D-Day is Dumb Day for Too Many

Townhall.com ^ | June 5, 2014 | Cal Thomas

[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.

[jmacusa]

Don’t forget Dresden. To the liberals Dresden was a city of ‘’no military importance(a lie) and the RAF and the USAAF fire bombed it unmercifully ‘’ killing hundreds of thousands’’(another lie, total casualties were less than 30,000.)

[jmacusa]

May I suggest Cornelius Ryan's excellent "The Longest Day''. Ambrose drew quite a bit on this tome.

[Dilbert San Diego]

Yes, can’t forget the bombing of Dresden.

Yes, liberals have said that it was not a real military target.

Interesting how hindsight is 20/20, decades after decisions have been made in war, with certain people saying we should not have done this or that.

[jmacusa]

Read about the exploits of the US Navy destroyer U.S.S. Cory off Omaha Beach. You can do this by reading Cornelius Ryan's excellent book "The Longest Day''. Truth is it wasn't the US Army that won the day off the Normandy coast, it was the US Navy.

[jmacusa]

Jean has a long mustache.

[jmacusa]

Should they have had a chance?

[exit82]

The chair is against the wall.

[TADSLOS]

Of course not. That was merely a figure of speech.

[class8601_nuke]

was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell NO! and it ain’t over now....

[jmacusa]

I've shut up legions of libs whining about Dresden by telling them of Warsaw, Rotterdam and Coventry. And to nail it all home I say to them ‘’Auschwitz’’. Shuts them up every time. A few years back, in honor of members of my family who were WW2 combat vets(all gone now) and for all WW2 vets I vowed to set the record straight any and every time I hear of, read or encounter the slightest bit of revisionist history concerning Americans role/conduct in WW2 very vigorously and unapologectically whenever I encounter it. I damned near once pulled some stupid sop of a liberal woman through the damn phone after she put some article in the local paper about how awful it was that America dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It was filled with the usual clap trap about how awful it was that America did this. I said to her, “Would you have preferred that Japan had prevailed? She never wrote to that newspaper again I can tell you.

[jmacusa]

My apologies.

[jmacusa]

The dice are on the carpet.

[TADSLOS]

Thanks, but no apology necessary. It was a fair question. The Germans made their bed with the Nazi Party and paid dearly for it. That being said, many of the German troops and their leaders assigned to Normandy were hardened veterans at that stage in the war. Normandy, to them, leading up to the invasion, was considered a comparitively easy assignment- away from the Eastern Front. They were highly skilled in small unit tactics and used the terrain of the bocage to their maximum advantage until they were attrited by a combination of Allied strength in numbers, some equally skilled troops in some units, logistics and air power.

[Owl558]

You’re obviously correct, any discussion about WWII must rightly focus on that man - this thread being an appropriate venue. My rant is about how so many WWII buffs compare unrelated world and national events to Hitler without fail. Like how to a carpenter, the answer to every problem involves driving a nail.

[jmacusa]

‘Many of the German troops and their leaders assigned to Normandy were hardened veterans..’’ Not entirely. The only really capable German unit stationed in Normandy at the time was the 352nd. Infantry Division which was guarding the stretch of beach that would be code-named Omaha and where most of the causalities of the landing occurred. Other German units in the area, like the 716th. were made up largely of Poles and Russians more or less forced to serve. However I agree with your assessment of the fighting capability of the German army. I have spoken with many WW2 vets who told me to a man ''Them Krauts were tough son's of bitches. They didn't give up until you damn near wiped them all out and even then they still fought you''. But they couldn't have been all that good. We beat 'em Thank God.

[Kodos the Executioner]

Is that you, Mr. Blutarski?

What is your Delta Tau Xi name?

[TADSLOS]

Well, you can be good all day long, but if you don’t have the numbers to replace the fallen, then the outcome is problematic, as the Spartans of Thermopylae can attest.

[dfwgator]

The chair is against the wall.

That was Red Dawn.

[Labyrinthos]

Thanks for the time line. My father landed on Utah Beach on 06.06.44. For the life of me, however, I have never been able to figure out how or why an NCO in the Army Air Corp ended up on the Beach on D-Day.

[RobinOfKingston]

Colleges and universities clearly are not teaching what they once did.

The facts up to this point in the article were not college or university level material. At least up to 1965, they were either high school level, or facts that were absorbed by simply being American, not needing to be taught.