U.S. teens stumped by history survey International Herald Tribune, "A survey made public Tuesday indicates that U.S. teens live in "stunning ignorance" of history and literature. Are education systems around the world focusing enough on the liberal arts?" What is more important for American students to know who was the first king of England or how to use a computer? One can study history if one wants to become a historian but why spend all that time and energy when Americans only have 200 years of history. American education, I think, for jingoistic reasons does not emphasize the importance of history. History is his-story, somebody else's story, so why bother. The primary focus in schools all across the US is the 3Rs, Reading, Writing, Arithmetic. ------------- Here what some had to say: Good example of insufficient education. Judaism is a rehash of earlier egyptian religion, often to minor details with entire texts literally copied, including Moses’ commandments. Tut’s burrial chamber is a treasure trove of biblical religious symbols. Christans rehashed judaism with a good deal of egyptian faith, but that’s outside this scope. There’s no evidence till now that judaism existed before the 8th century BC, and then it coexisted with other faiths. At that time Jerusalem was still analphabetic. Recent archeological finds proof that a good deal of the earlier biblical stories originate in Mycene and Troy, but those are non-religious, rather about a conquest that never happened, like the David-Goliath fight. Posted by: tom, There is a reason that the studies relating to the human contion are called “humanities” : they are humanizing. When school becomes moot because the socio-economic stratosphere is fixed and almost immutable by virtue solely of a family’s wealth and position and a child’s good fortune to land in a stable sane family,when materialism trumps virtue, and when celebrity replaces achievement, then we have, with reason, lots of depressed and dead-ended kids . most study in school has become for extrinsic purposes rather than intrinsic joy of learning mastery and intellectual and vocational growth. the extent to which cheaters and liars prosper throughout our coiety is a mahjor problem too. until we restore a particpatory social democracy that values all children and permits authentic accomplishment , in a majority of cases, to supersede structured nepotism, we will have a world of hurt on our hands with disenfranchised and incresingly desperate youth. Posted by: Aminah I have a 16-year old son, not a great student by any stretch, but he does have an interest in history and literature. We saw middle eastern antiquities last week and he thought they were very COOL. And he loves Shakespeare. He just doesn’t want to memorize pages and pages of dates and timelines. In short, the answer to “have our schools abandoned history and literature?” cannot be a simple yes or no, but should be considered case-by-case. Some teenagers will excel in the study of history and literature and others will simply find it totally boring, while many will be right in the middle. Posted by: Christopher Why teach history when that history is deemed racist, inaccurate, manipulated, censored and offensive to groups of people living today? Stop with the Political Correctness in our public schools. Those who do not remember REAL history are doomed to repeat it. Posted by: Dave, What I worry about is that whether we are going to respect someone who knows well about mathmetics and reading more than someone who knows well about subjects related to various fields. Public education has the problem of generalization of people who took it and that some subjects that public education doesn’t cover are likely to be the previleged ones. I don’t hope to degrade the benefits of the public education, but I need to point that we have to be careful to concede something that isn’t covered by the public system. If not, we’ll have high possibilities of making losers who cordially adhere to the government system. Posted by: Min, In my opinion the notable deficit in the knowledge of history is due to the deficit in the realization of the importance of it. For instance Christians, Muslims and Jews worship the same God. Yet God was first worshiped by the Jews. Neglect of this obvious point of reference in the relations between the three monotheist faiths deprives Jews the religious priority which they deserve at least in the Holy Lands. If the Palestinian problem was to be resolved exclusively on religious grounds the Jewish case would probably prevail. However there are also the issues of Arab population, land and property to be accounted for. Unfortunately on issues such as these Israeli policies have so far failed miserably. Posted by: John A. It’s not only in America but through out the world that a steady devaluation of liberal arts has taken place, especially since WW II when many countries became independent. Given the relative in all these countries, and in the name of development, science, engineering, and business management have received greater investment from governments and private sources as well. Is it any surprise then that folks through out the world have learnt to air their opinions (free speech) without the requisite backing of reasoned arguments supported by evidence? Is it any surprise that corruption is rampant when ethics (an important liberal arts subject) is devalued and not taught in schools, colleges and universities? Or, is it any suprise that we do not understand our intellectual heritage, which is is not just the immediate culture available to us but all the world’s traditions and cultures? Shame on educators, bureaucrats, institutions, and governments that value the making of money more than well rounded education for the young. Posted by: Yasmin This article deals with a subject referred to as cultural literacy; a subject sadly lacking in America today. Cultural literacy, to use an example to explain it, is such as conversational references such as: ” in the thinking about the possibility of terrorist attacks here, it best to consider the ease of the execution of of the 7/7 bombings of the transit system in London, and the train bombing in Madrid”. This seemingly simple statement assumes the following: -knowledge of the July 7th bombings in London -in what country London is a major city -what occured in those horrific bombings -who the perpretrators were -and, last, the genesis of the bombers inspirations and motivations Further; -knowledge of which country is host to the city of Madrid -knowledge of the genesis of those bombers’ inspirations and motivations -the original misdirection by goverment of Spai as to the perpetrators of the act, and the subsequent political fall-out - and the eventual resolution of the above, in both countries. The above acts, as described, and the reactions of the countries involved, at least in Europe, changed the perception of governments and police forces. Not in America. Cultural literacy requires one to recognize, know, be familiar with, all those aspects of the original statement. Otherwise, one is unable to engage in meaningful discourse on the subject of “homegrown terrorism, and the homegrown terrorist. Americans today, all not just the “young and the dumb”, are sadly lacking in cultural literacy (not to mention scientific literacy, my real “soapbox podium”). The American public is closed off from a meaningful discussion of global events due a severe lack