"American schoolchildren are not learning American political principles"
"A mind is a terrible thing to waste" was a part of a campaign slogan used by the United Negro College Fund in 1972 and has remained unchanged for more than thirty years. This phrase has become part of the American vernacular and is used widely by lay persons and educators alike to drive home the point of the necessity of education. Today, that slogan should be used across our great land, as a starting point to impress upon the Educational system that parents expect their children to be taught American history and not a re-write to suit a growing ideology by an elite group of folks pushing a specific ideology that contradicts the principles of America.
I have read many articles on Grumpy's blog about education - very good articles. Because it has been so many years since my children were in school, while the issues concern me, I have not felt as adequate in joining in the discussions. However, the news this week about polls taken of school-aged children not knowing or understanding the basics of America's history greatly disturbs me.
We wonder how or why America is losing its compass and with it, morality is sinking to greater depths into a pit of no return. Few in Washington, DC could be considered role models for our children. We have a president re-writing history (his open views began during his infamous Cairo speech and are on-going) and no one contradicts him for the lies being portrayed as current history!
How can we expect our future generation to understand the sacrifice paid by our Founding Fathers, or appreciate our liberties, if they were taught only the history of Islam, without teaching them about the Revolutionary War, Civil War, and wars leading up to today, with this 10-year War on Terror? What about their duties, responsibilities as citizens of the United States? And the horror of singing praises to Obama, which he tired to promote when he first took office. We have a president who cannot salute our flag, the symbol of America, but who can place a big fat zero logo on everything he touches, in his process of changing America.
Before I go too far off track, the well-written article posted by the National Review Online, may interest all those who are interested in what our children are NOT taught in schools. (See below)
NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE
JUNE 17, 2011 4:00 A.M.
There has been ample tongue-clucking about abysmal student scores on the civics and history portions of the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP), but the real scandal has gone unnoticed. It is certainly a shame that two-thirds of fourth-graders and nearly three-quarters of eighth-graders don’t know the purpose of the Declaration of Independence, and that over half of America’s high-school seniors score below the basic level on history. What’s worse, however, is that some of what students are expected to know about the principles of the American Founding is at odds with what the founders themselves believed.
Fourth-graders, for example, are given a summary of the introduction to the Declaration of Independence that says citizens “are given certain rights.” This passive construction elides mention of the Creator, and leaves students to assume that our rights come from some person or government. Worse still, when asked to identify an idea articulated in this summary, the “correct” answer students are expected to choose is that “people in the United States should have some control over the government.” Some.
It continues and gets better! To read more, go here ...
To Beesting: A very interesting and sobering post.
ReplyDeleteI do not have kids in school, but I am a taxpayer. What is happening now is very expensive and a decade has passed without the results the testing would yield.
School accountability is important and standardized testing is a valuable measure, but we are so out of balance that all that matters is the testing, focused on reading and math and now heading toward math and science.
Former Governor Jeb Bush is quoted this way: "What is tested is taught." I don't know when or where he said it, but it is certainly what is happening. States and local communities have less and less impact on decisions. Kids seem to not factor into the equation on education at all.
http://www.wdam.com/story/14926227/wdam-viewpoint-history-deficit-in-our-schools
The Wall Street Journal also covered this concern.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303714704576385370840592218.html?mod=WSJ_hp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsThird
In NH, as a taxpayer, we support the schools, since there aren't any Income or Sales tax - property owners are hit hard. I'm not complaining, Sandra, but you brought up an interesting point.
ReplyDeleteI am surrounded by 10 grandchildren; two oldest, in college; 3 home-schooled; the rest still attending public schools, in 2 different states, besides NH.
I mention "Islam" because a granddaughter mentioned gaining extra credit for taking a course on Islam. I asked her if courses for other "religions" were taught; she answered "No". I asked her if Islam is being taught as a "religion", or as a political course. She responds, "We were only told that since 9/11 people misunderstand Islam, and that is why they offered this course for EXTRA CREDIT."
When I asked if they were teaching her the Koran, she said, again, "No" - we're just learning about how the Muslims contribute to the USA, etc.
By then, I was bursting a blood vessel! When I began telling her about the "other" side of Islam's teachings (the negative side), she tells me that nothing is mentioned that is negative.
Really? After speaking with her, I had a strong feeling that our children are being indoctrinated in public schools to accept an ideology that is foreign to our American history - a biased class on Islam! That is the "Progressive, liberal, Obama-way" ... !!
Oh, when I asked if she knew anything about the Holocaust, she answered "No!" Began to tell her about her great-grandfather, who fought in WWII, against Hitler. Rented movies we watched together, while informing her gently the importance of understanding world history.
She now knows, since she graduated one year ago, that history will repeat itself all too readily, if our children remain ignorant to both sides of the coin i.e. world history.
There was a time when history, geography, math, and English were taught from a very early age and now, we have high school students who are not taught American history!
But they can get a course in the virtues of Islam..
ReplyDeleteBeesting, shortly I have to introduce you to Oak, he has strong feelings about what's not being taught in schools..
World history is all but disappearing from high school. There have been complaints from parents about that among other losses of a balanced education. American History is still a graduation requirement here in Florida, I think. One of the consortia is creating end-of-course tests, which Florida is a member of. But to my knowledge there are no end-of-course national standards or efforts at that either. Florida passed a law to make civics an 8th grade requirement last year. There are parents who are looking at the standards in place in their States and this is happening all over the country.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.missourieducationwatchdog.com/2011/06/why-is-education-based-on-theories.htmle
ReplyDeleteFrom Missouri Education Watch
Florida may still have it, that's fime..
ReplyDeleteBut I have to wonder about the ones that don't.. What kind of culture doesn't the teach the future about the past. Excuse me outside of some of fictional (or not) Orwellian Societies we're told can't happen
Obama has announced the appointment of Azizah al-Hibri to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. Al-Hibri (full name, Azizah Yahia Muhammad Toufiq al-Hibri) is a Muslim professor and the granddaughter of a Sheikh, who claims that the Koran inspired Thomas Jefferson and the Founders and that the Saudi criminal justice system is more moral than the American one because it accepts blood money from murderers. .... by Sultan Knish/Daniel Greenfield's "Friday Roundup" entitled "No Telling Where to Go Next".
ReplyDeleteAdd to this, the fact that Obama's first appointment when he took office was to appoint one of the head's of CAIR to the WH as an adviser; she later claimed she had a part in writing his Cairo speech. CAIR, according to the FBI, has ties to Muslim Brotherhood.
The "virtues of Islam" as an "extra" credit in some schools (not sure how many throughout our country) is a part of indoctrination of our children and notice how it has crept into all aspects of our life, including the lives of our children.
Strange that the schools are not as concerned about the Christian persecution throughout the Arab Muslim countries; or the fact of the rise of anti-Semitism here in the West, which is why I specifically asked my granddaughter about the Holocaust and WWII. It would be easy to deny something never happened if you knew nothing about that period of history.
I am pleased to hear parents today are asking questions and checking text books.
The lack of truth being presented our children is demonstrated when reading comments on any newspaper i.e. USA Today, etc.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/06/19/ftn/main20072398.shtml
ReplyDeleteBob Shieffer's view on education asking "why don't we have a Presidential election about that."
It's short and a video.