Who Is to Blame for American Teens Ignorant of History and Literature?

Family Security Matters ^ | 3/13/08 | Rita Kramer

[captjanaway]

Those who do not learn from history are destined to repeat it....... They may not know about history, but they know not to buy Skittles in New Haven CT schools (I'm sure someone posted the story somewhere) and that the evil American mom in the SUV wants to murder the polar bear by contributing to "global warming".....

[Brilliant]

The media. The only thing today’s kids understand is pop culture.

[sauropod]

read

[wideawake]

Their parents are to blame.

[allmendream]

I taught as a sub teacher for awhile in Virginia. Better than average school from a middle class neighborhood. Assignment was vaguely leftist “Identifying traits of a Militaristic society. Is the U.S.A. a militaristic society?”. But two different students when looking for examples of the US government selling propaganda to its populace (supposedly one of the traits of a ‘militaristic’ society) one student mentioned the Gulf of Tonkin incident, and another brought up the Zimmerman Telegram.

So this isn't true of all schools. On average Americans are almost completely ignorant of the world and history; but some schools seem to do a good job (other than the leftist angle, at least they were well informed leftists (inasmuch as that isn't an inherent contradiction)).

[LetsRok]

What does “Lindbergh Baby Kidnapped” have to do with history? There are crime reports about kidnapping and murders in newspapers everyday that they are not considered part of “history”.

[dfwgator]

Definitely déjà vu, as actress/author Simone Signoret put it, all over again.

I thought that was Yogi Berra.

[MichiganCheese]

It is not just kids. It is adults too. I was picking up my daughter from gymnastics the other night. A mother was waiting for her child while her other child was doing homework. The home work question was “Can a democracy survive whithout freedom of religion”. The mom (who is a doctor) couldn’t define democracy for her child. She was also surprised when I said the United States wasn’t a democracy and that we were a federal republic. She then asked, “We used to be, right?” I said no. She had a puzzled look on her face.

[B Knotts]

The voters, who vote for Democrats, who protect incompetent teachers, by doing the bidding of the teachers unions.

[17th Miss Regt]

Equity. The mindlessly egalitarian goals of our educational system have led to the dumbing down of the curriculum so that everyone can pass and nobody feels bad about anything. In particular, academic failure is de-stigmatized. Iron control of the curriculum by the state means that a teacher has little or no control over what they teach and there is little or no room for enrichment or innovation in the classroom. Public education is dying of the sclerosis of equality and centralized control.

[MrB]

There is not one social ill that we face today that cannot be attributed to a result of some leftist/liberal policy.

Bold statement, but most of us are knowledgeable enough to trace ANY contemporary social ill to back to its policy.

[MrB]

mindlessly egalitarian goals

IE, this problem is a result of liberalism.

[wildbill]

A few years ago I was in a graduate American history class on America after 1945.

The professor’s lecture was interrupted by a twentyish lady in the front row who had introduced herself as a high school teacher, going for her MA, at the first session.

Her question: “Professor, you keep talking about World War II. Doesn’t that mean there had to be a World War I?”

The professor handled it with a polite response and went on while some of us stiffled giggles.

She is probably getting more money from Houston ISD for her enhanced knowledge gained from having her MA.

[xtinct]

professors, teachers, and school administrators...

fire the lot of them... they're useless

[brwnsuga]

Hmphh! My children are not deficient in history. My daughter is 15 and wants to major history in college . She is an honor student who already has a job at a local Civil War museum. My 12 year old (honor student) son was 1 of 6 students in his school to get a perfect score on his History “Standards of Learning” test. My husband is a history buff those three watch “the History Channel, Discovery, A&E...etc “ Me... not so much.

[thulldud]

The Lindbergh case was a landmark for several reasons, only one of which being that it concerned the popular hero whose son was snatched out of his crib.

For instance, when they captured Bruno Hauptmann, the charge against him was for breaking and entering the house to steal the baby's "sleeping suit", a felony. Because the boy died from an accidental fall in the process of committing this felony, they gave Hauptmann the electric chair. He was not charged with "kidnapping" because it turned out that kidnapping was not illegal at the time.

I could go on.

[Beagle8U]

I would say that the state of California should get the most blame.

Almost every textbook used in every public school must be approved by CA before they are printed.

CA has the content control because they are by far the largest market for textbooks. Due to the cost to have different textbooks printed all the other states get stuck with the hogwash that CA wants taught in school.

[Man50D]

I didn’t know the U.S. had a history? ;O)

[17th Miss Regt]

OMG, is that a true story? Tell me you are kidding.

[realdifferent1]

I disagree: the voters are to blame. Instead of being active in the community [attending town/city meetings etc.], they’re quite content to go about their merry ways in ‘Lollipop Land’.