The Decline of American History in Public Schools

Townhall.com ^ | October 22, 2011 | Daniel Doherty

[hiho hiho]

“The Decline of _____________________ in Public Schools” Fill in the blank with anything you like (except recycling).

[jagusafr]

My college senior daughter has been bitching the whole semester about how she despises US History (the class). Breaks my heart!

Colonel, USAFR

[factoryrat]

The victors write the history books. In this case, the socialist-communists running the schools and their government-union enablers have the upper hand. I can hear the ghost of Joe McCarthy whispering “I told you so”.

[FrdmLvr]

I can hear the ghost of Joe McCarthy whispering “I told you so”.

I love it.

[LS]

Send her to my class at the University of Dayton, and have her read our book, “A Patriot’s History of the United States.”

[SumProVita]

The sad state of history education in the public schools has been a factor for decades. Nothing against coaches....but in MANY cases, coaches are required to teach history as their *academic* component. They may be good at coaching. In most cases, however, they are pitifully poor at teaching history.

[rabidralph]

And how did she grow up with that attitude?

[cyclotic]

I was told recently that Baltimore public schools history classes begin at the Civil Rights Movement

[LibsRJerks]

Also, try going to any sort of mass marketing book store and finding books for kids on American history. Did this for my homeschooler a few weeks ago — the selection was pitiful.

All there is now in stores is absolute PAP for kids.

[Melian]

I work at a high school in CA and I can tell you that many of our students don’t know who Thomas Jefferson or Ben Franklin are. They can’t tell you why we honor Abraham Lincoln. They have no idea about the American identity and have no sense of loyalty to the American ideal. They don’t even root for America in international sports events. They are loyal to other countries, even though they were born or raised here and we give them free breakfast and lunch, free health care, free daycare, free education, and, now, free college tuition. They know nothing of current events but the one or two sentence sound bytes they hear on TV news promos.

They will be voting in two years.

[LS]

Actually, there is a good chance (can't prove it, but it's a strong hypothesis) that the strict anti-communism of schools in the early 1950s led to the backlash of letting in any communists in the late 1950s and beyond. It was kind of a political-correctness reversal. You don't see lots of true leftists coming into the academy until the very late 1950s and early 1960s, and I think some of that is due to guilt over the perceived persecution of commies previously.

See our book, "A Patriot's History of the United States" and the chapter on the 60s. Again, it's only a hypothesis.

[Aevery_Freeman]

To forget the suffering of Washington and his army at Valley Forge, the determination of the soldiers at Normandy, or the courage of the passengers aboard Flight 93 would be an affront to their legacy and reflect the narcissism and ingratitude of our own people.

And what kind of President would such a narcissistic bunch of ingrates elect?

One can only imagine...

[Aevery_Freeman]

Have you ever read a modern American History text? They are awful!

None of the wonderful, uplifting stories we were taught. Just an endless litany of "guilt by heritage" stories starring minorities you've never heard of.

In one class I subbed, the "Triangle Waistcoat Factory Fire" received more attention than WWI and the passage of the Sixteenth Amendment (The day America died).

I love History but the class was misery.

[Carl Vehse]

At times I have suspected that Jay Leno’s Jaywalking participants were actors reading the answers from professional comedy writers’ cue-cards. I mean no Americans, especially any self-claimed “college graduate,” could possibly exist down at the hull-crushing depths of historical and geographical ignorance indicated by these people.

It now appears that there are actually many Americans who hold degrees from the Marianas Trench School of Knowledge.

[Graybeard58]

“The only obvious two who never went to college would be Abraham Lincoln and Harry Truman”

Andrew Jackson:
Religion: Presbyterian
Education: No formal education
Occupation: Lawyer, soldier
Political Party: Democrat

http://www.ipl.org/div/potus/ajackson.html

[Fiji Hill]

Actually, there is a good chance (can't prove it, but it's a strong hypothesis) that the strict anti-communism of schools in the early 1950s led to the backlash of letting in any communists in the late 1950s and beyond. It was kind of a political-correctness reversal. You don't see lots of true leftists coming into the academy until the very late 1950s and early 1960s, and I think some of that is due to guilt over the perceived persecution of commies previously.

There may be some truth to that, especially after "anti-anti-Communists" those who saw anti-Communism as a threat--began to gain ascendency around the time JFK was elected president. However, there were plenty of Communists and fellow travelers roaming the groves of academia even at the height of the "McCarthy era," as E. Merrill Root points out in his books Collectivism on the Campus: The Battle for the Mind in American Colleges (New York: Devin-Adair, 1955) and Brainwashing in the High Schools: An Examination of Eleven American History Textbooks (New York: Devin-Adair, 1958).

[CW_Conservative]

See our book, "A Patriot's History of the United States"

Checked it out of the library a week ago, you guys packed a lot of interesting info into that book.

[yetidog]

College students have no preparation for taking basic required courses in American History. Instructors are faced with remediation; students are bored. Faculty at my college of employment are concerned that they have to teach freshman American History courses at the expense of upper-division courses. Seems like everyone wants to ignore the fundamentals.

[yetidog]

No, it died earlier with the 14th amendment.