SOURCE: "Today, I'm Grumpy About"
June 18, 2011
by, Bee Sting
"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 ...
Note:
Please be sure to visit "Today, I'm Grumpy About" blog, as it is has numerous articles on America's education, among other topics. Enjoy!
Bee Sting
