The Urgent Need to
Learn American History

Pulitzer-prize winning historian David McCullough believes that the ignorance of American history among U.S. high school students and teachers is a threat to national security. He told a Senate committee that we are raising a generation of people who are historically illiterate.

According to a report called Losing America's Memory: Historical Illiteracy in the 21st Century published by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, 55 colleges and universities, including the most prestigious, have no American history requirement. Only a fifth of colleges require any course in history at all. On the other hand, some colleges do require courses in Anon-Eurocentric culture or society, and that requirement can be met by courses in human development, sociology, theater, dance, film, or video courses. Social science requirements can be met by courses in women's studies, which are just feminist propaganda.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the Nation's Report Card, (based on its 2001 United States history exam) reported that less than half of high school seniors demonstrated even a basic grasp of history. The Boston Globe reported that students are encouraged to focus more on their feelings about history than on historical facts.

Don't count on the government to teach students American history. When the Federal Government financed a 271-page book in 1994 called National Standards for United States History, it was heavy on Multiculturalism and hostility to Western civilization. American Federation of Teachers spokesman Al Shanker said it was the first time a government tried to teach children to feel negative about their own country. Many leftwing professors want to teach history the way they wish it had happened instead of the way it did happen.

Standards mentioned the Gettysburg Address only once; it didn't rank as high as the 1848 feminist Declaration at Seneca Falls, which was mentioned six times. Omitted from Standards were Paul Revere, Thomas Edison, the Wright brothers, and Albert Einstein. On the other hand, Senator Joseph McCarthy received 19 unfavorable mentions, and students were told to study the influence of MTV, Madonna, Murphy Brown, and Roseanne. The 14-page section on the Civil War and Reconstruction never mentioned General Robert E. Lee or General Ulysses S. Grant.

After the U.S. Senate repudiated Standards by a vote of 99 to 1, the authors made some cosmetic changes. But copies of the original book had already flooded schools and publishers and are still widely used.

Young people cannot understand the blessings of liberty, and cannot hope to maintain our Constitution and our republic, without a firm understanding of the fundamentals of American history and government. We should encourage students to be grateful to our ancestors, respectful of our values and institutions, and proud of our heroes. Remember Thomas Jefferson's words: "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never was and never will be."