Posted on 12/07/2010 10:05:45 AM PST by reaganaut1
It was Dec. 7, 1991, the 50th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, and Mr. Robyn asked his son if he had learned about the event in class. He was surprised when his son said no.
“My father served in World War II, and it was very important to him,” Mr. Robyn said. “That day should have been remembered.”
Fifteen years later, Mr. Robyn, 53, said he was obligated to do something about Americans’ indifference to their own history. He sold a landscaping business, which operated out of Wilton, Conn., reached the limits on his credit cards and spent more than $35,000 to try to make history more accessible to more people. To raise money for the project that has been his obsession for four years, he has worked jobs up and down the East Coast.
That project is HistoryStrips — poster-size timelines that feature colorful depictions of the bills, battles, politicians and patriots that have shaped the nation. Each strip chronicles a 50-year block of American history.
“Most Americans know very little about our country, our heritage,” he said. “It bugs me.”
History buffs have greeted the strips with enthusiasm. When Marty Maher, the Brooklyn Parks Department chief of staff who participates in colonial-era re-enactments in his spare time, saw the first strip, which covers 1763 to 1812, he knew that it was just the teaching tool needed to familiarize generations of Americans raised on television and video games with their history.
“It was laid out nicely and had good color,” Mr. Maher said. “You don’t have to stop and read it, but you see it so many times, it’s like osmosis.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I’d be curious to know what schools are teaching as history nowadays, but I have to watch my blood pressure.
I would like to know also.
“I’d be curious to know what schools are teaching as history nowadays, but I have to watch my blood pressure.”
I’m curious too - but I have to watch the football game.
Seems to be the attitude of lots of parents today. I forgot to mention last night about Pearl Harbor - I’ll make sure to talk about it tonight.
In helping the kids with their homework I always add in stuff about History. The youngest are learing about the Constitution. It takes a lot longer to help them with that, as my rants get pretty long nowadays! (Not with what they are learning, but how the Constitution is pretty much ignored in Washington. Has been for a long time now.)
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“In helping the kids with their homework I always add in stuff about History.”
What sparked my childhood interest in history was my grandparents - they were living history. I realized from them that “my” present had not always been this way - no radio, no TV, etc. when they were young. I wanted to know more about that vanished world; and the rest, as they say, is history.
Growing up, I loved historical novels. I absorbed a lot of history through stories with fictional characters living in important times. I can’t remember the names of the books, but I still remember the context of the events 60+ years later.
I do too.
That was my grandmother too - born in 1885 in Norway in the mountains.
It wasn’t until I was older that I got to really understand where my Dad was coming from. Starting a business in the Depression, fighting in the war, etc. As a kid I couldn’t understand how he hated FDR and Kennedy so.
I remember asking him as a kid if he ever “felt bad” that he might have to kill a Japanese soldier. He gave me the oddest look. Then told me how it really was. He never did get into “combat”, he was on a mine sweeper. But he said “We practiced with the depth charges, and the machine guns. We itched at the chance to kill a bunch of Japs.”
Both mom and dad recall Dec. 7th like our 9-11. Although my mom (still alive) says it was VERY different, as Pearl Harbor was military, and the towers was civilian. Even though my mom is more liberal than my dad was, she still knows that the bombs on Japan was the best thing to do, and remembers that day clearly with all of the celebrations going on!
I was at an event last weekend where kids were being interviewed for possible overseas exchange years, so the kids were not the dregs. They were looking mostly for a junior or senior high school year abroad.
The kids had to give a 1 1/2 minute talk on a random topic. One girl had to describe the three branches of our government and she didn't know. She thought the President made the laws, Congress was in the executive branch and law enforcement was in the judicial. Oy.
And, she’ll be voting soon.
The future of education is online, imho.
One of my kids has an utterly incompetent math teacher. The woman cannot teach the subject. So, the compromise we reached is my daughter is doing the class online. And she's actually learning the subject now.
Teachers who can’t teach one subject probably can’t teach another one either imho — teaching any subject is mostly a matter of prepping which includes building the lesson plan. Math instruction is worse now than it was when I was a kid, also imho.
PS: the project, unike as suggested in the posted article, only has one chart available now - revolutionary war through constitution.
Government education is an oxymoron.
Barack Hussein Obama, mmm, mmm, mmm...
I don't know how many caught odinga's presser today but amongst other things he was ranting about how poorly "our" children are doing in school. The implication of course being the feral gummint needs to meddle MORE in our schools, not less. If conservative local control of schools is not reclaimed and soon, we can kiss the next generation goodbye. The last one is only marginally better.
If one believes the libtards' desire is to dumb down the citizenry, then it follows that odinga's words are hollow and designed for effect only. Like any good follower of islam, lying to infidels is a high calling and to be commended. He and his fellow Dhimmitards are driving us to the edge, and we're buying the gas.
You can find the email addresses of school principals online. I suggest writing to them and asking if they would find places in the schools to display the posters if you donated some. If they don't accept your offer, that may tell you something about the principals' priorities.
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