A Generation Of Illiteramuses Is Showing Up At Colleges
Most college students think America invented slavery and many don't know that Jefferson was one of our Presidents, and not just a guy who owned slaves and did some other stuff, too.
So says a prof who gave them a quiz at the start of the school year to test their grasp of basic facts about American history and Western culture.
Kate Hardiman writes at The College Fix that Professor Duke Pesta has been giving this quiz for 11 years:
The most surprising result from his 11-year experiment? Students' overwhelming belief that slavery began in the United States and was almost exclusively an American phenomenon, he said."Most of my students could not tell me anything meaningful about slavery outside of America," Pesta told The College Fix. "They are convinced that slavery was an American problem that more or less ended with the Civil War, and they are very fuzzy about the history of slavery prior to the Colonial era. Their entire education about slavery was confined to America."
Pesta, currently an associate professor of English at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, has taught the gamut of Western literature--from the Classics to the modern--at seven different universities, ranging from large research institutions to small liberal arts colleges to branch campuses. He said he has given the quizzes to students at Purdue University, University of Tennessee Martin, Ursinus College, Oklahoma State University, and University of Wisconsin Oshkosh.
The origin of these quizzes, which Pesta calls "cultural literacy markers," was his increasing discomfort with gaps in his students' foundational knowledge.
"They came to college without the basic rudiments of American history or Western culture and their reading level was pretty low," Pesta told The Fix.
A friend who's a professor just posted that he can't take this anymore, saying that he never wanted to teach high school, and now he has students who come to college absent knowledge they would have picked up in high school -- or even middle school.
More on the findings of this test:
The questions asked students to circle which of three historical figures was a president of the United States, or to name three slave-holding countries over the last 2,000 years, or define "capitalism" and "socialism" in one sentence each.Often, more students connected Thomas Jefferson to slavery [than] could identify him as president, according to Pesta. On one quiz, 29 out of 32 students responding knew that Jefferson owned slaves, but only three out of the 32 correctly identified him as president. Interestingly, more students-- six of 32--actually believed Ben Franklin had been president.
Pesta said he believes these students were given an overwhelmingly negative view of American history in high school, perpetuated by scholars such as Howard Zinn in "A People's History of the United States," a frequently assigned textbook.
What's more, he began to observe a shift in his students' quiz responses in the early 2000s. Before that time, Pesta described his students as "often historically ignorant, but not politicized." Since the early 2000s, Pesta has found that "many students come to college preprogrammed in certain ways."
"They cannot tell you many historical facts or relate anything meaningful about historical biographies, but they are, however, stridently vocal about the corrupt nature of the Republic, about the wickedness of the founding fathers, and about the evils of free markets," Pesta said. "Most alarmingly, they know nothing about the fraught history of Marxist ideology and communist governments over the last century, but often reductively define socialism as 'fairness.'"
Pesta -- rightly -- is a critic of the increasingly SJW bent of the American and European history standards of Common Core and the Advanced Placement framework. Hardiman writes in another piece at The College Fix:
The new Advanced Placement European History framework has received a makeover that eliminates religion's influence on the development of Western Civilization, ignores Winston Churchill, whitewashes the evils of communism, and lauds the welfare state, according to David Randall with the right-of-center National Association of Scholars."The new curriculum omits the development of faith and freedom in European history and focuses on the development of the welfare state," Randall told The College Fix in a phone interview.
The association released a report authored by Randall this month titled "The Disappearing Continent" that claims the framework "warps and guts the history of Europe to make it serve today's progressive agenda."
Virtually all mention of religion in the 19th century is removed, and several key figures such as Christopher Columbus and Winston Churchill are not mentioned in the College Board's framework, Randall said.
What is really sad is that these "kids" have not been taught that the Age of Enlightenment of Europe broke the concentrated circles of power (men could and did whatever they wanted to those w/in their circle of power w/o fear of reprisal).
The Walking Dead tv show is more represented of their idea of reality than they know. They have no clue, none whatsoever, and no reason to doubt their "knowledge".
See the ME, Africa, the Vatican, and early America for examples. It's been a long battle and it should not be ignored. They think Stalin was a better person than Jefferson.
Bob in Texas at October 31, 2016 6:08 AM
If we're not teaching our college-bound students to appreciate Western Civilization, what are we teaching them to appreciate?
Conan the Grammarian at October 31, 2016 6:24 AM
They think Stalin killed fewer people than George W. Bush.
Conan the Grammarian at October 31, 2016 6:27 AM
It's almost over. A generation has been taught to believe in magic, and they will persist in believing in it even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Bob nailed it aobut our ruling elites. They, jealously desiring of living in a time when their class could do whatever it wanted with lower-caste people without repercussion, are undoing the Renaissance. Scientific and economic knowledge is disappearing, being buried under a mountain of superstition and legend.
