Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Which History?   [Mark Krikorian]

There seems to be the idea that all the affirmative-action history we're feeding kids (black studies, women's studies, black women's studies, etc.) is a supplement to learning the basics, which they'll somehow absorb no matter what. Instead, the ISI civic literacy test suggests that such instruction is actually crowding out the fundmentals of history and civics. Other than the Declaration's reference to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," the two highest scores — i.e., the ones the largest number of people got right — relate to Susan B. Anthony and to MLK's "I have a dream" speech. The 80 percent who got those right compares to fully one-third who didn't know that Germany and Japan were our enemies in WWII, half who didn't know the three branches of government, and nearly 80 percent who didn't know that "government of the people, by the people, for the people" came from the Gettysburg Address. And elected officials scorced even lower than the general public. OK, I shouldn't be surprised, but it seems to me that students shouldn't even hear the words "Susan B. Anthony" until after they've recited the Gettysburg Address from memory and after they've proven they know who was on the losing side of the greatest war in human history.

Oh, and the obligatory immigration point: How can anyone support admitting a million-plus newcomers from abroad each year who need to be Americanized when our schools our doing this badly in teaching about America?

11/26 07:59 AMShare