Fox and CNN Show That American Colleges Are Not teaching History or Civics

These are clips from CNN and Fox telling about a study from the Intercollegiate Studies Institute showing that elected officials know less than average people on a basic civics and history exam. The study also shows that people with college degrees do no better than high schoolers.

It gets better; those who go to Ivy League schools do even worse. In previous years studies the freshman at Ivy League colleges scored better than the seniors.

While most colleges have a mandatory civics and history class as part of the general education curriculum, these studies prove that they are not effective.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• civics
• history
• politics

[CosmoShidan]

Do Americans study world history other than their own?

[TalkerOne]

Heck, they dont even teach US history worth a damn. Cant make the USA socialist if we know too much history (truth) so they dont teach it. It's not politically correct.

[CosmoShidan]

@achammer Yes the K-12 American system is in need of change. Let's be thankful that in Canada European history is taught here as well as Mesopotamian. 

[achammer]

@CosmoShidan yes i thibk you should learn more about European history then American history when you atar off because thats where it all comes from

[CosmoShidan]

@achammer I was informed that world history is taught in college. Isn't that surprising?!

[achammer]

can an american tell me if world/eropean history is taught in grade and high school it is in canada and i think it would be insane if only amercain history is taught in school everything about amerca and its history has is base in eropean and western history amercain history spans 300 years western history 5000 years it would be like being taught how to do long division before u understand the basics of numbers and adding

[eidius1989]

2500 is a pretty small margin of survey

[CosmoShidan]

TalkerOne: What's learning history have to do with Socialism?

[sggeiger]

I'm a history teacher. What's scary is not that people can't identify the correct document--what IS scary is that we can no longer tell the difference between trivia and what really counts. It doesn't matter as much to know which document--but it matters a lot to know what these words mean and how they have shaped our nation! History can teach critical thinking--the very skills that are required to see through empty "news" like this. Although both kinds of knowledge are lacking.

[CosmoShidan]

That's terrible! How do they get into power? History lays the foundation for politics, let alone Civil service, Journalism, Library, Museum work, Business, Law, and Law-enforcement. Also, what about Eastern philosophy.

[namenderkrieg]

CosmoShidan: Well, based on personal observation, I would say that Americans don't even study their own history, let alone that of other peoples.

Thus, we have a large number of pols who are ignorant of American history, world history, Western philosophy, and the American constitutional tradition. This is too bad: the answers to our present and future problems lie right there, in the writings and experiences of the Founding Fathers.

[CosmoShidan]

Pre-history to ancient history should be taught in grade 7, medivel in grade 8, modern in grade 9 and 12. That would give a better understanding of the world. In fact, that's how it's organized in Canada.