A generation will be incapable of supporting itself, and will require cradle-to-grave financial, physical and emotional support. Trouble is, the havoc that they will wreak on the economy and the culture will destroy the means for providing same. As agriculture, transportation and medical care revert back to 18th-century technology, millions will die of starvation or treatable diseases. All that we know now will be lost. Hopefully, enough of it will remain in various forgotten and overlooked hidey-holes to be rediscovered, centuries from now.
Cousin Dave at October 31, 2016 6:50 AM
"If we're not teaching our college-bound students to appreciate Western Civilization, what are we teaching them to appreciate?"
Communism, as your second post pointed out.
I was born in the 80s. Everything listed here is normal to me. This is how US public schools have worked for over 30 years. I had Earth in the Balance from Al Gore as a text book in high school. It was filled with such wonderful logic as 'There was a lake in the USSR. The lake had x gallons of water in it. They pumped x gallons of water out to use for irrigation. Due to the horrors of global warming the lake was now empty and the farms all dried up. If only they had produced less CO2 then the farms would have been saved.' My teachers couldn't understand the flaws in that argument until I pointed them out. As a white male I am inherently evil. Now I personally decided if I am inherently evil and can never not be evil I may as well take pride in that evilness. But the inherent evil, racism, and sexism of being white and male were a core part of my education.
My father was in oil so we moved a lot. I attended several different public schools in a couple of states. Some had more money than others but for the most part they were quite uniform. A poor school in Colorado and a rich school in Texas may have different amenities (air conditioning, sports facilities, and such) but the education is exactly the same. The majority of teacher's are uneducated in the subject they teach. That Simpson's episode about someone stealing all the teacher's copies is depressingly true to life. So by controlling which books schools use you pretty much control what they teach.
Incidentally this is why teachers and money are irrelevant to education outcomes. The parents definitely make an impact. But public schools across the US are amazingly uniform. It really doesn't matter which one you attend.
Ben at October 31, 2016 6:54 AM
I don't think it is almost over Cousin Dave. Millennials are extremely bimodal exactly because of this crazy education system. It only take 15-30 minutes to start undoing the damage because most of us recognize that our education was garbage. Which is why Google is trying to shut down PragerU. We aren't morons. So they need to make sure millennials never hear unapproved messages.
Ben at October 31, 2016 6:59 AM
Mr Griffin in "killing mr griffin" had been a professor who was so disgusted by how dumb his students were that he decided to become a high school teacher to fix things. Book was written in the 70s or early 80s
NicoleK at October 31, 2016 7:03 AM
When you combine the desire to "help" minorities in school (but not by allowing charter schools) by just lowering standards, with the pop psych belief that self-esteem is the highest good (what could be better than feeling good about yourself?), you get the dumbing down of education.
I am 64 and I only recently discovered Thomas Cahill's 5 books the Hinges of History (such as "How the Irish Saved Civilization") which shows how intimately religion influence modern art, philosophy, architecture, science, and philosophy. Even the separation of church and state and democracy were part of European Christianity from before the fall of the Roman Empire. They elected their abbots and bishops and popes in a world full of dictators. You will never read about this in textbooks and I didn't know it.
cc at October 31, 2016 8:20 AM
"Millennials are extremely bimodal exactly because of this crazy education system. It only take 15-30 minutes to start undoing the damage because most of us recognize that our education was garbage. "
I hope you're right. I'm afraid there won't be enough of you. Indoctrination that begins in early childhood is difficult to overcome. There weren't enough of us X'ers to kill it at the roots because of basic demographics.
Cousin Dave at October 31, 2016 8:26 AM
Goodness gracious!
Why, it's almost like their parents exercise absolutely no influence over their lives or education.
I can tell you that if I didn't have the rudimentary knowledge of American history, literature or basic science, my father would've whupped my ass (metaphorically speaking). How do these kids get through 12 years of class without picking up the basics?
Pesta makes some good points, and I agree with much of what he says, but he loses me when he goes "Common Core truther." I adore standardized testing and think that providing a benchmark of progress is the least the little fartlings can do for the taxpayers who are making their education (and transportation, and meals) possible.
Kevin at October 31, 2016 8:41 AM
In 20 - 25 years, these " illiteramuses " will be running for office and running the country. We are all doomed.
Nick at October 31, 2016 8:53 AM
"How do these kids get through 12 years of class without picking up the basics?"
Because that is what the schools you so desperately support want. This is everything you push for Kevin and then you whine 'But why did their parents let us do something so stupid? It must be those evil parent's fault not ours!'
