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Last post 7 years ago by TMCTLT. 6 replies replies.
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ZRX1200 Offline
#1 Posted:
Joined: 07-08-2007
Posts: 60,476
The reason Americans embrace bad government

Anne Holmquist

Recent news has proudly informed us that U.S. graduation rates are rising. Unfortunately, rising grad rates don’t tell the whole story.

If one truly wants to know how American students are doing in school, a look at the Nation’s Report Card might offer a better picture. Those numbers tell us that not even half of America’s high school seniors are proficient in any subject. The area they rank the worst in? U.S. History.

The fact that only 12 percent of U.S. high school seniors are proficient in history was recently reflected in another survey put out by YouGov. That survey asked Americans of all ages how familiar they were with famous leaders, many of whom were prominent Communist leaders from the last century. As the chart below shows, a number of millennials described themselves as “unfamiliar” with these leaders.



Perhaps that’s also why these same millennials were unfamiliar with the number of people killed under Communist leadership. In fact, 32 percent of millennials and gen-Xers believed that more people were killed under George W. Bush during his time in office than were killed during Joseph Stalin’s time in power.



But so what, right? History is a boring subject full of old, privileged white men. Does it matter if the current generation of students have no clue whether or not one leader killed more people than another from a rival government?

According to Thomas Jefferson, it certainly does. In 1807 he wrote, “History, in general, only informs us what bad government is.”

In other words, if we expect our nation to stay on a straight course, then we need to make sure our students have a clear knowledge of governments throughout history – what worked and what didn’t.

Is it possible that our nation is in its current state because recent generations have not learned the lessons which past empires and nations teach us through the history books?
DrMaddVibe Offline
#2 Posted:
Joined: 10-21-2000
Posts: 55,301
Hope and Change settled it...drops the mic...

Gonz
Mr. Jones Offline
#3 Posted:
Joined: 06-12-2005
Posts: 19,359
GenXer's can BARELY make change at a cash register.

Millenials HAVE NO CLUE HOW TO MAKE CHANGE
EVEN WHEN THE CASH REGISTER TELLS THEM HOW MUCH.

NEITHER CARE ABOUT HISTORY...
when it repeats itself....
As it always does...

They will think it's ALL NEW...
AND NOT FAIR FOR THEM...
frankj1 Offline
#4 Posted:
Joined: 02-08-2007
Posts: 44,211
unfunded mandates and "teaching to the test" haven't helped.
DrafterX Offline
#5 Posted:
Joined: 10-18-2005
Posts: 98,508
Don't fear the reaper... Mellow
TMCTLT Offline
#6 Posted:
Joined: 11-22-2007
Posts: 19,733
I've said it before and I'll say it again, we had a class called ISMS in HS which discussed in depth the different forms of governments across the globe and how they contrasted to one another. Covering communism / fascism / socialism and capitalism. I readily admit that I was one who questioned the need to learn this as well as other history lessons.....however it didn't take a knock to the head to understand that to know which way we'd like to head....we NEED to know Where we've been ( and how that worked out for us )

Bring back ISMS classes for our children...
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