To be perfectly clear, I'm not a fan of Sarah Palin or the Tea Party movement. I could even be called a "detractor". But I did have some sympathy for her after the Paul Revere incident in Boston. She displayed what I think of as a typical lack of knowledge about our history. I've no doubt that a considerable number of people hearing her comment and its fallout couldn't figure out what the problem was.
In California, the public school American history curriculum hasn't changed since I was in school. That was a really long time ago I'm afraid. The sequence goes like this:
3rd grade, local history;
4th grade, California history;
5th grade United States history from pre-history to about the Civil War;
6th grade, Ancient Civilizations;
7th grade, World History;
8th grade, United States history from the Civil War to the present.
This curriculum sequence makes no sense. Why would any thinking person divide U.S. history in this way? By the time you get to U.S. history, part 2 it's two years later and who remembers what happened in part 1. It's not like a Harry Potter movie sequel where you've read the book in the interim. No, I'm pretty sure after two years few students remember anything about the history they studied in 5th grade when they were 10 years old!
One summer we hosted a 14 year old French exchange student and she was incredibly knowledgable about her history. Students in France study their history every year deepening their understanding. Even though French history is much longer than ours, students are required to know the succession of kings and queens. How many students here, including me, can name the presidents in order?
In this country, or at least in this state, our educational system is very politically correct. It is more important for 7th graders to know the ancient history of Africa than the history of the U.S. in the last 50 years. No wonder Jay Leno gets such strange answers to history questions from people on the street. Those people, Sarah Palin included, haven't touched U.S. history in many years and even then they were too young to explore it in any depth. So on this issue I have to give Sarah a pass. She doesn't do much worse than the average American.
It is not unreasonable, in my mind, to expect our potential leaders, people who will directly influence our country's future to have a better understanding of it's past and a better response in prepared interviews than your average layperson whom lenno surprise interviews on the street! No pass from me!
ReplyDeleteMy mistake, I never thought of Palin as a leader, potential or otherwise. To me she's just another celebrity who gets more press than she deserves.
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