Cousin Dave, It is really crappy indoctrination. Most of it consists of word redefinition and suppression of alternate ideas. Millennials know they are being lied to. It's pretty obvious. If you have an IQ over room temp you know teachers aren't to be trusted. Which is why they are so desperate to prevent anyone else from talking. It takes very little to start undoing the damage. But if you aren't allowed to talk then you can't even start.
Ben at October 31, 2016 9:14 AM
Because that is what the schools you so desperately support want. This is everything you push for Kevin and then you whine 'But why did their parents let us do something so stupid? It must be those evil parent's fault not ours!'
What? Who is "ours"? It's certainly not my fault if a college freshman doesn't know the difference between Ulysses S. Grant and a hole in the ground.
And what am I pushing for? Accountability? Education? Achievement?
Certainly any child that can memorize every detail of the Kardashians' lives (which surely must rival the Plantagenets in complexity, if not import) or knows the difference between this or that Pokémon is able to grasp basic American history. But they're not.
Kevin at October 31, 2016 9:20 AM
Hah! My mentor just quit teaching his college classes for this reason.
He had (wrongly) assumed I went to college and was grilling me the other day how it was possible I knew so much If I went to a California university.
I told him I hadn't gone to college at all and then he hilariously grilled me if I went to a "California highschool" and then he asked "YOUR ENTIRE LIFE?"
Lmao.
Ppen at October 31, 2016 9:58 AM
Kevin, everything I've seen you advocate about education leads to this outcome. And then you whine endlessly about bad parents. Meh. This this the outcome you advocate. Deal with it.
Yep Ppen, many of us are educated in spite of the education system.
Ben at October 31, 2016 10:31 AM
Kevin asks questions. I question his baked in assumptions.
Assumption 1: that the parents have enough spare time and brain power to be effective in overseeing their child's education in government schools.
Assumption 2: that the local school board and the other Usual Suspects involved with education will permit good parents from the previous assumption to become involved in meaningful ways in their children's education.
Assumption 3: standardized testing never results in the schools teaching to the test.
Assumption 4: that Common Core is something good, and not a further push of more crap from the top down. They're about to do to mathematics education that they did to reading in the 60s when the common theory was to ditch the phonetic approach and replace it with...what was that? see-say?
I R A Darth Aggie at October 31, 2016 10:44 AM
I R A Darth Aggie, thanks. We probably agree on some things, but not on others (I'd call 'em "taxpayer schools" rather than "government schools," for one).
But a question I've always had: Why is "teaching to the test" automatically assumed to be a bad thing by the Diane Ravitch crowd? If I'm taking a class in driver's ed, I expect to be taught to the driver's test. If I'm taking law, I expect to be taught to the inevitable bar.
I don't remember "see-say," but I do remember when math suddenly became all about that base. ("Two times nine in base eight," "sixteen minus five in base six," etc.) Absolutely useless for most.
Kevin at October 31, 2016 11:03 AM
Kevin, everything I've seen you advocate about education leads to this outcome. And then you whine endlessly about bad parents. Meh. This this the outcome you advocate. Deal with it.
I'm curious to know what you think I advocate about education.
I do espouse that learning should begin at home; that parents should be responsible for tracking their children's education; and that if you want your child to go to private school, you don't use public funds. None of that seems geared to an outcome other than success and responsibility.
Kevin at October 31, 2016 11:06 AM
Um.. kids are now in school (or on busses there) typically from 7:45 to about 3:45. BUT... since many families have two working parents, those kids are in after school programs (school-centered daycare, often) until the age of 13 or so. If they are to interact with kids outside of school, they will be in sports or music or something. For many, it is sports, and there go your weekends!
Parents spend VERY LITTLE time with children these days. One of the (many) reasons we decided to homeschool. I don't trust the village with my kids! Also, what's the point of having them if I never see them? Oh wait - the government would like me to turn them over for "education" but still cover all the bills. I see how this works!
Shannon at October 31, 2016 11:24 AM
Hah! My mentor just quit teaching his college classes for this reason
I dropped out of my anthropology course and college because of this almost 20 years ago
lujlp at October 31, 2016 11:43 AM
"Assumption 1: that the parents have enough spare time and brain power to be effective in overseeing their child's education in government schools."
Well, that's the way it should be. People who don't have time to raise children should not have children. Unfortunately, as we all know, that's not the way it works today. I'm not sure it ever did work that way. That's one of the challenges: how to see to it that most kids get a reasonably good education when the parents are indifferent to same.
The interesting bit is that it looks like the children of the Millennials will be another baby-bust generation, the third one since the Silent Generation. In the face of that, all existing plans may break down. There obviously won't be enough people working, even at full employment, to support all of the retirees and people who can't/won't work (of which there will be many).
