Swann, Russell save Tennessee history

Two East Tennessee lawmakers may have just saved Tennessee history, as far as being a subject in public schools is concerned.

Senator Art Swann of Blount County and Representative Lowell Russell of Monroe County co-sponsored a bill that was just signed into law by Governor Bill Lee. The new law ensures that the required stand-alone semester of Tennessee history remain in fifth grade in public schools — and not be moved to third grade, which is what had been proposed.

Let me explain:

Tennessee revises public school academic standards every seven or eight years. For social studies, this process involves not only assigning specific topics to certain grades — such as the Pledge of Allegiance in kindergarten and national landmarks in second grade — but also scope and sequence. So every seven or eight years, the Tennessee Board of Education reviews which public school grades cover U.S. history, which grades cover world history, which grades cover civics, and which grade or grades cover Tennessee history.

Unlike many other states — such as Georgia and Texas — Tennessee doesn’t teach a full year of its own state history. Since the 2019-2020 school year, the law requires public schools teach a stand-alone semester of Tennessee history, and that semester is in fifth grade.

This stand-alone semester of Tennessee history didn’t exist for about 15 years, starting around 2002. It was mandated by a 2017 law that was sponsored by Art Swann (who was then in the state House) and by Senator Ferrell Haile.

During the past year and a half, various committees have been hard at work on the next round of social studies standards — those that are set to go into effect in the 2026-27 school year. A year ago, a committee appointed by the Tennessee Board of Education released the first draft of these standards. In that first draft, the stand-alone semester of Tennessee history was moved from fifth grade to third grade.

I can’t explain why this committee recommended Tennessee history be moved from fifth to third grades. But as a person who advocates the teaching of Tennessee history, I can tell you why the idea concerned me. Under the current scope and sequence, fourth and fifth grade students do three semesters of basic U.S. history before they do a semester of Tennessee history. They learn about the Revolutionary War, the Constitution, westward expansion, the Great Depression and the Civil Rights Movement on a national scale before they come back around in the spring of fifth grade to do Tennessee history.

Had we moved the stand-alone Tennessee history semester to third grade, teachers would have had to explain the Battle of Shiloh before they teach who Abraham Lincoln was. Third grade teachers would have had to explain Tennessee Valley Authority before students were taught about the Great Depression as a national topic.

I also had concerns about whether third grade students are ready to learn about complex subjects such as the Lost State of Franklin, the poll tax, and Oak Ridge and the Manhattan Project.

Senator Art Swann was not happy about the plan to move Tennessee history from fifth to third grade. In February 2023, he filed a bill that would require Tennessee history to remain in fifth grade. Representative Russell filed the House version of the bill.

It took longer than you might expect for this bill to pass, since Swann originally wanted the bill to also address eighth grade — something the Tennessee Department of Education didn’t want to happen. In any case, after the bill was amended to just address fifth grade, it passed the full Senate in April 2023.

This past summer, the Tennessee Social Studies Standards Review Committee met many times. I followed all its meetings and thought it did an excellent job. And for many reasons, including (but not limited to) Senator Swann’s bill, the committee chose to keep the semester of Tennessee history in fifth grade.

The Tennessee history bill passed the Tennessee House of Representatives last week, and Governor Lee signed it into law last week.

Swann and Russell stuck their necks out for David Crockett, Sequoyah, Ann Dudley, W.C. Handy and Alvin York. As a result, Tennessee law now requires public schools to teach and students to take a full semester of stand-alone Tennessee history.

Finally, I’d like to clarify one thing about the social studies standards: they do not apply to private schools. Private schools are free to teach whatever version of social studies and history they choose — in fact, private schools don’t have to teach U.S. or Tennessee history at all. I thought I’d mention this in the context of the current debate over private school vouchers.