I was reading Flags Of Our Fathers today and a few teens sitting next to me pointed to the cover and asked, "Where did that happen?"

I told them about the flag raising at Iwo Jima and they'd never heard of it...



The next day I showed another group the cover and asked, "Do you know where and what this is?"




The group around me was silent and finally someone chimed in:

Everyone here knows that picture is from the Revolutionary War...

I did not say a word...

Quoted: I am surrounded by MORONS!

never mind

Everyone here knows that picture is from the Revolutionary War...

Did you slap them upside the head?

Shooter, edumacate those intellectually challenged
individuals who eventually will be the voting bloc of the future.

Sad.

Quoted: Everyone here knows that picture is from the Revolutionary War... Did you slap them upside the head?

Nope, it's against school policy to strangle someone...

I'm afraid almost all hope is lost on too many of them born since the '60s. Many of them don't care and are not interested in the slightest. Combine that with the revisionists of our country's history and this is what we get.

Very sad.

I feel your pain.
Professor asked what happened today (January 17th, 2006)
Most had no idea, or answered with a very wrong answer.
A few people wrote down "BF's birthday"
Still fewer wrote down "BF's 300th birthday"
I, being a smartass, wrote "BF's 300th bday and 225th anniversary of the battle of cowpens"
Professor read my answer out loud, some joker in front of me says "cowpens? wtf is that some kind of lord of the rings stuff?

They only know what they're taught.  Reading is a lost art.

Quoted: Hk, please give my compliments to your parents. You are a fine yourg man i feel honored to have met at our shoot. Your going to do well.

Thanks I appreciate the compliments!

If there is another GA AL hometown shoot, I'll ask my father if we can make it...

That 1919 and the steel targets were pretty fun!

I'll bring ammo next time...

Well they may not be by definition "morons" but they are most certainly quite ignorant.

I told this to my father and he had something similar happen...

He is a retired Navy pilot and someone asked if he was "There" when they dropped the bomb on Hiroshima...

Yeah, I really really wonder what the hell they ARE teaching in the history classes in most high schools these days.  I have yet to meet a person under 30 who could name more than 1 or 2 of the belligerents in wwII.  Usually they are also stumped by the word belligerent...

I suppose they are all experts on black history though...  

Quoted: Yeah, I really really wonder what the hell they ARE teaching in the history classes in most high schools these days.  I have yet to meet a person under 30 who could name more than 1 or 2 of the belligerents in wwII.  Usually they are also stumped by the word belligerent... I suppose they are all experts on black history though...

HK Shooter is black, by the way.

Quoted: I was reading Flags Of Our Fathers today and a few teens sitting next to me pointed to the cover and asked, "Where did that happen?" I told them about the flag raising at Iwo Jima and they'd never heard of it... The next day I showed another group the cover and asked, "Do you know where and what this is?" images.barnesandnoble.com/images/9810000/9817766.jpg The group around me was silent and finally someone chimed in: Everyone here knows that picture is from the Revolutionary War... I did not say a word...

Why not? There's a lot to American history and not of all it gets taught.

They don't teach Geography nor History any more.

They teach Social Studies.  Therein lies the problem.

I'm sorry.  I didn't mean that as a slam on blacks, who certainly have a rich history.  I was just saying that the schools seem to be leaving out a LOT and picking and choosing politically correct subject matter to teach instead.

Either that or they are just flat out not doing their jobs at all!

It's amazing that we do not have more drowning deaths from these people looking up during a rain storm.



Very sad...

Heck, the only people on my campus who know what a Zero, a Panzer, or Midway are the history majors and people with WWII games. And half of them had to think about it.

This is the stuff that was supposed to never be forgotten. WTF happened?

At first I thought you were going to say you were vacationing in Utah, but then I re-read the title.

Not surprised. In high school, a lot of people didn't even know what happened on December 7, 1941. Can you believe that?

Fuck, Shooter, I feel your pain man. I am surrounded by idiots who don't have the patriotic backbone to even sit straight. Sadly its becoming an issuing in schools across the states, for some stupid reason they just don't value the history and pain this country has gone through.


