Friday, December 14, 2012

History: In Ignorance We Trust

And I would add to Mr. Egan's thesis that we will not produce good policymakers and strategists without the study of History (and military theory, geography, operational art, and strategy)
V/R
Dave

DECEMBER 13, 2012, 8:15 PM
In Ignorance We Trust
A packet of letters arrived the other day from the honors English class at St. Lawrence School in Brasher Falls, N.Y. Snail mail, from high school sophomores? Yes, and honest, witty and insightful snail mail at that. They had been forced to read a book of mine.

"Personally, I don't like reading about history or learning about it," wrote one student, setting the tone for the rest of the class.

"The Dust Bowl? Really?" So began another missive. "When we heard we were reading your book...heads dropped. Let me rephrase that, heads fell to the floor and rolled down the hallway.

You get the drift: history is a brain freeze. And, writers of history, well, there's a special place with the already-chewed gum in nerd camp for them. But as I read through the letters I was cheered. Some of the last survivors of the American Dust Bowl were high school sophomores when they were hit with the nation's worst prolonged environmental disaster. In that 1930s story of gritty resilience, the Brasher Falls kids of 2012 found a fresh way to look at their own lives and this planet.


History is always utilitarian, and often entertaining. It stirs the blood of any lover of the past to see Steven Spielberg's majestic "Lincoln" - at its core, a drama about politicians with ZZ Top beards writing legislation - crush the usual soulless, computer-generated distractions at the box office.

But history, the formal teaching and telling of it, has never been more troubled. Two forces, one driven by bottom-line educators answering to corporate demands to phase out the liberal arts, the other coming from the circular firing squad of academics who loathe popular histories, have done much to marginalize our shared narratives.

David McCullough, the snowy-headed author and occasional national scold, says we are raising a generation of Americans who are historically illiterate. He cites Harry Truman's line that the only new thing in the world is the history you don't know. And today, in part by design, there's a lot of know-nothingness throughout the land. Only 12 percent of high school seniors are "at or above proficient" in American history, which, of course, doesn't mean they're stupid.
(Continued at the link below):

2 comments:

  1. I admit, I was that child or teen bored in history class back in the 1980s, yet, I loved contemporary historical fiction written for teenagers. I have vivid memories of reading books about "plucky" young people, each book set during a particular event, like the Gold Rush or St. Louis World's Fair. I loved to read but the textbooks were so dry....

    And I even competed in our junior high History Day competitions (statewide)! We interviewed a former "Zeigfeld girl" because my classmate and I had seen an old black-and-white movie on television and became fascinated, as teenage girls, with the fashion and glamour of that period. It wasn't so frivolous a topic. We learned a lot.

    Popular histories aren't so bad....

    ReplyDelete
  2. This was a great article, but it would have cut a broader swathe and resonated with more people if it had not descended into political finger pointing. The facts speak for themselves; still it's opinion.
    Teaching and learning history can be engaging and fun, but it depends on the teacher and the materials. Here is a link to a high school teacher using one of our 'family friendly' documentaries, in and out of the classroom.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96u732rwKyU

    “Study History, study history. In history lie all the secrets of statecraft.”
    Winston Churchill

    ReplyDelete

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