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The tests, known as the National Assessment of Educational Progress, divide achievement levels into basic, proficient and advanced. The 2006 history assessment had the highest percentage of 12th-grade students scoring below basic of any subject tested in 2005 and 2006. And only 1 percent of students at any grade level scored at the advanced level....this report is not anything to break out the Champagne over, said Theodore K. Rabb, a professor of history at Princeton who advocates devoting more classroom time to the subject.
<p>I think some have decided that it's easier to re-write history than to have it taught properly. That snark aside, historical ignorance is staggering and embarrassing. You can't understand where you are as a country or a society until you understand where you've come from. Whether it's the Civil Rights Movement or the Thirty Years War, there are things one should know if one is attempting to make sense of the world.</p>
<p>Someone once asked me if I was a history buff...I said, no, I read about it with my clothes on.</p>