Pathetic to say the least.

To quote Sean Hannity,

"These are the people who are going to cancel out your well informed vote."

It is nearly impossible to understand current political and social issues without understanding the history of our nation and the events that defined our current time.

On the Fourth of July, I am amazed by how many people do not know what event happened on that day and why we celebrate it. Most just think of it as "the Fourth".

Quoted: The group around me was silent and finally someone chimed in: Everyone here knows that picture is from the Revolutionary War... I did not say a word...

No! Everyone knows that's wrong. If it was about the Revolutionary War it would have been titled Flags of our Forefathers.


Duuhh....

Bump

On "Man on the Street Thursday" on Sean Hannity's show, one of the questions was who did we fight in WWII.  Someone answered, put concisely, that we fought the Veitnamese in Korea during WWII.

Quoted: They only know what they're taught.  Reading is a lost art.

There is a reason dictatorships thrive in illiterate nations.

It all scares the hell out of me.
HK-you sound like a fine young man,and are to be commended.We need more like you.

Us? We're homeschooling ours.They WILL learn what's important.

Quoted: Quoted: They only know what they're taught.  Reading is a lost art. There is a reason dictatorships thrive in illiterate nations.

Cutting the people off from their history removes much meaning from their lives.  All that's left is the "now" and the future and that is manipulated by government and corporations every single second of the day.  Those that are described in this thread are the type that don't give a fuck about anything but their needs right this second and obtaining some future that media has told them they must have in order to be "successful".

Anyone with that mindset is prime sheeple material and can be manipulated with frightening ease.

One only has to look around and see that at least half the country falls into that category now.

Yup, I have VERY little optimism that things are going to get better before it all goes black.

Quoted: Quoted: Everyone here knows that picture is from the Revolutionary War... Did you slap them upside the head? Nope, it's against school policy to strangle someone...

Then you haven't been doing your job!!!

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: They only know what they're taught.  Reading is a lost art. There is a reason dictatorships thrive in illiterate nations. Cutting the people off from their history removes much meaning from their lives.  All that's left is the "now" and the future and that is manipulated by government and corporations every single second of the day.  Those that are described in this thread are the type that don't give a fuck about anything but their needs right this second and obtaining some future that media has told them they must have in order to be "successful". Anyone with that mindset is prime sheeple material and can be manipulated with frightening ease. One only has to look around and see that at least half the country falls into that category now. Yup, I have VERY little optimism that things are going to get better before it all goes black.

This about how I see it, unfortunately.

1984 was just a few decades off, that's all.

Yeah, but all those kids know how to put a comdom on a banana. They also know that capitalism is evil, all white men are racist, and George Bush will cause the end of the earth.

Quoted: I'm afraid almost all hope is lost on too many of them born since the '60s. Many of them don't care and are not interested in the slightest. Combine that with the revisionists of our country's history and this is what we get. Very sad.

I hate to remind you of how old you are but high school students today were born in the 90s!

Quoted: Worse, future liberals libtards.

Fixed it for ya!  

Amazing...I did know about the flag-raising growing up even BEFORE I joined the Corps, and my Dad was both an Army and Navy Vet from WWII. Thankfully, my daughter (who is 12 next month) would have answered the question correctly....but I doubt it would have been from being taught it at school already.

No Expert

Not only do many kids find history boring, they see no reason for them to study it. It won't lead to a high paying job or benefit them financially.

Ever since the 60's, history starts shortly after you are born.

That's dissapointing.

I stood on that spot during my stint, moving to say the least.

HK,

Great choice of books! I too finally got around to reading it just last fall and could not put it down. I was angry that I hadn't read it much sooner.

I hope Clint Eastwood does a good job on the movie version of it and it doesn't get hollyweirded. This is the only way that this history lesson can be taught in this day & age.

My son is 16 and they watched "The Longest Day" in his H.S. class. I was really happy to hear that but I didn't find out until I wanted him to sit down and watch it with me. He said "they watched it over the course of three days and the disscussed it not much else".

