On October 27, 2014, The Huffington Post published “Common Core and the End of History,” which leapt off the webpage, as I was high speed scrolling, not expecting any headline to jump out at me as this one had. The article explains that the New York Board of Regents is attempting to have the curriculum changed such that it is no longer required for students to pass both the United States and World History Regents Exams.

I could see how modifying graduation requirements in this way could boost graduation rates. Sometimes students excel in learning the overarching themes of world history, but not the detail oriented coursework of United States history. However, the Board also wants it so that the World History exam will not cover any material predating 1750. How could one basically eliminate history before 1750? I’ve always had faith that we as a society would not reach a point where we omitted history as was done in the novel 1984 by George Orwell.

In New York schools today, students are not taught information to learn and apply it, but rather to cram in as much as possible for the sole purpose of passing a “make it or break it” exam. Upon completion, students promptly rid themselves of the newfound information, resulting in very little retention. Noting that this “test preparation” mentality won’t change as long as these Regents exams exist. This elimination of history from the test is, in turn, going to remove it from the curriculum altogether. Although it is not stated that the years preceding 1750 will be eliminated from class instruction, why would a teacher, already limited in resources and class time, go over information that would not be found on the test, which of course is the only real measure of a student’s intelligence? Included in the omitted material are Columbian exchange, the settlement of the Americas, and, most notably, every ancient civilization ever to exist on Earth. I’ve already heard of confusion when it comes to the settlement of the Americas, exemplified in a seemingly very confused student in my own freshman World History class stating, “Christopher Columbus came to America and raped all the Puerto Ricans and they turned white.”

It is impossible that we allow students with this warped sense of reality to graduate. Without instructing them otherwise, however, how can we know if they have any idea what happened before the signing of the Declaration of Independence? We will begin referring to history as BCA and CA, Before the Creation of America, and Created America. It seems only fitting since the cutoff point, very nearly, limits the tested materials to coincide with the creation of our own country. By doing this we will also only further perpetuate ethnocentrism, which is already becoming more common in our modern American society.

We should be teaching our students to tolerate other cultures and countries by teaching them about their history, or at the very least to point them out on a map, especially in a State where so many people immigrate.