NOT TRANSMITTING OUR HISTORY THREATENS THE FUTURE OF THE
WORLD’S OLDEST DEMOCRACY
BY
ALLAN C.BROWNFELD
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The
U.S. will soon celebrate its 250th anniversary. No other people in the
world today is living under the same form of government which existed
in their countries that long ago. Yet, sadly, few Americans are aware
of this fact, or much else about the uniqueness of our history. The
reason is that we are no longer committed to teaching and transmitting
this history to the next generation.
Only
13% of students scored proficiently in history and only 22% scored
proficient in civics on the National Assessment of Educational Progress
(NAEP); 40% of students scored below basic level of knowledge in U.S.
history, a decline from 34% in 2018.
“There
are a number of schools implementing outstanding history and civics
programs for youth. But…they are the exception and not the rule,” said
Michelle Hevezog, coordinator of history and social science instruction
for the Los Angeles County Office of Education. “The dismal NAEP
findings need to be a call to action for every American school,
beginning in kindergarten, to energize the teaching of U.S. history and
civics as an educational priority.”
Nicholas
Goldberg, writing in the Los Angeles Times, notes that, “Most Americans
don’t know which countries the U.S. fought against in World War 11,
when the Constitution was ratified. Good luck having them point to
Ukraine on a map…watch them stare blankly if you ask them what rights
are protected by the First Amendment.”
Peggy
Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Educational Statistics,
says that, “It’s a national concern. Too many of our students are
struggling to understand and explain the importance of civic
participation, how American government works and the historic
significance of events.”
At
the present time, we are an increasingly polarized country in an
increasingly globalized world—-and only with informed and engaged
citizens can a democracy like ours properly function.
This
negative trend is nothing new. In his Farewell Address to the nation
in 1989, Ronald Reagan declared, “I’m warning of an eradication of the
American memory that could result, ultimately, in an erosion of the
American spirit. Let’s start with some basics: more attention to
American history and a greater emphasis on civic ritual.”
Jeffrey
Sikkenga, executive director of the Ashbrook Center, described the
crisis in civic education as a “civic illness.” He said that, “The
results make clear that too many young people around the country don’t
know the basic facts of U.S. history and government. More important,
they don’t adequately understand the fundamental principles that guide
our country.”
State and
Federal funds focus on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and
Mathematics) education. The argument being made is that STEM and
technical education fields prepare students for today’s workforce. Our
society needs more skilled workers—-but we also need informed citizens.
States test students on STEM subjects, and teachers are assessed on how
well their students do on these tests. History is not tested by the
states and is largely ignored. Teachers are not judged by how well
their students learn history.
Historian
David McCullough, who laments what he calls “collective amnesia,”
argues that, “History isn’t something that ought to be taught, read or
encouraged only because it will make us better citizens. It will make
us a better citizen and it will make us more thoughtful and
understanding human beings.”
James
Robbins, in “Erasing America: Losing Our Future By Destroying Our
Past,” makes the point that, “History is the source of all life’s
lessons, the good and the bad. We turn to history to see what to
embrace and what to avoid.”
Historian
Allen Cuelzo says that, “Anxiety about political correctness plays
another role in the vanishing of history. At the elementary and
secondary levels, any teacher who attempts to discuss the Pilgrims at
Thanksgiving, or Remember the Alamo or the Maine or Custer’s last
stand, is likely to risk angry cries of grievance from parents and
watchdog groups, and so it becomes safer just to dodge history teaching
entirely.”
Several years
ago, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor said that the failure to
teach our history “threaten the future of our democracy. If we don’t
know what makes this country special and worth saving, how will we know
how to safeguard its promise of freedom and opportunity.”
A
recent Newsweek survey found that 78% of Americans could not pass a
citizenship test, 65% didn’t know what happened at the Constitutional
Convention, and 40% couldn’t say who we fought in World War 11.
Dr.Bruce
Lee, vice chairman of the American Heritage Society, notes that, “The
principles that unite us as a nation are fading from memory. Knowledge
of the ideas on which our nation is built is essential to maintain the
relevance and vibrancy of our government.”
In
recent surveys, it was found that only 55% of citizens know that
Congres shares authority over U.S. foreign policy with the president and
that Congress has the power to declare war. Almost a quarter think
incorrectly that
Congress shares power with the United Nations. Almost a third believed a Supreme Court ruling could be appealed.
The
abandonment of the teaching of history has been going on for many
years. In 1976, the New York Times administered an American History and
Attitude Survey to college freshmen on 194 U.S. campuses. It showed
that one-third of the respondents thought the chief aim of colonial
resistance on the eve of the American Revolution was representation in
Parliament rather than self-taxation.
At
that time, Columbia University Professor William Leuchtenberg said of
the test results, “The main conclusion one must draw is unmistakable:
that this group of students knows remarkably little American history.
Their knowledge of the Colonial period is primitive. Two-thirds do not
have the foggiest notion of Jacksonian democracy. Less than half even
know that Woodrow Wilson was President during World War 1. If this is
the state of knowledge of American history, what can one anticipate
about knowledge of the history of the rest of the world?”
William
V. Shannon of the New York Times (Aug. 29, 1975) considered the
debunking of history as an _expression_ of the anti-intellectualism which
he finds among many educators: “The evisceration of history is part of
the persistent debasement of serious education by ‘educators’ who really
believe that the great majority of students are incapable of learning
anything more difficult than they themselves cared to learn. What these
educators have done to drive history out of the curriculum, they have
also done to ancient and modern languages and to English literature.”
As
we approach the 250th anniversary of American independence, it would be
timely to revamp our teaching of history, a step to insure that our
free society will continue to thrive and endure into the future.