I was watching NBC's Nightly News last night and they ran this story about how elementry and high school kids were increasingly becoming dumber (my words, not theirs) when it comes to the subject of History, particularly US History.
As a History-minor, I'm not all that surprised. Saddened, but not surprised. While I was going thru school, earning that end of my minor I was increasingly finding other students who's concept of US History was "loose" at best. Here's why are current crop of America's Next Leaders are sucking at History:
First, there's too much emphasis on Tested Subjects:
It's no secret, ask anyone who teaches grades 1-12 in a public school setting: all the focus is on getting kids to pass the state-mandated tests to ensure teachers are doing their jobs. Whole curriculum is overhauled at grades 4, 8 and 12 to meet the so-called "standards" for public school students. This curriculum is usually heavy in reading and mathematics, because that's what's expected to appear on the tests. So is there any surprise that subjects like art, history, and science all take a back seat to a teacher's personal career self-preservation? This leads us to number 2....
Kids are getting less than 2 hours a week of history lessons.
To make room for all the writing, reading and math lessons (I've heard reports that some schools actually double-up on these subjects... 75 minute periods oppose to 40 minute classes for these subjects ONLY) other classes get cut back. Why? There's the emphasis on the "important" test subjects but kids in public schools are usually woefully behind for their grade level in reading, writing and math, so teachers, say in 8th grade, need to go back and re-teach fundamentals to their kids so they can teach them the current state-mandated curriculum. Why is this so? Why aren't kids in public schools learning the fundamentals of these subjects when their taught, at the earlier grades? Because.....
Public schools suck.
Yes, I went to a public school and it was ok, but it also wasn't in a major city. I lived in NYC for about three years and I can tell you first hand, none of the parents I knew dared put their kid in public schools. Public schools are toilets of learning. Yes, few children will rise to the top of the bowl, but most of the kids there are sinkers waiting to be flushed. So is it any wonder that our children cannot rightfully identify a photo of Abraham Lincoln by grade 8 (a fact brought up in the Nightly News story)?
Why History is important:
Teaching History to kids is important because it gives us a frame work for our national identity. How "we" became the United States is an important aspect to every day living. History also helps shape who we will be as we get older, how we'll vote, shop, travel, etc. Understanding where we've been as a nation is important because without it, we will not know how to go forward as one.
History, our history, is a blueprint to building our future ruins. And we're losing our grasp on our identity.
By the end of the story, I was left with this empty feeling. I knew that the story skewed towards scandalous sensationalism; the public school avenue- and wasn't a true representation of our children's ability to comprehend our history, and like all people, children fall into one of two categories: math/science kids and language/history kids. Maybe the producers interviewed every kid in the classroom and only used the results on-air from the kids who are math/science proficient? It's possible.
It seems like for the last few years around late spring/early summer, a slew of media put out stories describing what a bleak job market is lined up for recent or soon-to-be college graduates. Since about 2005 (coincidentally when I graduated with my BA) television, newspapers, websites, etc have painted this picture of pessimism for the future leaders of the country.
"There's no jobs!"
"These fertile young minds will be forced back into a world of retail!"
"Isn't there anything we can do!"
Yeah, you can shut the fuck up.
Look grads, let me sit you down for a second and explain how the world works: When you graduate college, no one expects you to have a "career" lined up. And I'm defining "career" in traditional terms, like a job you're going to work five days a week for the next 20 to 25 years, receive benefits, etc. Some of you may find "jobs" which are gigs you'll work for 2-5 years before you come to some sort of epiphany while seated at your tiny desk in a cube farm and realize this is not what you want to spend the rest of your life doing, and have a quarter-life crisis as a result.
No grads, most of you.... dare I say 80-90% of you, will move back in with mom and dad and spend the summer "looking for jobs" which will inevitably bleed over into the fall. You'll be shell-shocked to find yourself still unemployed at a time when you, for the last nearly 20 years, have been your most productive.
One of two things will happen: you'll either go on unemployment and fall into deep depression, or you'll settle for that job listing on Craigslist and fall into deep depression when you realize there's no way for you to get your own place, pay all your mounting bills (mom and dad are going to cut off your cell phone, car insurance, health insurance, gas money, etc) and maintain that comfy social life all on a $10/hr "job."
To compound things, your $100K four year degree, you learn, doesn't mean shit in the real world... all the "careers" you apply for, touting your newly minted bachelors, you find, are being filled internally by guys with only "some college experience" who went to work for the company the moment they left high school, four years ago.
It's all about who you know and experience, sadly. No one hires a 22 year old kid straight out of college, with his degree, who knows nothing about how the company works. This has ALWAYS been the case.
So what do you do? Do you roll your diploma up and smoke that cheap skunk weed you're forced to now buy? Do you go eat a barrel at 1 am in the Kmart's parking lot?
No. You buck the fuck up.
It gets better, you just have to give it time. EVERYONE, except maybe for a privileged few, is going through the same thing you're going thru.
When I graduated college in '05 I only had a few options lined up, and they all fell thru within weeks of each other. I was forced to pack my shit and move back home, which was soul crushing. It's taken me nearly five years of hard work in various avenues to land someplace (just now) that's putting my degree to work. And even then, it was a host of other experiences that really put me over the top.
So my advice to recent grads entering our so-called "job market": wait it out. Every guy you see working today, in some way, shape or form, has gone through what you're going to be going through and their better for it. You're like, 21, 22.... enjoy being young and free, without adult obligations. Even kids who graduated from places like Harvard, Yale and Vassar tend to couch it out for a while and take "jobs" they don't really want to take, just to survive.
You're no where near rock bottom, trust me. It's not you're turning tricks on Craigstlist. Yet.
