An Ol' Broad's Ramblings
Dumbing Down
AMERICANS DON’T KNOW nearly as much about U.S. history as they think they know. But their knowledge of popular culture is off the charts.
A new survey released this month by the nonprofit, nonpartisan American Revolution Center (ARC) of Philadelphia indicated that 80 percent of adult Americans (and 94 percent of those aged 18 to 49) were able to link the late pop star Michael Jackson to his signature songs “Beat It” and “Billie Jean.” But only slightly over half could identify James Madison as the Father of the U.S. Constitution.
Furthermore, even though “tea parties” have become a popular form of political dissent in recent months, only 12 percent could correctly identify the most important repercussion of the Boston Tea Party of 1773. That was the provoking of Parliament into enacting the Coercive Acts, which strengthened American resistance and led to convening of the First Continental Congress. Most respondents incorrectly answered on this multiple-choice test that the Tea Party resulted in repeal of the tax on tea.
Asked before taking the test to grade their historical knowledge, only 3 percent gave themselves an “F.” But 83 percent flunked, meaning they could not correctly answer more than 16 of the 27 questions.
Perhaps adults have forgotten some of the history they learned in school long ago. But the prospect of their children becoming a better-informed generation is not bright.
The study of traditional U.S. history has declined since the Vietnam era due to such divergent factors as a crowded curriculum, the spread of a separatist band of multiculturalism, and the governmental focus on testing reading and math skills to the exclusion of history and other essential elements of the liberal arts.
In the interest of reviving the discipline, organizations of the nation’s leading history scholars have repeatedly called on public school systems to require history teachers to have majored in history in college; however, no state teacher certification boards do so, and the best evidence is that relatively few history teachers have majored in history.
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We have sunk to this sad state of affairs because no one was actually watching the hen house, and the fox has taken over. Perhaps if schools actually taught the REAL history of this country’s founding, we wouldn’t have so many ignorant people voting for those who would destroy her. For schools not to require a history major to teach history just boggles the mind. It seems that schools these days would prefer for our children to be ignorant, rather than informed.
