With one test out of the way, my goal now is to \u201cstudy like crazy\u201d for the CSET (California single subject test) in History\/Social Studies.<\/p>\n
I read through the details and requirements of the test and quickly realized just how much I had to study.\u00a0 Even though the CSET results in my ability to teach Jr. High and High School students, the test itself is a at the college level.\u00a0 I am expected to have the breadth and depth of a college graduate in History.<\/p>\n
I gathered all the history books I had throughout the house, and compared them with the list of subject matters on the test.\u00a0 I had no California History, Civics or Economics in my collection, so I went shopping on Amazon for used college texts.\u00a0 Fortunately, the CSET prep document had a four page list of all the history books it considers important for the passage of the test.\u00a0 I bought half a dozen books.<\/p>\n
I also noticed that, just as with my Art History major, there is a disproportionate emphasis on women in history, minorities in history, revisionist history, and non-western history.\u00a0 I attribute this to the large liberal population (mostly non-western, minority women with a penchant for revisionism) that decides on the curriculum for the schools.\u00a0 As a white, European male who likes documented history (I\u2019m a deconstructionist, not a revisionist!), I am at a clear disadvantage.<\/p>\n
And yet I\u2019ll press on.\u00a0 I can at least memorize some of the stuff, even if I don\u2019t totally believe in it.\u00a0 It will sort of be like the evolutionary concepts that I had to pass for my anthropology class to get my biology degree.\u00a0 (If I went for my Science\/Biology single subject credential, I would likely be the only person in the district who considered Evolution a theory\u2026 which it is since it cannot be definitively proven.\u00a0 Teachers of biology at the Jr. High\/High School level generally seem to believe that Evolution has been proven recently \u2013 that it is now a fact\u2026 which is a complete myth.\u00a0 At least college professors will generally look up the facts.\u00a0 Jr. High\/High School teachers seem to more readily accept whatever is told to them, or whatever is in their textbooks, even though a few items in the texts have been proven false up to 50 years ago (like \u201cLucy\u201d).\u00a0 The HS texts seem to be written by administrators, not leading-edge researchers.\u00a0 The evolutionary dogma is kept intact.\u00a0 When you think about it, Evolution should be considered a religion.\u00a0 It takes about as much faith.\u00a0 The evidence is \u201csort-of\u201d there, but cannot be proven.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With one test out of the way, my goal now is to \u201cstudy like crazy\u201d for the CSET (California single subject test) in History\/Social Studies. I read through the details and requirements of the test and quickly realized just how … Continue reading