Or so goes the line from a Sam Cooke song that was popular in my youth... say 100 years ago or so...
But it's a sad commentary on the state of the world -- and the future of it -- that today's students truly don't know much about history.
According to a Reuter's story, less than 25% of teens are proficient at US History.
And that is a shocking statistic. If you don't know your history, then you don't know shit, and consequently you are much more likely to fall for anything that "sounds reasonable"...
Which goes a long way towards explaining why idiots like Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann can get away with the moronic mangling of American history (Palin; Bachmann) to suit their own ends.
Shit, they probably don't even know where they are wrong. After all, they are in the mix along with everyone else. But I'd guess that they are probably at the bottom end of that continuum (a mixed metaphor, but you know what I mean), the 5% that don't know shit and don't care... And are proud of it!
It bodes ill for the future, not only of the US but also the world.
No wonder Holocaust Deniers can get the kind of traction they are getting. The farther we get from WWII and the less people know about it, the more the historical revisionists can work their evil magic...
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Don't Know Much About History...
Posted by Farnsworth68 at 4:12 PM
Labels: history, Michelle Bachmann, Moron-American Voting Bloc, Sarah Palin
Posts
3 Comments:
True. Which is why it's so much fun to poke 'em with it.
Well.... School curriculum has changed over the decades. Where once kids were taught English every school day until they graduated high school or quit school, English is now dribbled out in occasional six week increments. I don't personally know of any schools that still teach a full year of Civics. As far as I know, World History and U.S. History as five day a week, full year courses are not even a vague memory for teachers, students, and curriculum "specialists."
Schools in the Southeast have, for years, had coaches sort of teaching the few history "modules" available. I have no particular beef with athletic coaches but most of them have degrees in Physical Education not History.
Personal Note... As a "mature" student (in my early 40's) I volunteered as a tutor at the University and consistently encountered kids who had no idea when the Civil War was or who the President was during the Civil War. I consistently encountered kids who thought we fought the Russians in WWII. These were not "slow" or lazy students, they just simply had not been exposed to enough history classes to have any information at all.
I don't know what to say about folks with Master's degrees who don't know where Cairo is and upon being told, then have to ask "Umm, where is Egypt, exactly?"
Oh, yeah, I definitely believe that Sarah Palin thought Africa was a country.
Jill
Thanks, Jill. It is a sobering thought to know that so many uninformed people are walking around, driving, and ... shock ... voting!
--The F Man
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