of historical, geographic, political (global), economic and societal knowledge and the ability to integrate that into a cognitive whole. Sad. J… Posted by: Jack Brady There certainly are issues with education in the US, but I don’t blame Bush for them. Outcome based education and political correctness have blurred the primary goals of education system. We are no longer focusing on the basics of history, reading writing, and arithmetic, and instead are focusing on sex ed, and whatever hyphenated American groups are able to leverage on the local systems. Since the rise of the D.O.E., public educational quality has been trending downwards. Get the business of educating people out of the government’s hands, and you will see real improvement. One more thing to note. There are extremely large numbers of private schools in the U.S. that do not fall within the public domain, such as the one my child goes too. There are really two classes of education here; people that rely on the government, and people that choose not to abuse(or can afford to send) their kids to private schooling….. as a rule, public servants fail at most tasks. Leave the solution up to the real interested parties, and you wil see results. Posted by: Greg, I would like to see the results of that survey if ALL those questions asked would have NOT been multiple choices . Only the ones who would have mastered their studies would have fared well . With a multiple choice , one can deduct an answer by the process of elimination and some intuition , just as if someone would be whispering the answer to you or giving you some clue . However without this multiple choice testing system , a vast number of students would not have made the grades. I would like to tell you an anectodes on the subject of multiple choice questions . I came accross an aviation trade magazine — private planes and corporate jets — and inside it had a quiz about the aerodynamic and mechanical functions of those planes. I decided to see how many multiple choice questions I could answer right . To my surprise I was able to GUESS about fifty five percent of then right , even without any knowledge on this subject . In my opinion , a GUESS does not equate with KNOWLEDGE . However if they would have not included the multiple choice , my score would have been in the low ten percent. Another drawback to study only to pass a test , is that it does not produce a long lasting retention or any profound understanding of the subject at hand . Posted by: Andre I’m afraid its true. The US is far behind in history,the arts,math,english, the sciences, Things are so bad in a local school that in order to get kids to come to study for and take tests. The school had to throw a piezza party to get highschoolers to come. The school would have had to account to state officials if not enough students showed up. In another school there are 4 pregnant 16 yr.olds. One mother is very proud of her daughter for starting fad of pregnancy. There needs to be alot of work done to turn parents into parents and children into children and i’ve no doubt we americans can do it. Than our kids can go to school and really learn what they should to catch up with the rest of the world. Posted by: Price , It’s impossible to evaluate the survey results without seeing the multiple choice answers. In the case of the American Civil War, if the choices were (a) 1860-1863; (b) 1861-1865; (c) 1863-1866; or (d) 1864-1865, the errors would be more excusable than if the categories were centuries apart. Ralph Elison wrote one novel fifty years ago, many essays on jazz and an uneven mass of social commentary in journals and magazines of limited circulation. Again, if the choices were “Life on the Mississippi,” “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” and “The Invisible Man,” the results might be expected to be better than if the choices were “Notes of a Native Son,” “The Fire Next Time,” “The Invisible Man,” and “Soul on Ice.” In any case, none of this seems to have anything to do with respect to education in the liberal arts world wide. World wide, I believe the greater concern is the teaching of dogma, propaganda and self-serving revised histories masquarading as history and literature. I cannot honestly assert that U.S. history as taught in public schools is free of such problems, but I believe that U.S. education currently contains less intentionally mistated material than most. Posted by: Tommy T. Bush is a joke. He can only come up with cute names for laws. “No Child Left Behind Law.” Sounds really good, but hasn’t accomplished anything, but actually made things worse. We don’t need cute names and nice speeches. We need someone who can actually freaking do something in the white house. Posted by: Yakouba Why would you morph that question into one on education around the world? The problem is America’s love-in with ignorance, starting with Beevis & Butthead and ending with Britney (although at times, it’s hard to tell them apart). The rest of the world seems to be educating its children alright, thank you. It’s when we elect a President who states, “See, you can even get a C - average and still get to be President,” which puts the USA exactly where it deserves to be. ---------------- What is your opinion?
half of kids in school dont even want to be there, therefore why would they try to learn anything anyways.most of this country is "stunningly ignorant" on many different levels and many different ways, not just teens. its that goddamn music television
Actually, most of the history teachers at my school love their subject. So it ends up being a great class to learn in. I've gotten 5's on both my AP World and US history exams, so I can't blame the system. The students are more at fault to be honest. They're , like you said, apathetic. They're all consumer whores as well, but I digress. I personally think that history is the best way to gain a healthy perspective on international relations. The first example that comes to mind is terrorism. The terrorists just didn't start hating the US for no reason. You have to look at the past actions, like supporting Israel, and constantly meddling with Arab affairs. Once you understand what caused the problem then you can work to mend relations and correct past wrongs, rather than just saying they're all evil and vowing to kill all of them. That's why I personally think that history is important. Plus I suck at math.
It always make me laugh when I watch Jay Leno asking people on the street and the answers he gets. I know it's comedy and the segment is supposed to be funny but some of the responses he receives are way out of this world. Regardless, American elementary education is maybe not the envy of the world or the very best in the world but when it comes to college and graduate schools, all I can say is GOD BLESS AMERICA!
I don't think the kids are at fault. If they've been stuck in a school system that pretty much said to them "we don't give a fuck about you" without actually coming out and saying it then of course they'll start to not care come high school. It's a joke and the students and teachers know it. Most just bullshit their way through just to get the hell out whereas others drop out. That's what I got out of people's attitudes when I went to public school. Then there's the lucky ones who go to a school where it seems like they care. And then there's the luckier ones who go to night school which is alot better than regular school (like me.)
