By MARGARET REIST / Lincoln Journal Star 

Randy Ernst had one of those moments a couple of years ago.

A moment when he realized what he'd assumed for years wasn't true, a moment that set into play a series of events that led Ernst and the Lincoln Public Schools social studies department to the place they are now, in a partnership with Stanford University and a renowned history education scholar.

Their goal: to revamp the district's social studies standards -- and by extension the way social studies teachers teach -- so that students don't just know when the United States dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, but understand why and what it meant to the war.

It will, Ernst hopes, be a sea change: from simple multiple-choice tests and a focus on learning historical facts to a combination of multiple-choice and essay answers that will show teachers whether students are learning the skills they want them to learn.

What LPS teachers want their students to learn is how to think critically, to be able to look at a statement and assess its merits, consider who said it, the context in which it was said and what voices might be missing.

"We've taken this very seriously in terms of developing students who can think critically," Ernst said. "It's easy to say, but hard to define it.

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