Don’t Know Much About History

The AP reports that according to the 2010 NAEP Tests, only 13% of High Schoolers are proficient in American History.

Ah, what public education has wrought. A citizenry that knows next to nothing about where it comes from. Most will respect the Constitution and the flag, though they probably couldn’t tell you anything significant about the former, and anything they could tell you would probably be wrong.

Of course, Hollywood deserves some credit for this dumbing down of America. Their focus on the past inevitably highlights only on the negatives: sexism, racism, intolerance, and the mistreatment of the Native Americans has become the fixation of Hollywood. The flaws of our ancestors have become their predominant characteristics in media portrayals. Who would want to know about the bigoted intolerant hateful people that the media portrays as the bulk of America’s inhabitants prior to the 1960s.

Overall, it’s hardly surprising that students, when choosing what information to purge from their brains, opt to forget about out hated and neglected ancestors.

When we respected and honored our nation’s heritage, even overlooking some faults, people learned history and its exciting flourishes, filled with innovators, explorers, and heroes.  Early Television, for example featured Davy Crocket. Ironically, we might even be more likely to learn from the mistakes of the past because we’d be intrigued enough to look beyond the surface narrative. Instead, we’re fast  becoming a nation of  near-sighted amnesiacs when it comes to history.

And the truth is that we really don’t care if we know our history. If news had come out sixty years ago that less than 1 in 7 High Schoolers was proficient in the history of this country, people would be alarmed. They would be down at their school board, demanding that we find some way to pass on this heritage of liberty.

For conservatives, there are two takeaways.  First is a practical political matter. In public political forums, outside of Republican Primaries or special information classes, conservatives have to realize that the argument, “The Constitution says…” carries no weight with voters as they don’t understand the Constitution and don’t care to.  Conservative leaders who want to be elected need to provide practical reasons for their Constitutional positions, while conservative organizations need to work on educating people in things they should have learned in fourth grade.

Secondly, conservative parents need to know that if they want to pass on, our national heritage, public schools cannot be trusted to do the job. They have to do it themselves. Whether they buy books, videos, or CDs, parents have to make the effort to make sure their kids know American history.

Read more at Adam’s Blog