man to determine how human communities
might have unconsciously domesticated wheat.
Draw upon evidence developed by scholars to describe the role of fishing as a sedentary
but nonagricultural way of life.
Grades 9-12 Examples of student achievement of Standard 2A include:
Drawing evidence from scholarly sources, debate the questions: Did human beings invent
or discover agriculture?
Examine archaeological reconstructions of hunter-gatherer and agricultural sites,
including objects found there. Compare and contrast these sites posing questions such as:
Is the presence of permanent structures evidence for an agricultural community? Is the
presence of tools such as grinding stones or sickles evidence for an agricultural society?
Is a spear an indication of a hunter-gatherer society? What kind of evidence would
reliably distinguish a hunter-gatherer from an agricultural site?
Debate questions such as: What do historians mean by the "Neolithic
revolution" and is the term "revolution" used here in a valid way? What
does the term "Neolithic" mean? Is this term adequate to explain the
complexities of early farming life?
Hypothesize ways in which hunter-gatherer societies could try to gain control over food
supplies (such as fertility and hunting magic, protection of self-sown seeds, or
confinement of a herd). What part did the ability to store, as well as to control food
supplies, play in the "Neolithic revolution"? Were gourds, baskets, and pottery
integral or peripheral to the shift toward settled agriculture?
Construct historical arguments to assess the interconnection between agricultural
production and cultural change (such as division of labor, change in concept of time,
gender roles).
Based on scholarly accounts, construct a hypothesis to explain the development of wild
grain husbandry in Southwest Asia.
Students Should Be Able to:
2B Demonstrate understanding of how agricultural societies developed around the world
by:
5-12 Analyzing differences between hunter-gatherer and agrarian communities in economy,
social organization, and quality of living. [Compare and contrast differing behaviors and
institutions]
5-12 Describing social, cultural, and economic characteristics of large agricultural
settlements such as =82atal H=9Fyuk or Jericho. [Obtain historical data]
7-12 Analyzing how peoples of West Africa, Europe, Southeast Asia, East Asia,
and the Americas domesticated food plants and developed agricultural communities in
response to local needs and conditions. [Compare and contrast behaviors and institutions]
7-12 Assessing archaeological evidence from agricultural village sites in Southwest
Asia, North Africa, China, or Europe that indicates the emergence of social
class divisions, occupational specialization, and differences in roles between men and
women. [Hold interpretations of history as tentative]
7-12 Assessing archaeological evidence for long-distance trade in Southwest Asia.
[Draw upon visual sources]
9-12 Assessing archaeological evidence for the emergence of complex belief systems,
including worship of female deities. [Interrogate historical data]
Grades 5-6 Examples of student achievement of Standard 2B include:
Locate on a map the site of the ancient town of xx and describe the natural
environment surrounding this town. Construct a model or illustration of xx and
describe daily life in the community. What problems needed to be solved that resul ted
from large numbers of people living together on a permanent basis?
Formulate evidence for the comparative lifestyles of hunter-gatherers, fishermen, and
farmers. What tools would these different groups need to make a living? How would they
make these tools and where would they find materials for manufacturing them?
Explain the development of tropical agriculture in Southeast Asia. What role did
bamboo play as a major tool in this area?
Grades 7-8 Examples of student achievement of Standard 2B include:
Construct a map demonstrating possible long-distance trade routes in Southwest Asia.
How does archaeological evidence support the routes in this map? What is obsidian, and why
was it such an important item of trade?
Make a time line tracing the emergence of agriculture worldwide up to about 4000 BCE,
and identify on a world map both the major areas of agricultural production and the
distribution of human settlements. Why was it in these areas rather than elsewhere that
agriculture became a way of life? What connections are there between the practice of
agriculture and the pattern of settlement?
Make a chart comparing the positive and negative effects of agricultural life compared
to hunter-gatherer life and debate the following question: Did the emergence of
agriculture represent an advance in human social development? What criteria would you us e
to evaluate whether or not it was an advance?
