Next year sophomore students will sit in their U.S. History class wondering where the world has gone. After removing World History as a required course, the district only offers the course as a 4.0 elective.

Teachers and students stand concerned with this decision.

If we don’t learn World History we are doomed to repeat it. This knowledge has held true time and again, so why is the district ignoring that advice? If conspiracy theories have taught us anything, it is that there are people actively trying to change history in order to bend public opinion one way or another. The only way to prevent this madness is to teach real unbiased World History. Anything less will allow students to be swayed by radical groups of thought.

Without World History, administrators aren’t just preventing students from taking a class. If someone doesn’t understand the historic relations between Israel and Palestine they will have trouble understanding the conflict that exists between those countries to this day. If someone doesn’t understand World History, how will they understand ISIS, North Korea or even our strained relationship with Russia? Without World History, students will be unable to successfully contribute not only in courses like Art History but also in government and English as well.

WFISD believes that World History is necessary because they think a teacher can efficiently cover both World History and Geography at the same time. Students know that this proposal is completely wrong. Both of these courses are intense on their own. Do administrators expect kids to learn the intricacies of the Glorious Revolution while some can’t even correctly label the seven continents? These courses were meant to be taught in succession NOT on top of one another.

High school is supposed to create an environment that aids students in becoming successful citizens ready for higher education. This decision by WFISD is making students choose between the two. Either a student can only take Geography and then move on to AP classes in order to keep up in the GPA race or they can take both courses and be able to understand the world they live in. This choice is unacceptable. It creates a system that is asking immature freshmen, (sorry, it’s true) to make extreme life decisions

This must change. WFISD must change its response to House BIll 5 as soon as possible. Otherwise they risk producing students who are unprepared to engage in society.