Oh there we go, the perennial bashing of high school history teachers by our university professor counterparts. I won't share my screenshot, but I see these every year and I find them really upsetting. (Thread- 1)

Here's some questions I would ask:
Do you teach at an elite institution that admits very few applicants? If not, your students are probably on a continuum of learning that is going to require a lot of effort on your part, regardless of who their high school teacher was. 2

I've been a high school history teacher/department head for 23 years. I've worked with a a lot of aces, and a very few weak history teacher colleagues along the way. Maybe go out and mix it up with these people, and observe their work, before you judge. 3

Are your own practices strong? Are those of your departmental colleagues? If you're lecturing 95% of the time, giving multiple choice tests, and assigning papers with little structure and support, the problem probably isn't who your students had for high school history. 4

What are you doing, to support K-12 history instruction? Do you volunteer as a guest speaker? Put free resources up on the web and direct teachers' attention to them via Twitter, or direct contact? Do you belong to your state's council for the social studies? 5

Do you personally know well at least 10 history teachers in your state with whom you share ideas? Do you join the fight and speak out at school boards, write letters to the editor, etc. when social studies is on the chopping block in favor of more ELA & math test prep? 6

Do you realize that your own bashing probably contributes to the threats that limit K-12 social studies education more each year? And that this creates a smaller pool of students interested in majoring in history in college? 7

I know so many wonderful academic historians- well- who I think of as friends, sources of inspiration, and collaborators. I hope they will also speak out against cheap shots at second ed history teachers when they see them. We are all partners in the same discipline. 8