Posted on 06/05/2014 8:18:56 AM PDT by Kaslin
Given the numerous studies revealing how American education lags behind instruction in other countries in disciplines once thought to be essential, it should come as no surprise that on the 70th anniversary of D-Day, a lot of people are clueless about central elements of the Allied invasion of the European continent on June 6, 1944.
The American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) has released the results of a survey, which finds only slightly more than half (54 percent) of those who took a multiple choice quiz knew that Dwight D. Eisenhower was the supreme commander of Allied forces on D-Day. Fewer than half knew Franklin Roosevelt was president and 15 percent identified the location of the landing as Pearl Harbor, not beaches named Normandy and Omaha. One in 10 college students were among those giving the wrong answer.
Colleges and universities clearly are not teaching what they once did. That is also apparent in the ACTA survey, which found that 70 percent of recent college graduates knew D-Day occurred during World War II, compared to 98 percent of college graduates 65 and older.
Dr. Michael Poliakoff, ACTA's vice president of policy, says: "We are allowing students to graduate college with the historical knowledge of a twelfth grader. Not a single liberal arts college, except the military academies and only five of the top 50 public universities require even one survey of American history.
Poliakoff continues: "We aren't adequately preparing the next generation for the challenges of career and community with this apathetic approach to our national heritage. These college graduates are unlikely to understand the cost of maintaining our nation's freedom."
While much of this should disgust, especially those parents who are paying more and getting less of an education for their kids, none of it should surprise. Today's young people seem to know and care more about sex, pop stars and the latest cellphones, than wisdom and knowledge from our past and the character of those who fought to preserve our freedoms.
In his classic book, "The Closing of the American Mind: How Higher Education Has Failed Democracy and Impoverished the Souls of Today's Students," the late college professor Allan Bloom indicted modern university life: "The university now offers no distinctive visage to the young person. He finds a democracy of the disciplines -- which are there either because they are autochthonous or because they wandered in recently to perform some job that was demanded of the university. This democracy is really an anarchy, because there are no recognized rules for citizenship and no legitimate titles to rule. In short there is no vision, nor is there a set of competing visions, of what an educated human being is. The question has disappeared, for to pose it would be a threat to peace." (p337)
It seems increasing numbers among us don't know what we don't know, and worse, don't care that we don't know it.
The late Steve Allen created the "man on the street" interview for "The Tonight Show." He would ask people general knowledge questions. Their replies were often funny. Jesse Watters of Fox News does the same on Bill O'Reilly's show. While the intent of this feature is to laugh at the ignorance of others, the bits reflect a dumbing-down of the American mind to the point where wisdom and knowledge are no longer regarded as necessary. Emotional satisfaction and feeling good now seem to be the new standards by which all things are now measured.
Someone should ask a question of the aging veterans who are likely visiting Normandy for the last time this weekend. If they could have foreseen what America would become and how little their descendants know, or care, about their sacrifice, would they have done what they did?
They probably would because of their character. I'm not sure the same could be said of too many of their progeny.
Agreed. The sad thing is that even though today it is so easy to obtain the essential information, few have the inclination to take the time. It is hard for me to imagine hearing about something of apparent significance and not wanting to know the details.
Agreed. Does this mean that if they haven’t made a movie about it, it did not happen?
I taught junior high history for many years. It was hard to find a textbook that did not emphasize the internment of the Japanese. And if you just looked at the illustrations you would be led to believe that very few white males were involved in our war effort at all.
As a very early baby boomer, I grew up surrounded by fresh memories of the war. Everyone very much older than me remembered it. The books I read as a kid—Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, Baa Baa Black Sheep, half the movies on TV were all about it. But, time passes and people and events that can never be forgotten are forgotten as they fade from living memory. The battle of Guadalcanal is a good example of this. I doubt that D Day will ever be forgotten as it is a turning point in the war. But much of the rest will fade from popular memory.
I don’t know that is necessarily a failure of the schools as much as it is the inexorable passage of time.
Just finished reading “Normandiefront: D-Day to St Lo Through German Eyes”. A fascinating account from German soldiers fighting from the other side of the beach and hedgerows. The Germans really never had a chance, despite their tenacity and combat experience. Allied combat mass, logistics, air power and Hitler’s obsession over keeping his panzer divisions oriented on the Pas de Calais made sure of that.
I'm currently reading William Shirer's Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, but I'm not at D-Day yet. Hitler just got his dumb ass bogged down in Russia and he's begging Japan to pull his chestnuts out of the fire, but Japan's got dumb plans of their own!
What's the name of Ambrose's D-Day book and how is it?
Excellent website for the day’s radio broadcast as it happened.
https://archive.org/details/Complete_Broadcast_Day_D-Day
They teach nothing of any military actions, at least not directly. The teaching is always a back-handed indictment of some American dominance. The authors of historical "facts" will pull some little Japanese student, and discuss her feelings and about how her family had to find clean drinking water after the "great explosion from the sky."
Or, they might explore how some little French youth living in Normandy, but having an uncle who lived in Germany, felt about the Allies coming ashore and killing their only milk cow.
That's the only significance to many liberals in academia.
When they do mention military action, they proclaim that it was the Soviet Union that did all the heavy lifting.
that is a badly photoshopped image of Pearl Harbor where somebody inserted a couple of Ju-87 Stukas...
June 6 is also the anniversary of the Battle of Belleau Wood in 1918, in which the US Marines brought Germany’s springtime offensive to a halt and—arguably—turned the tide of World War I. How many young people today know that?
The "Ken Burns" Effect.
BTT. One German pilot was quoted by Liddell Hart as stating that he knew the war was lost when he sighted the invasion fleet. I can believe it.
I wonder how they teach World War 2 in schools today?
They most likely start with... America: The Aggressor Nation
Interesting tidbit, the real Werner Pluskat, was a military consultant for “The Longest Day.” He died in 2002.
Mien Gott...!
Great scene. Nothing.......then the first few notes of Beethoven’s Fifth, then there it is.
D-Day: June 6, 1944: The Battle for the Normandy Beaches. A superb work, IMHO, but it's not a quick read (several hundred pages).
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.