Fairfax County Fourth-Graders Assigned a Strange Project in Lieu of Standardized Testing

Over the weekend during a lovely family gathering for a wedding, one of my cousins posed the question, “If public schools aren’t teaching children cursive writing, spelling, typing or other basic skills, then what are they learning?”

I could’ve gone on for a while, but opted instead to laugh and offer the casual, “Right?!!”

When we returned home a couple days following that conversation, my fourth-grader pulled out his laptop and shared his most recent assignment, which is in lieu of the Virginia Studies Standards of Learning test.

For these elementary school students, this Virginia Studies project-based assessment is not about the history of events, but comparing how different races of people lived. While there is some evidence about white workmen and white farmers, the majority of the information is about white gentry.

This is provided in contrast to how Native Americans and enslaved people lived.

The fourth-graders are then asked to complete a project detailing what they used to believe and what they think now after this new information.

There is a difference between teaching children that slavery existed versus singularly focusing on the intimate life experiences of different races. Given how little fourth-graders seem to know about the founding of our nation and the settling of Virginia, public schools should focus on teaching historical events.

Parents, not teachers, can explain to their children how they should process, internalize and feel about sensitive topics.