Posted on 02/17/2020 4:36:20 AM PST by karpov
It’s no secret that many of today’s students are ignorant of American history and of how American democracy works. According to a 2018 survey conducted by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, only 1 in 3 Americans would be able to pass the U.S. citizenship test. Clearly, the current education system—at the K-12 and college levels—has failed to do its job. And that includes the University of North Carolina system schools.
According to the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA), none of the UNC system schools require students to take “a survey course in either U.S. government or history with enough chronological and/or topical breadth to expose students to the sweep of American history and institutions.” In fact, of all the 49 North Carolina colleges and universities that ACTA evaluated, only two schools fully met the above criteria.
Fortunately, there are now a number of initiatives that aim to fill the gaps in students’ historical knowledge. One of those initiatives is the American History for Freedom program. The Martin Center sat down with the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Jacqueline Pfeffer Merrill to learn more about the program.
Pfeffer Merrill is director of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Campus Free Expression Project, which promotes viewpoint diversity and free expression on college campuses.
Could you give a little background on the American History for Freedom program?
Thanks for the interest in this too-little-known but important program! The American History for Freedom (AHF) program was added to the American Higher Education Act when that Act was last reauthorized by Congress in 2008. Just a brief reminder from readers’ high school civics class: When Congress authorizes a program, that doesn’t mean that the appropriate federal department or agency will start setting it up.
(Excerpt) Read more at jamesgmartin.center ...
Systemic rot and rat control even chemo couldn’t solve
Sadly true of many of yesterday's students too.
ML/NJ
The Marxists have managed to get that horrific piece of ant-American propaganda “Project 1619” into over 3,000 schools. Yesterday I saw a promo for it on the History Channel.
The lack of knowledge on the Electoral College is a good example.
good history source - some info dated from ‘30s but generally excellent - used from amazon
growth of the american republic vol 1& 2
morison, commager (and later additions) leuchtenburg
*ping of interest*
Re: “only 1 in 3 Americans would be able to pass the U.S. citizenship test”
Wrong.
There are five variations of the same test.
100 questions on each test.
They GIVE immigrants copies of all five tests and all 500 correct answers.
Immigrants with poor English language skills and zero knowledge of American history can get a PERFECT score just by studying for a couple of weeks.
Current events would help as well. Look at the old Jay Leno Jay Walking skits and Jessie Waters on the street and beach interviews to see how ‘wokely’ bankrupt the future leaders have become.
ANY federal involvement in education will be captured and perverted by the Left.
Best to take federal involvement entirely out of education.
Educating kids regarding American History is severely lacking.
Even in the ‘80s, when I had two daughters in high school, their history textbooks BEGAN with the post-Civil War times. There was NOTHING about how our Republic came to be.
I graduated HS in ‘60 and Texas History and 2 semesters of American History were required to do so. The books covered the events from the British Colonies forward.
Just consider the stupid answers given when Jesse Watters or Lawrence Jones ask college students on their campuses (campi?) or adults on the city streets. Pathetic!
On Columbus Day last year, our 11 year old granddaughter informed us that Columbus was bad because he brought slavery to America, and diseases that killed most of the indigenous people living here. She was (obviously) taught that in school, since both her father and I told her we disagreed with that position. Her public school is in a prosperous suburban community.
Proper American History, indeed, must be taught, but it must be taught by intelligent, informed, unbiased teachers.
I plan a counter curriculum, but not this year, as I am rolling out my World History Since 1775 Course at www.wildworldofhistory.com
However, I do have up a number of pieces on the VIP side called “The 1620 Default” that argues that PLYMOUTH, not JAMESTOWN, was the birth of “American Exceptionalism.”
“Clearly, the current education system—at the K-12 and college levels—has failed to do its job.”
Shucks, in most cases it hasn’t done its job, at all, let alone failed at it. Schools find time to teach elementary kids how to fit a condom, be nice to the LBGTQ community (to the exclusion of others), and revile parents because of glo-bull warming (or climate change, or whatever buzzword they are using today).
No time for a History class that doesn’t teach America is a horrid place...
The biggest problem of all might not be the lack of teaching History, but who is doing the teaching.
The biggest problem with American history is the lack of good textbooks. They need:
1) Explain the reasons and purposes for the constitution being so innovative, clearly distinguishing God-given civil rights from government granted, and human rights.
2) To reference and explain the wars the American colonies and America participated in.
3) Clarity about Indians, the northern, southern, plains and western tribes, leading into westward expansion.
4) Clarity about slavery, who profited from it, and how slaves were brought from Africa to the US and Caribbean and how they were used in different places.
5) The industrialization of America. Demographic changes from farming to industry. The canals and railroads.
6) Economic booms and busts.
The list goes on and on.
The main thing about slavery is not that stuff.The main point about slavery is how common it was historically, worldwide.
Black Rednecks and White Liberals - Thomas Sowell
I thought about that, but America in international history is really a different subject than American history. AIIH really gets into college level stuff.
Some highlights: Why the American Revolution succeeded while the French Revolution bloodily failed; the suppression of the Barbary Pirates; The Napoleonic Wars; British guidance over American foreign policy for at least 70 years; The Louisiana Purchase; The American Civil war vs. The (insane bloodbath of the) Taiping Rebellion; The Alaska Purchase; American mercenaries stirring up trouble in central and South America.
And etc., etc.
At the K-12 and college levels—has failed to do its job.
To bad so many teachers think we show up and have to work too.
Here In California the education system is a money pit joke.
The problem I see with that perspective is the same as the perspective I see in journalism: the issue of, “compared to what?Journalism is about news, which is to say “surprises.” Well, guess what! Surprises are pretty much the failure of plans and expectations.
If the only thing you care about is failure in society, you can claim to be “objective” until the cows come home but you will still be negative. And if you claim to be objective that merely makes you into a mouthpiece for the conceit that “negativity is objectivity.”
And anyone who makes that claim is a cynic.
When you make a documentary such as the one which I watched briefly entitled, “The History of Slavery” - it is dishonest to start it out with a slave ship headed for America. What you have done is to suggest - contrary to all history - that the (mis)use of slaves was some novel exception specific to America in general and the founders of this republic in particular.
The more you focus on slavery in North America, the deeper you plant the axiom that America is deeply flawed. “The History of Slavery” is an almost transcendently larger subject than slavery in America. There is no difficulty cultivating grievance among descendants of slaves in America; it’s impossible to do so in Turkey because their slaves were not allowed to propagate.
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