Is this a failure of our schools? How does someone not know that Tories were conservative?

Question

Take a look at this question and scroll down to the answer from mfitz67. He says those loyal to the British Crown were the liberals revolutionaries, rather than the conservative Tories.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AtdyOm6FD08jEqh1CIFmX.vty6IX?qid=20070802183812AAcfRuM&show=7#profile-info-AA10986148

How do we improve our schools so as to eradicate the recurrence of this sort of ignorance?

Answer 1

The fact is most Americans of all generations and political beliefs seem to be fairly ignorant about history. The exceptions I've met are mostly self educated in the subject, so it does seem that our education system isn't doing a good job.

Consider where we get our teachers from below the high school level. I've had a lot of teachers as friends and from what I've picked up the education curriculum is heavy on how to teach and light on the actual material to be taught. So you might have an elementary teach who is supposed to teach American history, but hasn't studied it since high school.

The problem compounds itself. Without a foundation from the elementary grades, the high school teachers, who at least majored in the subject, are stuck rebuilding that foundation rather than building upon it. Yet these high school students are the next generation of teachers.

Without a solid background, the teacher is dependent on the textbook, and the material provided by the publisher. Most textbook writers at the elementary level aren't specialists in the field they're writing about. They tend to be English majors whose acquaintance with the subject is even sketchier than the teachers. A case of the blind leading the blind.

Perhaps we should have textbooks writen by specialists in the field the book covers. Increase the amount of study of the material to be taught, rather than courses on how to teach it. Lets have qualification exams that cover all the material that students should learn to insure that the teachers know it. As an aside, I don't remember the city it happened in, maybe New York, but the state came out with new fourth grade competency exams. They were given to the teachers and over 40% failed them. They included the kind of information you mentioned above. Most of these teachers had masters degrees in education.

I don't know how much can be changed, but I do know that when I help my daughter with her homework they're covering a lot less than I did back in the sixties and seventies.

Answer 2

It's not just a failure of our schools -- it's a basic failure of our society to teach people to actually think rationally.

The problem is, our schools teach by rote memorization -- they don't expect children to think for themselves -- that's actually discouraged. They teach children to just repeat back what they've heard verbatim.

So, is it any surprise the kids grow into adults that do the same -- just repeat back what they've heard verbatim without ever bothering to think about it...?

Answer 3

That's what the GOP likes to see, America dumbing down.

Answer 4

How is it that high school grads don't know that Communism is bad?