Grades 9-12 Examples of student achievement of Standard 2B include:
Analyze pictures of hunter-gatherer sites in places such as Danube fishing villages,
the Lascaux caves in France, and hunter sites in northern regions. Contrast these with
agricultural sites such as those found in Jericho, Banpo village in North China,
and the Tehuac Valley in Mexico. How do hunter-gatherer sites differ from agricultural
sites?
Chart the probable differences between a hunting/gathering community of a few dozen
people, a village of a few hundred, and a town of several thousand in relation to storage
needs, sanitation, social hierarchy, division of labor, gender roles, and protect ion.
Find evidence for your hypotheses.
Map the distribution of sites where each of the following kinds of communities was
found in the period of about 10,000-4000 BCE: hunter/gatherers; wheat/barley/cattle/sheep
farmers; millet farmers; yam farmers; rice farmers; maize/squash farmers. List possible
explanations why some groups developed or accepted completely sedentary agriculture, while
others partly or fully kept to earlier patterns.
Make inferences based on scholarly evidence to explain the level of social
specialization and political organization in such sites as =82atal H=9Fyuk and Jericho.
How might the development of patterns for layout, fortification, and standardization
transform human culture?
Analyze scholarly evidence to explain the varied methods of crop cultivation. How were
methods of agriculture different in Southwest Asia as compared to West Africa and Southeast
Asia?
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Early Civilizations
What Students Should Understand
Standard 1: The major characteristics of civilization and how civilizations emerged in
Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Indus valley.
A. How Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Indus Valley became centers of dense
population, urbanization, and cultural innovation [CORE]
B. How commercial and cultural interactions contributed to change in the
Tigris-Euphrates, Indus, and Nile regions [RELATED]
Standard 2: How agrarian societies spread and new states emerged in the third and
second millennia BCE
A. The emergence of civilization in northern China [CORE]
B. How new centers of agrarian society arose in the third and second millennia BCE
[RELATED]
Standard 3: The political, social, and cultural consequences of population movements
and militarization in Eurasia in the second millennium BCE
A. How population movements from western and central Asia affected peoples of India,
Southwest Asia, and the Mediterranean region [CORE]
B. The social and cultural effects that militarization and the emergence of new
kingdoms had on peoples of Southwest Asia and Egypt [CORE]
D. The development of new cultural patterns in northern India [RELATED]
Classical Traditions, Major
Religions and Giant Empires
What Students Should Understand
Standard 1: Innovation and change from 1000-600 BCE: horses, ships, iron, and
monotheistic faith
A. How state-building, trade, and migrations led to increasingly complex interrelations
among peoples of the Mediterranean basin and Southwest Asia [CORE]
D. How pastoral nomadic peoples of Central Asia began to play an important role
in world history [RELATED]
Standard 2: The emergence of Aegean civilization and how interrelations developed among
peoples of the eastern Mediterranean and Southwest Asia, 600-200 BCE
Standard 3: How major religions and large-scale empires arose in the Mediterranean
basin, China, and India, 500 BCE-300 CE
C. The unification of China under the early imperial dynasties [CORE]
D. Religious and cultural developments in India in the era of the Gangetic
states and the Maurya empire [CORE]
Expanding Zones Of Exchange
And Encounter 300-1000 CE
What Students Should Understand
Standard 1: Imperial crises and their aftermath, 300-700 CE
A. The decline of the Roman and Han empires [CORE]
B. The expansion of Christianity and Buddhism beyond the lands of their origin
CORE]
C. The synthesis of Hindu civilization in India in the era of the Gupta
Empire [CORE]
D. Hindu and Buddhist expansion in Southeast Asia in the first
millennium CE RELATED]
Standard 2: Causes and consequences of the rise of Islamic civilization in the 7th-10th
centuries
A. The emergence of Islam and how Islam spread in Southwest Asia, North Africa,
and Europe [CORE]
Standard 3: Major developments in East Asia in the era of the Tang dynasty,
600-900 CE
A. Political and cultural expansion in Tang China [CORE]
B. Chinese influence on the peoples of Inner Asia, Korea, Vietnam, and Japan
[RELATED]
[top]
Teaching
about Asia
