Holy Mesopotamia Batman: First Grade Common Core Social Studies vocabulary

[Nay]

33. This does seem too advanced for first grade. I was in first grade in (ahem) 1957, and I

distinctly remember our SECOND GRADE social studies being about cavemen, actually. I remember that each of us made a cave out of construction paper and made a little firepit, and peopled it with a cave family in little outfits made of animal skins we colored. In first grade I was in a Catholic school and we learned to read, write, and do arithmetic. The goal in 1st grade was to get us reading competently, learn to spell (spelling test every week), and learn to do arithmetic. I remember that the nuns complained to my mom that I wouldn't turn in a book report each week on a book I read that week; I loved to read, but hated reporting it. These 1st-grade book reports were very simple -- title, author, one sentence ("This book was about a frog who went to Paris." etc.) So, the emphasis was on reading, writing, arithmetic.

Mesopotamia and Egypt came in 3rd or 4th grade, IIRC. (It's been a LONG time.) My son went through school in the 80's and it was about the same then.

Now, what on earth could be the purpose of 'teaching' such advanced stuff as the above in 1st grade?

In my uninformed and cynical view, it's to make your average kid hate school and do badly. Why? So we can privatize ALL schools cuz kidz aren't learnin.' If you wonder why something is happening in this godforsaken country, FOLLOW THE MONEY. Am I the only one who wonders why, all of a sudden, we don't teach basic stuff in first grade?? Why would we want to discourage children from learning by overwhelming them with advanced vocab like the above in first grade? Follow the money.

Montessori and other educators knew what to teach when -- after all, Scandinavian kids start school at age 7, and they are much better educated as a whole than American kids. Here, we seem to think that the earlier we start school and the more difficult we make it, the better off the kids will be. That's not true. Again, there's an agenda, and it isn't to raise well-educated children.

Addendum: I don't think the SUBJECT of Mesopotamia/Ancient Egypt is bad for first grade -- I think the vocab and concepts are too advanced for most 6-yr-olds.