I take this class at school in US Govt. It's not that I don't know anything about how our government operates, quite on the contrary. But because I prefer not to stress myself out during my second college experience, I load my schedule with classes that are essentially no brainers. I pretty much show up, do the reading, take the tests, write the papers and pass with high marks.
So I'm sitting in this class yesterday and the discussion of political apathy comes up. The scourge of American Politics in the 20th century was the simple fact that the American people became disillusioned with the political machine. After the Nixon, Ford and Carter Administrations thru the late 1960s and into the 80s, Americans collectively could not give two shits about what happened in the Beltway.
And can you blame them? No longer could they trust what was supposed to be the most trusted position in the country. They were being lied to about a war no one wanted anything to do with, being lied about where their money was going, being lied to who was really in charge of the country.
So people just ... unplugged from the machine.
The 80s and the "New America" or "America's Re-Awakening" with Ronald Regan changed all that, along with Clinton, the Second Bush, and the current Obama administration, and suddenly people were becoming politically aware again. So aware, that anyone sitting in my government class will not hesitate to tell you their misinformed and utterly ridiculous personal opinion on America, politics and the president.
The class is comprised of a wide slice of Americana; there's old ladies and Eastern European immigrants, and white guys and black girls... it's a fucking United Colors of Benetton ad or a carefully chosen focus group, minus the one-way mirror in the back of the room. So everyone has an opinion, a fear, a need to be heard.
And don't get it mistaken, politics is a nasty river to navigate; there's a lot of emotionally charged topics that lead people to become indignant in defense of their personal beliefs. This, obviously, leads to spirited debates, which will always put a smile on my face. As long as people CARE ENOUGH to debate a topic, there's hope for America.
But when we got on to the topic of why people are still somewhat apathetic towards the American political system, I was stunned at what I heard. The following are some notes I took while other classmates were talking:
Politics are boring. They should make it more like "American Idol."
Valid point, as Americans are more likely to vote and vote often for a candidate seeking the title of "America's Idol" than the President of the United States, and I'm even taking Chicago 1960 into account as well. Why are people more attached to some 20-something with a guitar and a dream than a 40 year old who holds the codes to launch a full-on nuclear holocaust?
It's all about packaging.
"American Idol" is glitzy and the thing to talk about the next morning around the water cooler because people can understand it with little effort. They see a performance and they can tell immediately if it was good or bad, or in the very least repeat some analysis they heard from a radio dj on their way into work that morning. With politics, you have to know what you're talking about, and pay attention. It's also real-fucking-life you're talking about, not some meaningless talent show where the winner will be a big "who?" in a matter of months following his success.
With politics, you have to take a stance with something, or at least you're expected to. With "American Idol" your stance can be as base as "I like her hair" or "they sang 'good'" there's little to no accountability for your beliefs.
I wish I knew more about the political system, like, if there was a show I could watch...
This comment stunned me. Dude, do you not have cable? I mean, we don't have cable but, I know there's like, a million Cable News Networks, including CNN, which is literally the Cable News Network which do nothing but pump popular opinions into people's sensory. Like, dude, sit down for half an hour and absorb.
But I liken cable news to fast food; it's fast food for your brain. While fast food for your stomach will do it's job; take away your hunger, sustain you for the time being, taste kinda good, too much of it will rot your insides. The same can be said for cable news, especially in a political manner.
I make it a point not to pay much attention to what politics cable news happen to be waving on any given day, but I will turn half a deaf ear towards it, just because it's there, similar to how if you ordered a burger and fries, I might snatch a fry or two, because that's my duty as an American given the situation. But sadly, like the fast food epidemic in this country, the majority of people are gorging themselves on fast, non-nourishing, baseless, biased politic punditry every night for dinner, and coming into work the next day brain sick, regurgitating what they heard from Glenn Beck or Keith Olberman as fact.
People, please, there are better alternatives to feed your political appetite. You simply have to go out, work a little bit, just like a wholesome meal. In the end, you'll be fuller, more appreciative, and less likely to puke up rhetoric the next morning.
I wish politicians would just say what they mean....
Ah, yes, the bane of politics around the world. Hunny, a politician will NEVER say what he means, because he's a salesman at heart. Here, he's trying to sell you him or herself or an idea or someone else's idea. It's all about packaging.
If you went to go buy an expensive home appliance and the salesman told you plainly that the machine would only work for you for 190 days a year, or you had to be a white male to really reap the full benefits of the machine, would you buy it (not withstanding, you're a white male)? Of course you wouldn't. If a politician told you the same thing, would you vote for him or her? My guess is probably not.
With politics as a whole, the reward comes from paying attention, learning to read between the lines (I mis-typed "lines" and typed "lies" instead, I think I should've kept it) and developing a commercial grade Bullshit Detector. If you simply only hear what's being said on the surface, you're not getting the full idea of the political system. This takes time and patience and you can't just expect to jump into the middle of things and understand what's going on right off the bat. It's complex and all the double-speak only makes it more so.
Take your favorite drama, be it "The Sopranos" or any other soap opera. Let's say you've been hearing all this wonderful stuff about it, and you decide you want to tune in one night. You watch an episode and you're like "I have no idea what's going on here, this is stupid..." and you turn it off. The reward here comes from doing your research and finding out who the characters and players are, what their back stories are, and how they're all related to each other. You know you would readily do this for some trashy tv show, so why not politics? Just because Tony's not having Mitch McDonald whacked down by the piers, doesn't make it less interesting.
There were more things said in that class, which caused my heart to literally break, including someone calling Jimi Hendrick's rendition of "The National Anthem" at Woodstock "disrespectful." On that, we live in a country where freedom of expression reigns over all.
Also, he didn't mess up the words. (Warning, prepare for a giant, Red White and Blue Boner ahead):