So some of this heritage is being taught, by a select few teachers, but they have to use the video medium to do it.

I also read that Clint is doing the Japanese side of the Iwo story at the same time in a seperate film so it may well turn into two films worth watching.

Who knows

Quoted: Not only do many kids find history boring, they see no reason for them to study it. It won't lead to a high paying job or benefit them financially.

so we're left to blame either the parents of these unmotivated kids or the schools they attend.

I already know what this board's choice is.

I believe every bit of it. In my AP History class some of the dumbasses didnt even guess when the teacher was talking about WWII, I was dumbfounded that I was the only one raising their hand on everyother question (On some topics) and answering for them.

HK Glad to hear your not a dumbass like most of us teenagers (an assumption that you are).

Carter.

Quoted: I was reading Flags Of Our Fathers

How did you like the book? I've been looking for a good read...

Is that Iwo jima?  i read somewhere that itwas propaganda....That it took place on a differnt hill.  Im not trying to trash this thread....I read the same thing about the "charge up San Juan Hill" was a different hill with less 'appeal' .  I dunno.....why should I keep reading.....

My 14 year old sister's friend laughed at me because I read books, and he wanted to know how I could do that since it's so BORING! Amazing, just amazing. I guess being ignorant is cool these days.

Theya re surrounding you cuz they consider you their leader.

Quoted: Yeah, I really really wonder what the hell they ARE teaching in the history classes in most high schools these days.  I have yet to meet a person under 30 who could name more than 1 or 2 of the belligerents in wwII.  Usually they are also stumped by the word belligerent... I suppose they are all experts on black history though...

Well I can tell you what they were teaching when I was in high school, that and I shit you not President Rosevelt knew about Pearl Harbor, and it was a consperacy to get us into the war, this was not just the rantings of the teacher who believed it whole hartedly but it's WHAT WAS IN THE TEXTBOOK!!!!, and thats not all I called it "revisionist history class", because thats what it was it was nothing but Liberal Revisionist history, with quite a bit of consperiacy theorys, I ofcourse raised my hand and challenged it all the time but like I said the teacher was a true believer....  For instence she insisted that Kristalnaight (spelling?) meant Crystal night, and thats what she called it, I explained that it translated to the night of broken glass, and explained why she refused to believe me, and shot me down, and according to her the Nazis NEVER used Zyclon B, (and she repeatedly regaled us of storys of her trips to Germany to the concentrationcamps....)....

At one point the book showed a picture of the mushroom cloud over Hiroshima (It was the tital page for the World War 2 chapter, useing Hiroshima as the iconic image of World War 2....), and she asked the class if anyone could identify it, most of the class thought it was a Volcano, I was the ONLY ONE who knew what it was.... (As I recall we spent maybe 1 or 2 weeks out of the entire year on World War 2, 80% of the year was the "reconstruction" of the South after the civil war, and most of the rest was about the Great Depresion, and the "wonderful" New Deal....)

One of the students in one of my other classes didn't even know who Hitler was, her exact words were as I recall something to the effect of, and I quote "Who was Hitler?, and why was he such a bad guy?"....

And your right about Black history, the entire school devoted the entire month of Febuary, and most of January, and March, teaching nothing BUT Black History, most of it complete B.S., for example did you know that the Blacks invented the airplane, electricity, the lightbulb, and the car, and everything else and if wasn't for the blacks we would be living in caves?....

The wonderful Public School system....

Oh and by the way the major combatents were:

Allies:

United States

Great Britain

Canada

Australia

France

Soviet Union

Axis:

Germany

Japan

Italy (who later switched sides....)

For simplicity I've left out the lesser players like Finland (Axis....), and Norway, and Belgium (Allies....), just to name a few, and restricted it to the main Players....

we're doomed

Quoted: I told this to my father and he had something similar happen... He is a retired Navy pilot and someone asked if he was "There" when they dropped the bomb on Hiroshima...

Did that person compliment him on how good he looks for a 90 year-old?