Posted on 12/07/2005 12:17:38 PM PST by Stoat
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Scary. My father teaches a class of teenage boys at church and for some reason the subject of Pearl Harbor came up. Not one of them knew the geographical location of Pearl Harbor. At least one of them opined that it is somewhere in the Atlantic ocean. It seems we're not exactly getting what we're paying for when it comes to public education :(
Today, in honor of Pearl Harbor, I played the powerful DVD for my classes, "9/11: In Memoriam." They can't see those images too many times.
My great uncle was on the USS Maryland on Dec 7, 1941. He's still alive, and I have never heard him talk about it.
My wife's grandfather was in the Navy and on ships during many of the famous pacific campaign battles. He also never talks about it, but I know he was wounded several times. And these idiot schools today can't even teach kids where Pearl Harbor is on the map :-(
As fate would have it, that day was Dec. 7 . . . so I asked my students, "Now, why am I wearing these pants today?"
Talk about a good save.
My grandfather was wounded during the Leyte Gulf landings and I didn't even know this about him until I was in college.
Too funny! Although, I'm not sure mental images of you in baggy sweats is somewhere I want to go! ;-)
Living here in Hawaii, believe me, Pearl Harbor has not been forgotten - but it's probably because we are here, and the Mainland is 3000 miles away. The story in Malkin's book about the Hawaiian couple who took on the Japanese pilot and the traitors is amazing. The man, in his 50's, charged the pilot, taking a bullet or two, and picked him up and slammed his head into a rock wall, whereupon the wife bashed his head in with another rock. Never mess with a Polynesian - LOL.
My father-in-law (age 84) served in N africa and Italy during WW11 and NEVER talks about it. I'm not stupid and neither is he. I wonder why no talks about it. And the older he gets, the more liberal he becomes. I'm baffled.
I'm sure it must be extremely difficult for these vets to talk about their experiences, but soon they will all be gone and we will all be left wondering. I would suggest getting these men and their experiences on personal record as much as possible. I also suggest that we share (to the extent appropriate) these experiences with family members of the younger generations.
Among his many experiences, my wife's grandfather missed seeing the flag fly over Iwo Jima, as he was having plastic surgery to reconstruct his face which was blown off just days earlier.
During my school day, not one mention of Pearl Harbor was made by a teacher, aide, administrator or principal. But Human Rights day is Dec. 10.
Wipe out 6 more and take the whole week off!
Whats sad is the local paper Boston Hearld did not make mention of it either. Waiting on the nightly paper to see if they have anything about Pearl Harbor.
Bear who will never forget!
Anyway, his answer did not come immediately. I practically had to help him along. He did know that 1941 (he could do the math without help) "was around the time" of World War II, but then he speculated that December 7th "must be important." Finally, he asked, "was it when Pearl Harbor was bombed?"
I suppose I should feel encouraged that he was able, after a few minutes, to reach that conclusion with help. He's fairly bright; I shudder to think what others in his generation don't know about our U.S. history.
I found out as a teenager my grandfather was a medic in WWII. Recently, my dad told me that the (few) stories he told me were more than he ever heard growing up.
Not long ago I posted an article here at FR that compared knowledge levels between Victorian era students and modern-day students. Of course it's widely known that the knowledge base from previous generations is far wider and deeper than that of most modern students who seem to be taught mainly about proper condom usage and how they must revere homosexuals and ethnic Marxists far over and above our Founding Fathers, who are after all only Dead White Males and as such have less than zero value. This is all old news and I didn't think that the basic notions of the article would be terribly troublesome.
How surprised I was then when I was instantly swarmed by all manner of 20-somethings who considered themselves to be computer programming and internet experts and who quite rudely derided and chastised me for posting such a 'bogus' and 'irrelevant' article. Things like Latin, American and World History, Geography, English, Spelling, Grammar, and a host of other subjects that were mastered by young students of previous eras were spat upon by these defenders of modern 'education' as being useless and a complete waste of time. One boasted of his ability to code web pages at the age of twelve, and how that is so very much more valid and meaningful than knowing anything about the Roman Empire, much less that there is / was a place called Rome and yes it was an empire at one time. These twits considered themselves to be geniuses and yet knew nothing at all outside of computers and pop culture trash. I would have expected such a response over at Democratic Underground, not at Free Republic.
We live in a Dark Age of education, and those of us who care need to do what we can to ensure that the truly important knowledge of the ages will not be lost and supplanted by incoherent idolatry of HTML.
I wish that other teachers had the good sense and understanding of what's important as you do. Thank you so much for your fine work.
It would be nice if the MSM would occasionally replay such images as well, but that of course would be counterproductive regarding their primary goal, which is the destruction of President Bush and bringing the United States down to the level of Paraguay.
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