Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Don't Know Much About History

When I was a kid I liked old stuff. Loved tales of old and mythology. But I hated history classes. In high school I used summer school to get them out of the way. Thing is, here and there, a teacher might deviate from the book, show a movie or bring in a guest lecturer & I would find myself enthralled. After years of believing I hated history I realized what I hated was how it was taught. From what I have seen, nothing is improving & Pat Buchanan's latest post, The Dumbing Down of America, points out it may be worse than I thought. As the concerted effort to improve kid's math and science has had limited results, history has taken a back seat.
Nowadays I can't get enough history. It's incredibly important to know how we got here if we want to set a proper course for the future. It's important to understand our American role in a holistic world history. Revisionist special interest oriented history needs to be avoided. Unfortunately the latter begets the former and it seems to be the way the education industry is headed.

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