This why we are going to loose our 2nd Amend rights. These folks have no idea where they came from.
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Los Angeles Times: U.S. History Barely Passed

[url]http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-000033108may10.story?coll=la%2Dheadlines%2Dnation[/url]

THE NATION
U.S. History Barely Passed
Education: High school seniors can't say what happened when. Earlier grades fare
a little better.
By RICHARD LEE COLVIN
TIMES STAFF WRITER

May 10 2002

The nation's high school seniors are all but clueless when it comes to
understanding essential truths about America's past, according to test results
released Thursday.

To many of them, the Boston Tea Party, the Civil War and World War II are dimly
understood events from a foggy past.

And that is particularly worrisome in a post-Sept. 11 climate as Americans are
being forced to defend their values and country, educators said. A 2001 U.S.
history test that's part of what's known informally as the "Nation's Report
Card" found that fewer than 15% of fourth-, eighth- and 12th-graders were
"proficient" in history, which officials say should be the goal for all
students. The data also showed that American students are weaker in history than
in math, reading or science, the other subjects tested.

Nearly two-thirds of fourth-graders and a slightly smaller percentage of
eighth-graders possess at least a "basic" knowledge of history, which is a
slight improvement from 1994, when the national history test was last conducted.
But only 43% of American high school seniors could demonstrate even a "basic"
knowledge level, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

Shown a depiction of the Boston Tea Party, only 35% of fourth-graders knew that
it led to the American Revolution and only 51% of fourth-graders were aware that
differing views about slavery in the South and the North was a cause of the
Civil War.

The motivation of the nation's founders in adding the Bill of Rights to the
Constitution (fear that the new government would deny civil liberties) was
correctly identified by only 54% of eighth-graders.

Less than half of high school seniors (48%) knew that the Soviet Union was a
U.S. ally in World War II.

"Our ability to defend--intelligently and thoughtfully--what we as a nation hold
dear depends on our knowledge and understanding of what we hold dear," said
Diane Ravitch, a prominent historian and a member of the NAEP advisory board.
"That can only be achieved through learning the history we share, and clearly
far too many high school seniors have not learned even a modest part of it."

U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige said the questions that "stumped so many
students involve the most fundamental concepts of our democracy, our growth as a
nation and our role in the world."

-- continued --

The test was given to a nationally representative sample of 29,000 students in
the three grades.

Educators blamed many factors for the weak showing. Some said the nation's focus
on raising test scores in reading and math has led many elementary school
teachers to give short shrift to history. Others said that many teachers' own
knowledge of history is weak and that few resources are devoted to professional
development. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 54% of
high school history teachers neither majored nor minored in history in college.
That's the highest percentage of teachers teaching beyond their expertise of any
subject except physics.

Ruben Zepeda, a Van Nuys teacher who won a $1-million federal grant to improve
history instruction in Los Angeles, said the poor test scores reflect the "low
priority" it gets from policymakers.

Since freshmen show up without a foundation in history, high school teachers
have to start from scratch. "School districts, administrators and education
reformers have placed such a great emphasis on English language arts and math it
seems that's the only thing they care about," Zepeda said. The history test was
designed to measure students' understanding of the broad themes that have shaped
the nation rather than specific names or dates. The fact that many students
graduate from high school unable to do either is obvious to college professors
saddled with teaching beginning courses.

But UCLA history professor Gary B. Nash questioned the validity of the NAEP
test. He noted that biographies of such Revolutionary War figures as John and
Abigail Adams are bestsellers, the History Channel is popular and 700,000
middle- and high-school students a year complete in-depth research projects for
National History Day.

"Kids are absorbing an awful lot more, the textbooks are better and they're
teaching at a higher level than when I was in high school 50 years ago," Nash
said.

Still, he said, "I'm not sure we should even expect 18-year-olds to remember
dates and facts and names and places if there's no practical use for that
knowledge."

If you want other stories on this topic, search the Archives at
latimes.com/archives. For information about reprinting this article, go to
www.lats.com/rights.

Just goes to show, the govt. education system does it's job well.......

Those who fail to study history are doomed to repeat it.

Those who simply fail history have been condemned by our liberal government schools to allow this country to spiral further downward into the pits of socialism and fascism.

We should ban these incompetent history teachers.  It's for the children.

[;)]

the_reject

Seriously we should.  One of the best things I ever did was take 10th grade history via independent study rather than the regular year long session of busywork and BS.  I had to take a foreign language and my parents wanted me in band at the same time so I didn't have enough time slots for everything.  Luckily that qualified me for the independent study option.  Now, because of grad standards, everyone is forced to take it the regular way despite any scheduling conflicts.  The further from the local community that these policy decisions are made, the worse it gets.

Ahhh, the state of Education!

I know people in their forties and fifties who have never heard of the Batan Death March.  Japanese schools don't even mention it in their  schools.

If the majority of the kids failed, then by definition the majority of the schools have failed.

My kid won't fail, and if she does it will be my fault, not the school.

Public education -- the WORST education that money can buy.

Supporting the idea of public education is the one error I have trouble forgiving Thomas Jefferson for.  It's a disaster in practice because it's immoral in principle.  

Unfortunately we're stuck with public education because the NEA is too powerful and they mail a TON of money to political candidates each and every election.

[puke]

- CD

[sarcasm on]
But they DO know how to put a condom on a cucumber!

The only history they need to know is that a bunch of old, white, greedy, slave-owning men started this racist nation and that immigrants and minorities have been improving it ever since.
[sarcasm off]


Ignorant, illiterate, full-of-attitude mooks and midriffs - the future of the Republic lies in their hedonistic hands.

When I took American history in high school 3 years ago, I got an A so I am not bringing down the curve.  I'd be willing toadmit that the dumb kids are in the city for the most part.  No offense.

Keving67

Translation: Sheeple don't need to know history to pay taxes.
[:E]

Looks like revisionist isn't sticking too well.
Only 51% (which is 51% TOO many) believe in it.
Let's teach REAL history and see if the numbers inprove.

About 5 years ago, my little brother spent a month at high school studying the holocaust.  Sorry, but that is another country's history.  I wish the media would stop trying to make it ours.

And no, he had never heard of the Articles of Confederation or the Federalist Papers.

It is not just Americans.  I was driving through Canada during the Gulf War, and a survey of Canadian HS students found a huge percentage that thought George Bush Senior was their PRESIDENT!

That's funny! I always liked History class, and did well in it{A}. I even went to Public SCREWl.