The American Story. Why failing to teach history is bad for democracy. -O-

A few years ago, the National Constitution Center surveyed teenagers and found that while only about four in 10 could name the three branches of the federal government fully six in 10 could name all Three Stooges.

Everyone agrees we aren't teaching history well, but the direction of reform is controversial. Philadelphia's public schools have just announced they will mandate that all students take an African-American history course in order to graduate from high school. The theory is that the city's 185,000 public school students, two-thirds of whom are black, will finally become aware of their culture and gain self-esteem. Those who are not black will gain an appreciation of black history that is inadequately covered in current general social studies courses.

John Perzel is the GOP speaker of the Pennsylvania House and represents a largely white Philadelphia district. He isn't so sure this is the right approach. "I would like to see [students] master basic reading, writing and arithmetic," he wrote to city officials last week. "Once we have them down pat, I don't care what they teach. . . . They should understand basic American history before we go into African-American history."

Other critics note that schools already put on programs every February for Black History Month, something not done for other ethnic groups. They fear a separate course will diminish student understanding of the overall American experience. Back in the 1960s, novelist James Baldwin testified before Congress that the triumphs and tribulations of black history should be woven into all history courses, rather than segregated. Diane Ravitch, a leading education reformer, agrees that African-American history should be studied but hopes it will be "based on the best scholarship, not ideology or politics."...

As well-meaning as Philadelphia's attempt to raise the self-esteem of black students may be

While the author of this piece, John Fund, is essentially sound and the thrust of the column is certainly sound, I cannot grant the good intentions of the proponents of the new policy to effectively substitute Black history for old fashioned American history. But then Fund himself does not grant the proponents their share of good intentions, he merely concedes the possibility that their intentions "may be" good. I do not.

This is only the latest example of a self inflicted decline in the state of Black intellectual and political thought in America. As the Speaker of the Pennsylvania House has pointed out, this departure from historically proven curricula is not being offered as an elective to a student body already proficient in the three "R"s and well acquainted with the range of American history. It will absorb the time of students demonstrably incapable of reading history, (w)riting about history, and reasoning in a historical context and who are utterly ignorant of the greater context in which black history occured. Recent studies have complained about school districts inflating statistics of graduating seniors. It says that fully 40% of ninth graders will not graduate. Certainly, the statistics in Black schools in Philadelphia are worse. Why are these administrators putting the cart before the horse?

Because they are liberals, who have long ago forsaken the concept of education, indeed, dare we say it, "liberal" education, because they have been seduced by the siren of indoctrination. The true goal of education, to train the intellect and to liberate the consciousness and perception, has been replaced by a process of conditioning. Indoctrination and conditioning are the enemies of education but they are wonderful tools for mind control. While liberals are perverting the originating purpose of education, they relentlessly invoke its vocabulary. Consider sex "education" in high schools as perpetrated by liberals who advance it as an answer to teenage pregnancy and SDS.

Does any reader really believe that teenage boys need to be educated that tab A is to be inserted in Slot B? Does anyone doubt that pregnant teenage girls are embarassada because they did not know where babies come from? How long does it take to "educate" a teenager that a condom can act as a barrier to pregnancy and SDS? I think you can quite thoroughly cover the subject in about 10 minutes. What's next? Why has sex "education" failed so miserably whenever it has been tried, because the pregnant girls were absent that day? Liberals are always telling us we need more of it. Sex "education" is not education, it is an attempt at crowd control. It is what liberals love to do.

So it has been with Black, Womens', and gay studies at the university level. Why in the world would it redeem itself when it is inflicted upon even more defenseless minds? Follow the money; follow the power.

This country needs a rather rigorous course in American history for all high school students. There should be a comprehensive test at the end of each semester.

We have raised a generation of adults (and perhaps two) that know absolutely nothing about the accomplishments of this country.

Without this we have no common experience among us. Our commonality then becomes what one sees in the movies and TV and what one reads in the main stream press. A poor thing to base one's decisions on.

A similar statement could be made about reading Shakespeare and the other great western authors. We have lost our cultural background.

I hope you're right, but I think the Republican Party was lucky last election...20 something million college students didn't recover from their hang-over in time to "VOTE or DIE!" (though that might not have mattered from the electoral sense...argueably they were all in heavily democratic voting areas anyway.) The Patriots guide is a good counter to Zinn's "Peoples History"...Honestly, I hope I never meet Zinn...his revisionist crap only fuels my rage.

The great majority of people would have turned Democrat a LONG time ago. When we're younger, we're generally more liberal anyway. A lot of my classmates from high school are a lot more conservative since they've married and started families. Even George Bush and Ronald Reagan were so during their younger days. What I do worry about is that some conservatives are adopting liberal tactics and liberal behaviors and the increasing depth to which the liberals will go to push their agendas (e.g. gay marriage). Can you order the Patriot's History?

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