Posted on 07/04/2018 7:13:47 AM PDT by reaganaut1
Though college leaders constantly remind the public about the value of a college degree, graduates sometimes leave without important knowledge. As Americans celebrate the 4th of July holiday, it’s a good time to reflect on just how little college students know about the Declaration of Independence and American history.
The data are depressing. A 2016 report from the American Council of Trustees and Alumni called the lack of knowledge “a crisis in civic education.” Surveying over 1,000 liberal arts colleges, ACTA found that only 18 percent require an American history course for graduation. Almost 40 percent of college graduates didn’t know that Congress holds the power to declare war. And almost 60 percent couldn’t give one method for ratifying a constitutional amendment. “Instead of demanding content-based coursework, our institutions have, in too many places, supplanted the rigorous study of history and government—the building blocks of civic engagement—with community-service activities,” the report noted. Volunteering near campus may be good for some things, but it’s a bad substitute for learning.
Nor is ACTA the only group to study the failure of American civic education. The Obama-era Department of Education worried that civic ignorance meant fewer young Americans would engage in the democratic process. Groups on the left, such as the Center for American Progress, had similar fears. The problem is well-known, but a solution is less clear.
Some of the concern over students’ ignorance can be dismissed as hand-wringing. The minutiae of historical facts can be forgotten out of context. College students forgetting a few key names and dates, for example, might be embarrassing, but it is also forgivable. But not all the ignorance is so benign, and the legitimate concerns are not focused on knowledge mostly useful during Jeopardy! and trivia nights at the local bar.
(Excerpt) Read more at jamesgmartin.center ...
Everything they teach about American history is propaganda. In a sense, the less said the better.
When millennials think that 1776 is the year Columbus sailed or they have no clue as to what the 4th of July means, it is NOT forgivable.....
A college diploma these days has been destroyed by liberalism....it means nothing anymore unless it is in highly technical degree such as engineering, etc. Even then, these technical curriculums are now full of required social electives now.
Liberalism destroys everything it touches...EVERYTHING.
IT is the BORG of this century and should be dealt with accordingly.
bump
Everything they teach about Am. history is propaganda. In a sense the less said the better....
Right after a final exam they may forget which year American white male supremacy started to oppress people of color and LGBT people. Or half of the ten reasons Obama was the greatest transformational president of them all.
They can go back to “check this out on Facebook...” and “did that guy you met at the party end up texting you like he promised?”
Let us worry about the state of the nation.
“Hate America” classes are everywhere in the college curriculum.
“Which happened first, the Second World War or the American Civil War?” was incorrectly answered in a survey of young people.
The idea of lowering the voting age to 16 would make that even worse.
Communists try to erase and change history to make Stalin,then Kruschev,Mao,Fidel Castro and Chavez the all time greatest heroes of the people to be put on banners and posters. Today few young people are aware of the tens of millions of people killed by these tyrants.
In the sixties on college campuses Ho Chi Minh was called “the George Washington of his people”.
Jane Fonda can tell you. Ask her.
This is not a college problem, per se’.
This has long been a K12 system problem where history and government is slowly being phased out and replaced with leftist BS.
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