An argument for an education in the liberal arts; specifically, history and literature (and philosophy and politics): http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20160929-our-iqs-have-never-been-higher-but-it-hasnt-made-us-smart
The lack of increase in better judgement (due to lack of attention to history and people inevitably dying) has major current ramifications.
Great article, thanks for posting! I thought my education in history was really lacking, but our kids receive even less–especially if they don’t take AP US and AP Euro. Kids today really need to grapple with political philosophies and read the great thinkers in order to understand the US and other countries, yet they don’t. And if they don’t take honors or AP English courses, in our school district their reading selections are pretty shallow and sensationalist.
I was telling a twenty-something about a story from 1945, and she asked, “Um, was that World War II?” Ack! Why wouldn’t that information be ingrained in her?? At least she guessed right, I suppose.
I am biased but I don’t think there is a more important basic subject for every single person than history. And history taught well and accurately- not ingrained dates or glossing over atrocities.
Every year here on CC there are students taking APUSH who panic around April because their history class has only covered events though, say, a bit after WWII. So, kids who have taken “US History” but have not learned about the Vietnam War, Kent State, the space race, Watergate, Reagan, fall of the Berlin Wall, …
It’s sad.
Right now I’m upset that so many millennials don’t understand the effect that Ralph Nader’s 3rd party candidacy had on the Bush v. Gore race.
When my kids were in school, I thought I would SCREAM if they covered the Revolutionary War one more time!! They should have all been experts in the field after three or four times of that. I don’t think any of them got to the Vietnam War.
@MaineLonghorn Geography. Ours didn’t cover the Revolutionary War so often. It was all about Native American medicines and building the chain of California Missions…every year–doing plays, building models of missions, etc. Aargh!
California has some really interesting and relevant political history related to the way its constitution is structured and related to water rights. But, that was all after the Gold Rush, and covering all the different ways of mining gold is sooo important.
The adequate coverage of critical issues and topics in history and other fields is more on the teacher and the pace set by the average students for a given class*.
If the teacher fails to pace the class adequately whether due to inexperience, favoring certain topics, being distracted by maintaining classroom order to maintain an environment conducive to learning, or the class falling behind due to the average students needing extra time to cover/understand a topic, it’s very possible for a class to fall behind regardless of whether it’s labeled AP or not.
This very issue is one reason why some high schools could have students getting As in the course and scoring less than a 3 on the AP exam whereas other high schools have B and even C/D students who can score 4s and 5s on the same exam.
Another (and imo more important) reason is that these days everyone is taking APs. I know kids with 5 APs at the same time who have never read a book for pleasure. It’s laughable that whey they get 3s they’re surprised–as if they’re somehow qualified to write good essays without having interacted with the discourse in any meaningful way.