As Bubba and I were taking our morning stroll, I met a young girl from the neighborhood. As I had not seen her for a while, I stopped to chat with her.
She was holding a note book and I asked why. She explained this was the last day of summer school for her and she was waiting for the bus.
I was confused. School had only ended a few short weeks ago, how could this be the last day of summer school? She explained summer school only lasted five days. This confused me even more. I asked how could someone learn enough in five days to pass a subject when they had all term to learn it and failed. She did not know.
I asked what subject was she taking and she replied Social Studies, which turned out to be American History. OK, so what have you learned about American History in five days? She replied, nothing. Our teacher gives us a paper with questions and the page the answer is on. We look up the page and write the answer.
I asked if she had at least read the book. She could not because they were not allowed to take the book home with them.
This girl, in the 9th grade, had heard about the Revolutionary War and Civil War. She had heard of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. She had no idea what the Constitution was or what it said. She had no idea our government is divided into three equal parts. I asked her what the Executive Branch, Congress, and the Judicial Branch of our government were. She had no idea what I was talking about. She heard of the Bill of Rights but what it was or what it said she could not answer.
I can understand not learning Peter Minuet purchased Manhattan Island for $24 worth of trinkets. I can understand not learning Roger Williams walked the boundaries of Rhode Island. To a certain degree I can understand not learning about "Common Sense' written by Thomas Paine or the writings of John Locke, because today both would be considered terrorists and arrested for what they wrote, even though our Declaration of Independence is based, in part, on those writings. She had heard about the Declaration of Independence but was not sure exactly what it was.
I spoke to a friend who lives in a different part of the state and mentioned this conversation to her. She asked her teen age boys about history and they too had very little idea about it. In their county history is not a required subject to take for High School graduation.
This is a quote from my friend when she asked one of them if he knew who Republicans and Democrats were ...he said "there was 37% more crimes committed by Democrats then Republicans. That Republicans were the rich and the Democrats were the poor. He said that Democrats voted for welfare so they did not have to work and that Republicans voted on things to make them richer. He said that Democrats were goofy people like that Michael Moore and Republicans were people like Ronald Reagan." This is what he was taught in school.
We learn history because history has a way of repeating itself. We learn the mistakes which were made so not to make them again. To ignore history is depriving our younger generations the wisdom of our forefathers.
I do not know who makes up the curriculum taught in our schools. I understand social interaction is important for later in life. I also understand not teaching our children to think for themselves, or to deprive them of past lessons learned, will turn out a generation of individuals who look to a P. Hilton or a L. Lohan as roll models. If this is the case, I feel very sorry for the generations which will follow.
athena_louise
Source: www.articlecity.com
