Boston Tea What?

Newsday ^ | 5/10/02 | John Hildebrand

[Orual]

While Cold War memories may still send chills up the backs of older Americans, the rival alliances that until recently split Europe in half are apparently ancient history for most high school seniors.

Only 30 percent of seniors correctly identified the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, better known as NATO, and its former nemesis, the Warsaw Pact, according to results from the latest federally sponsored history tests released yesterday at a Washington, D.C. news conference.

[Orual]

Sample questions from the test.

[nevergore]

Don't know their American History....hogwash....ask any public school kid about great american hero's such as Dr. Martian Luther King, why, they spend a month each year studying black history.....

No this wasn't racist sarcasm, just pointing out that why schools focus on politically correct civics lessons the critical lessons slip by.....

NeverGore

[billybudd]

I don't think those percentages are bad. They could be better, but they're not devastating. I guess I've come to expect ingoreance of American kids.

[Orual]

I don't think those percentages are bad.

From the NY Times article:

"Only one in 10 high school seniors scored well enough on the exam, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, to be considered proficient in American history, while 17 percent of eighth graders and 18 percent of fourth graders reached that level."

That's pretty bad.

[ICE-FLYER]

I find it amusing that people can not see the serious danger of such things as this. After all, the Boston Tea Party happened for what reason? Anyone with a worthy primary education would know it was resistance to the establishment over taxes. Taxes that today are a mere pittance compared to the wealth confiscation practiced by our elected self-serving power mongers. So, next time you wonder why on such a grand scale our children do not learn about Washington, Lincoln, the Boston Tea Party or resistance displayed by the freedom loving colonials against the tyrannical British you may start getting the hint that it could very well be by design. Keep em ignorant and they are putty in the hands.

[DBtoo]

Oh Boy!! I scored 100%! I've passed twelth grade!!

[Leisler]

The test is a lefty test too.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

I saw a blurb about this in the Houston Chronicle via the Washington Post. However your article is much more informative. Parents must start getting their kids out of these government schools.

[banjo joe]

Correct. What they will learn is that government is good, gov't should not be restriced or questioned, and gov't will provide equality of outcomes.

[gore3000]

So, next time you wonder why on such a grand scale our children do not learn about Washington, Lincoln, the Boston Tea Party or resistance displayed by the freedom loving colonials against the tyrannical British you may start getting the hint that it could very well be by design. Keep em ignorant and they are putty in the hands.

You bet that's why they do not teach real history anymore. They also do not want to teach the Constitution because then they would have to tell the kids how corrupt our government has become.

[Tinman]

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

"A child educated only at school is an uneducated child."

Both quotes by George Santayana. Do you think he was onto something here?

Regards

[twigs]

It IS serious. In an education class a few years ago, I was the only student who argued that students studying social studies should, for example, know that what country is next to Egypt. Couldn't believe my ears! I'd like to think that in a similar discussion today, they would have reassessed their earlier beliefs, but I doubt that would be the case. No wonder kids don't know their history.

That said, knowledge crops up in unexpected places. My husband taught a group of minority students in the suburbs last summer who were brought in from inner Philadelphia. During the course of study, he asked them some history questions relating to American history, like the founding fathers etc., and they could all answer every question! Someone was teaching these kids history!

[agenda_express]

Why don't students know history? Schools are too busy teaching "diversity."

[twigs]

resistance displayed by the freedom loving colonials against the tyrannical British you may start getting the hint that it could very well be by design.

A study was done a number of years ago where a researcher took excerpts from the Declaration of Independence and asked people on the street what they thought of it. Few could identify it and most thought that it was a radical, dangerous document. And so it is!

[moyden]

Educrat collectivists despise American history - a story of individualism.

[Cleburne]

Only 35 percent of eighth-graders could explain the meaning of "Jim Crow” laws, which once enforced racial segregation.

One would think they could get this- it is certainly a major item of interest in history course at universities- and, one would think, in public schools. What the heck do they do for a month of Black History if they don't even focus on Jim Crow?

[billybudd]

Yeah, you're right, they're pretty bad. But I don't expect anything from public schools so it's hard to tell what a "good" percentage would be (100% too much to ask for?). I'd like to see a study that segments the students based on whether they go to private or public schools (or charter/magnet/etc.) and what their scores are. That would be really interesting.

[Badray]

bump

[Poohbah]

Not terribly difficult, but a lot of people wouldn't know this stuff. I aced it.