SCOUTING YESTERDAY: Quality of South Dakota's history education sparks calls for public school reforms

This week in South Dakota history: April 26-May 2

South Dakota social studies standards update has put the quality of the state’s history education in the spotlight. But that’s not necessarily a new phenomenon in the Mount Rushmore State.

In early May 1968, The Mitchell Daily Republic reported 40 percent of South Dakota junior and senior high school history teachers felt their colleges did not adequately prepare them for their teaching careers, according to a survey conducted by General Beadle State College, now Dakota State University.

The survey, orchestrated by history instructor Herbert Blakely, surveyed 490 history teachers and of the 303 who responded, 75 percent had received their degrees from South Dakota schools.

The survey also found that 13 percent of respondents were in their first year of teaching while only .3 percent were in their 12th year teaching.

SCOUTING YESTERDAY: Freedom Train rolls into South Dakota to ‘resell America to Americans’