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What Every American Should Know...
The Atlantic ^ | July 3, 2015 | What Every American Should Know

Posted on 07/06/2015 9:11:14 AM PDT by Excellence

This is an age when Confederate monuments still stand; when white-privilege denialism is surging on social media;...

And that’s looking only at race. Add gender, guns, gays, and God to the mix and the culture war seems to be raging along quite nicely.

Yet from another perspective, much of this angst can be interpreted as part of a noisy but inexorable endgame: the end of white supremacy.

Not long after his original book came out, Hirsch published the first of several editions of a Dictionary of Cultural Literacy.

[T]he Internet has transformed who makes culture and how.

[Thus, the] omni-American cultural literacy project.

Everyone should make his or her own list online. We can aggregate all the lists. And from that vast welter of preferences will emerge, without any single person calling it so, a prioritized list of “what every American needs to know.”

The author's list:

Whiteness,

The Federalist Papers,

The Almighty Dollar,

Organized labor,

Reconstruction,

Nativism,

The American Dream,

The Reagan Revolution,

DARPA,

A sucker born every minute

(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...


TOPICS: Education
KEYWORDS: commoncore; culture; edhirsch; literacy
The entire article is an enlightening read. The author suggests English grammar no longer be thoroughly taught, starting with the use of the ellipsis. I'm having a great deal of fun with that one. The Atlantic retains its copyright, but I've tried to pull out the best tidbits.
1 posted on 07/06/2015 9:11:14 AM PDT by Excellence
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To: Excellence

I’m surprised to see The Federalist Papers in there.


2 posted on 07/06/2015 9:14:20 AM PDT by ConjunctionJunction
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To: moder_ator

Please fix the title, it is not supposed to repeat.


3 posted on 07/06/2015 9:19:48 AM PDT by Excellence (Marine mom since April 11, 2014)
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To: Excellence

Ahhhhhh.....from The Atlantic.

The Atlantic is filled with fish shirt, crabs and garbage.

It’s also the name of an ocean.


4 posted on 07/06/2015 9:23:57 AM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: Excellence
Some questions every American should be able to answer, but a lot of them can't:
5 posted on 07/06/2015 9:53:07 AM PDT by Rufii
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To: Excellence

FYI, there is no moder-ator, just hit abuse and let us know, that’s the quickest way.


6 posted on 07/06/2015 9:57:17 AM PDT by Admin Moderator
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To: Rufii
Reason is "racist."

http://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/opinionator/2015/07/02/looking-white-in-the-face/?_r=0&referrer=

This is where we're headed.

7 posted on 07/06/2015 9:57:19 AM PDT by Excellence (Marine mom since April 11, 2014)
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To: Admin Moderator

Thank you.


8 posted on 07/06/2015 10:29:36 AM PDT by Excellence (Marine mom since April 11, 2014)
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To: Excellence

Equality has apparently become a pretext for supremacy over and subjugation of “Whites”. This is a far cry from King’s “I Have a Dream” message.

The thing they condemn, revile, and scream about the most, is the very thing that epitomizes their beliefs and actions. Hypocrites.


9 posted on 07/06/2015 10:37:40 AM PDT by unlearner (RIP America, 7/4/1776 - 6/26/2015, "Only God can judge us now." - Claus Von Stauffenberg / Valkyrie)
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To: Excellence
white-privilege denialism?


10 posted on 07/06/2015 10:57:15 AM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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To: Rufii
Some questions every American should be able to answer, but a lot of them can't:

What is the capital of the US?

How many states are in the US?

What do the stripes in the flag stand for, and how many are there?

From which country did the US win its independence?

Who is the current vice president?

Which came first--the Vietnam War or the American Revolution?

What do we celebrate on July 4?

Who was the first president of the US?


I've seen all the "man on the street videos" with the fools that can't answer these questions.

I think the problem is much, much worse than the fact that they can't answer any of the questions.

For example, the first question "What is the capital of the US?" These people don't know that a "capital" is or what the "US" is. They don't know what a Vietnam is, or what a Revolution is.

They literally don't know the definitions of any of these words.

Start with asking these people their favorite color or what year it is.

I'm being serious. The American People are much dumber than we give them credit for.

11 posted on 07/06/2015 12:07:30 PM PDT by IDontLikeToPayTaxes
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To: IDontLikeToPayTaxes

I’ve seen several of those too, the people graduating high school these days are complete idiots.

The only question I couldn’t answer is the colors of the flag, I can’t remember . I have an excuse, it’s been over 40 years since high school...and I have CRS...

Most of the young people on the street can’t identify pictures of Biden, Pelosi, Reid, Boehner, Holder...

Only a couple could finish this quote, one got lucky and guessed who said it, the other knew. You could tell by their expressions:

Ask not what your country can do for you...

Nobody got this one:

Walk softly and...

To be honest I could finish it but couldn’t remember who said it.

Asked what they thought about ISIS one said “aren’t they the Chinese?”

Watters’ World is where this all comes from, it’s amazing to see just how dumb the young people, even in colleges, are in this country. Deplorable...

Ask people what they think of Earth day and they like it, ask them which country creates the most pollution they have no idea...ask them when Columbus discovered America they have no idea, one said 1940’s??? Another said 1960’s...Some didn’t even know he discovered this continent. Few could name his 3 ships.


12 posted on 07/06/2015 5:01:25 PM PDT by Paleo Pete (If you had everything...where would you put it?)
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To: Paleo Pete

I watched Watters’ World this evening when he asked beachgoers about what we celebrate on July 4. Even the adults showed astounding ignorance about questions every one of my classmates could have answered when I was in grade school.


13 posted on 07/06/2015 8:35:06 PM PDT by Rufii
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To: Rufii

I only saw part of that one, missed most of the show tonight. Loved O’Reilly’s talking points though, did catch that...


14 posted on 07/06/2015 10:14:00 PM PDT by Paleo Pete (If you had everything...where would you put it?)
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