Teens losing touch with history

[mvlnewlex]

http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/ne ... 26.art.htm

Teens losing touch with common cultural and historical references
By Greg Toppo
USA TODAY

Big Brother. McCarthyism. The patience of Job.

Don't count on your typical teenager to nod knowingly the next time you drop a reference to any of these. A study out today finds that about half of 17-year-olds can't identify the books or historical events associated with them.

Twenty-five years after the federal report A Nation at Risk challenged U.S. public schools to raise the quality of education, the study finds high schoolers still lack important historical and cultural underpinnings of "a complete education." And, its authors fear, the nation's current focus on improving basic reading and math skills in elementary school might only make matters worse, giving short shrift to the humanities — even if children can read and do math.

"If you think it matters whether or not kids have common historical touchstones and whether, at some level, we feel like members of a common culture, then familiarity with this knowledge matters a lot," says American Enterprise Institute researcher Rick Hess, who wrote the study.

Among 1,200 students surveyed:

•43% knew the Civil War was fought between 1850 and 1900.

•52% could identify the theme of 1984.

•51% knew that the controversy surrounding Sen. Joseph McCarthy focused on communism.

In all, students earned a C in history and an F in literature, though the survey suggests students do well on topics schools cover. For instance, 88% knew the bombing of Pearl Harbor led the USA into World War II, and 97% could identify Martin Luther King Jr. as author of the "I Have a Dream" speech.

Fewer (77%) knew Uncle Tom's Cabin helped end slavery a century earlier.

"School has emphasized Martin Luther King, and everybody teaches it, and people are learning it," says Chester Finn of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, an education think tank. "What a better thing it would be if people also had the Civil War part and the civil rights part, and the Harriet Tubman part and the Uncle Tom's Cabin part."

The findings probably won't sit well with educators, who say record numbers of students are taking college-level Advanced Placement history, literature and other courses in high school.

"Not all is woe in American education," says Trevor Packer of The College Board, which oversees Advanced Placement.

The study's release today in Washington also serves as a sort of coming out for its sponsor, Common Core, a new non-partisan group pushing for the liberal arts in public school curricula. Its leadership includes a North Carolina fifth-grade teacher, an author of history and science textbooks, a teachers union leader and a former top official in the George H.W. Bush administration.

[mvlnewlex]

This is a symptom of political correctness IMO.

and arrogance of older generations.

[The Instructor]

If it isn't on the Proficiency Test, then it might not be taught.

Most schools are teaching to the test these days.

[Tigercannon71]

If it isn't on the Proficiency Test, then it might not be taught.

Most schools are teaching to the test these days.

Very true and thats where schools have a problem. Schools get graded by how well they do on the tests so they teach to the tests instead of just teaching for knowledge. Then people complain about stuff like the above article then they want to blame the schools.

[kantuckyII]

I'm kinda impressed that 51% knew that the controversy surrounding Sen. Joseph McCarthy focused on communism though. I wonder why though?

The thing about history today..there's so much revisionism going on and people want to teach (not all, many) to slant for their goals. There's a serious 'battle for the mind' going on now

[NYBuckeye96]

If it isn't on the Proficiency Test, then it might not be taught.

Most schools are teaching to the test these days.

I agree! I sometimes wonder if these tests are doing more harm than good. Schools are rated based on student performance on these tests. Therefore, if a topic is covered in the proficiency test, teachers are forced to spend much time on that topic and less on other topics.

Something else to consider. Let's assume there is a junior in high school enrolled in an American History class today. This has been a traditional part of the high school curriculum dating back to the beginning of high schools. Now, consider that a student in 1900 was enrolled in American History as a high school junior. That one year class covered American history from our founding through 1900 current history. In 2008, that one year class not only has to cover history up to 1900, but must cover the events of 1901-2008.

Our country is getting to the age where it is impossible to adequately cover what needs to be covered in one academic year. Too much time has passed and too many events have happened. In order for there to be time to cover 1901-2008 in the modern history class, much history pre-1900 is cut from the curriculum that would have been taught in 1900.

A student is not exposed to an adequate level of American history until he or she is enrolled in university courses. Considering the fact that not everyone goes to college and the fact that only history majors really have to take these history courses, it becomes obvious that very few Americans have an actual solid foundation in the history of our country.

[orange-n-brown 365]

Nelsonville-York no longer teaches OHIO History I think this was a very interesting class
Now when I was in High school we had a class on Vinton County history and I really enjoyed learning about the county!
You are right Instructor if its not on the proficiency test then its not taught... sad

[caglewis]

It's not just "teens", it's adults, too, who are amazingly ignorant. Just watch a "Jay-Walking" segment on the Tonight Show!
I remember enjoying "Ohio History", too - I think it was an 8th-grade course - as being very interesting. Ohio has such a rich history, but schools just don't have the time now. Additionally - we are a much more mobile society, and there are many fewer kids these days with multi-generational connections to the specific area where they live or school system they attend than there used to be. My kids didn't grow up or go to school where I did, and their kids are living/being educated even farther removed geographically, so "local" history is increasingly less "relevant" or interesting on a personal basis for many students.
"Geography" is another thing no longer taught as I remember it. Countries change their names and borders so often, no "textbook" can possibly be "current and up-to-date" so it just doesn't get taught at all.
And without even taking into account how many, many "historically significant" events have occurred in the last 50 years, look at the advances [and differences] there are in science and math and technology from what was in the curriculum even 10 or 25 years ago, let alone 50.
There is just so much more material for teachers to cover, but no more time in which to do it; and the emphasis on standardized testing as the benchmark for evaluation - and funding - of "quality" education means a whole lot of things/subjects get "left behind"!
And how many of you parents or grandparents [who were supposedly "taught better" than kids are today] make any effort to use correct grammar as a matter of habit in your language, whether spoken or written, or read yourself, or encourage your kids to read at all?

[Philos_Finest]

I can honestly say, at Philo, we weren't taught anything that they were surveryed over(other than about the Civil War).