The dismal state of a vital subject

The key to good teaching is teaching kids how to write. The AP History exam does a beautiful job at this.

I would be happy if we taught teenagers about US History the way we teach them how to drive a car (something that could kill people)

They must have an signed afadavit that they studied so many hours with a state certified instructor; then they take a very rigorous AP Exam that emphasises writing.

Ugh... Delaware does not actually require students to KNOW any history, but merely understand it as an abstract concept? Why not take this idiocy a few steps further and say that kids don't actually need to know any english, science, or math, but only know about those subjects as abstract concepts?

Also, as a side-issue: what is this Brits versus Americans usage of "maths" versus "math"? Don't even try to tell me that the "ths" is somehow easier to roll off the tongue.

Americans' lack of knowledge of history and literature has been a constant for over a hundred years according to researchers of IQ like J.E Flynn. Most of us are no better at understanding "War and Peace" than our great grandparents. JFK and T. Roosevelt, I think, knew more about history than any recent president but never started a tradition of historical literacy among politicians. Sadly, cultivation of the humanities is not something either schools or colleges seem able to do with any discernible effect on the public at large. I think,perhaps, when a highly respected technocrat like Bill Gates says we are missing something in our ignorance will change begin.

It isn't just low standards.

The way that most high school curricula are structured, if a student is aiming for a career in engineering, science or business, the number of credits required in math, science and English means that there is often little or no room in the schedule for history, geography, languages, music, art, phys ed, or drama.

How can you expect a child to know much about history or geography if they dropped them after grade 8 or 9?

How can you expect children to learn much history when the people teaching them may not have much of a grounding in it either.

Similarly, why are we surprised that we have an epidemic of obesity and diabetes when most kids don't take Phys Ed after Gr. 10?

The lack of a rounded education eventually has an effect on the body politic. Democracies depend on an informed electorate.

So, dude, like, who needs history when we can watch Pocahontas on the Disney Channel? Awesome! And everyone knows Thanksgiving was when George Washington ate a turkey with some Indians and they showed him how to make smores...

Americas win half the patents and Nobel Prizes, yet American students don’t do well in international academic testing. Maybe it’s the testing, not the education that needs to be challenged. Academics are notoriously out of touch with the present since they often dwell on tradition.

History is how you see it. Hitler was a great historian, according to his contemporary Germans, because he believed passionately in his version of history, and made his other German countrymen believe in his vision of the past. Those who were not in concord with his version, perhaps, could have done their nation a service, by not making a hue and cry about it, but by being firmly anti-Hitler in historical opinion, nonetheless. I believe, opinion in pre-World War two Germany could have been reversed in this manner. Those against Hitler, were as vocal against him, as he was against them, or perhaps, they could not match him in full measure.

@ AdityaMookerjee
Sadly, all of the history students in Delaware don't know who this "Hitler" guy is that you talk about. I'm pretty sure they agree with your point on a conceptual, abstract level though.

South Carolina is being held up as a good example in education? We had better get to work improving our history curriculum.

The problem with history today is that there is more of it.

Whatever happens, don't let the kids read Gore Vidal's US Republic cycle of novels, especially not Burr...;o)

As for the rest of world history, the task at hand seems hopeless.

When a child comes home from school he or she needs mom and dad to ask what homework he or she has and then to prompt that child to get that work done. In other words, schooling is not just for school; it is not just a part-time job. I don't care whether it is history, math, science, literature, or any other subject a lot of work needs to be put into a child's schooling, and if children are not pushed, they are highly unlikely to get things done by themselves.
Today's parents are usually working all day long, especially single parents. Many people actually drive their children to school in the morning and pick them up at night. When they get home after work there are meals to cook and housework or repairs to do. When all that is finished they are tired and they either sit down to watch the T.V, or go to the computer or just relax. Sometimes they may take in a movie. Often they just simply need to lie down and rest. They do not have very much time for the children, but they are making enough money to afford a nice house and to buy the kids T.V.s, computers, and computer games. That keeps the kids busy so that they will not bother mom and dad.
So then, if the child does not do well at school, who is to blame? Why the teachers and the education system of course! Be it understood, I am not a teacher.

Don't blame Michele Bachmann. She got her degree law degree from Oral Roberts University. That was a bad choice on her part. However, Oral Roberts received most of his fortune from his discussion with an 800 foot high Jesus. Jesus told Roberts to buld a Univeristy Hospital and find the cure for cancer. Why Jesus di not just tell Roberts the cure for cancer was never resolved. However, Bachman learned from Roberts to never let logic obstuct unfounded beliefs.

Do I hopefully watch at long last that Americans acknowledge they don't know History??

Hallelujah!!

Will Geography be next?

Inshallah!

What about Britain joining in?

Not a chance, old boy!

@obenskik There is no Nobel Prize in History or Humanities, which is what this article is talking about. It even mentions how "Barack Obama stressed the importance of teaching science, technology and 21st-century skills".

Also, Americans win much less than half of Nobel Prizes.

On the question of teaching, what is the greatest challenge to the student? The mentioned challenge is to see the perception in learning true to himself.

Actually, the Americans are one of the highest Nobel Prize Laureates:

http://top-10-list.org/2011/02/20/the-most-nobel-prize-winners-countries/

@AdityaMookerjee -

I'm not sure if this is off-topic or at the heart of the topic - Hitler changed German from Fraktur (the Olde-English type letters) to Roman script. It made it easier for me to learn German; it was only later that I discovered the subsequent German generations were thereby separated from everything printed in German previously. Had he burned down the libraries, there would have been a hullabaloo - this went thru smooth and quietly - and impressively effectively.

This is just another symptom of the American education system's decay. (Which is especially harsh, as I consider myself an exception to the trend.)

With that in mind, I do wish to say this:
Without a true understanding of where a nation has come from, and how other cultures developed as well, how do you expect that same people to have any bearing on where to go in the future? It's like running in a hamster wheel.

There are certain advantages to being the world's dominant exporter of mainstream pop culture. Rather than improving educational standards at home, America might have a better shot at dragging down the rest of the world. Its exports of movies and TV shows steadily propagate historical misconceptions abroad.