Cousin Dave at October 31, 2016 12:06 PM
"Assumption 1: that the parents have enough spare time and brain power to be effective in overseeing their child's education in government schools."
When in the course of history has it ever been this way. Ever.
Farm to table (joke) required work in good times and more work in bad. No one had time for kids' education since a family would starve if things did not happen according to plan. (See dust bowl, Appalachia,and coal mines in W.Virginia. Have no idea about the West Coast.)
Perhaps briefly in the '50's? when the GIs came home and things started booming. But even that was not universal (2 jobs were not unusual).
Colleges have always been the breeding ground for discontent about the success of capitalism and ignorance about the costs of socialism.
Do you really think they want "educated" kids coming to college challenging their "teachings"?
Bob in Texas at October 31, 2016 12:31 PM
When in the course of history has it ever been this way. Ever. Farm to table (joke) required work in good times and more work in bad. No one had time for kids' education since a family would starve if things did not happen according to plan. (See dust bowl, Appalachia,and coal mines in W.Virginia. Have no idea about the West Coast.)
My dad grew up in the oil fields of Wyoming, and there was plenty of time for kids' education — in fact, there was little else to do after dinner except listen to the radio.
More recently, many of the children that came to the U.S. as Vietnamese refugees went from not speaking English to valedictorians by the time they reached high school.
There's plenty of time for at-home kids' education for those who care to put in the time and effort. In fact, I'd go as far as to say it's one of the bedrocks of being a good parent.
Kevin at October 31, 2016 12:40 PM
Parents spent very little time with their offspring in the "good old days." Housework was a never-ending grind. The wage earner was lucky to have a 40-hour work week and make it home in time to see the children. Children spent a great deal of time doing household chores or on their own.
Even into the seventies, children did not spend a great deal of time at home with parents, preferring to spend their non-school time with friends or in solo exploration.
Schools in those days handled the primary education of children. Parents taught life skills.
It wasn't unheard of for one parent to be away from home for extended periods due to work, military, or family commitments. Face it, schools were less politicized then and taught basic skills.
The buffet approach to education that we employ today was unheard of then. If you wanted to study the feminist implications in the writings of the Brontë sisters, you had to do it on your own time. The professor taught literature, not politics.
Conan the Grammarian at October 31, 2016 12:41 PM
Schools in those days handled the primary education of children. Parents taught life skills.
Somehow we're not getting either right now.
I'd imagine that a 19-year-old that doesn't know how to load a dishwasher is also someone whose parents don't care if he learns other things — like presidents, grammar, biology or basic mathematics.
Kevin at October 31, 2016 4:01 PM
In my not so humble opinion, The downward slide started to really get rolling with calulators for math in the late seventies.
It was a big short cut to letting technology do your thinking for you. And relieved most people from actually ever gaining an understanding of math and statistics and the processes behind it, at all.
Which led to the old maxim, garbage in, garbage out.
Sadly almost everyone younger than myself especially liberal arts majors has a lot of gaping holes in their basic understanding of both applied math and the scientific method, (not to mention the socialist brainwashing that occurs in most non stem courses).
It will be interesting if ultimately Hillary and her entire staff are brought down by their failure to really learn/ understand how email works, and how something like the iCloud works.
Isab at October 31, 2016 6:35 PM
Kevin: "There's plenty of time for at-home kids' education for those who care to put in the time and effort. In fact, I'd go as far as to say it's one of the bedrocks of being a good parent."
I have to agree with that. Educating your own kids at home doesn't take the six to eight hours a day, five days a week for 13 years that they spend in a school. It's takes a lot less time to teach your own two or four or five kids practical knowledge and skills, good sense, and truth than it takes a teacher at a school to indoctrinate 25 of someone else's kids with political fantasies and nonsense.
I cut down trees for five years and worked in the oilfields for ten years during my daughters' childhoods and early adolescence. My wife worked in a bookstore that we owned. My daughters never went to school until they went to college. We spent a few hours a week on academic efforts, and whole lot more time playing and having fun. There were so many fun things to do, and with all the time we spent working we just didn't have much time for studying. We had to prioritize, and "school" just wasn't that high on our list. You'd be surprised how much your kids can learn about... oh... math - just from what you teach them so they can play games, have fun, earn a little money and buy something now and then.
Most parents of kids entering college are age 40 give or take. They grew up being indoctrinated with the same progressive-leftist rubbish that's being foisted on their kids. They believe their kids are getting a good education just like they did, and see no reason to be concerned.
Ken R at October 31, 2016 7:24 PM
Well Wikileaks showed Democrats deliberately dumbing down education so they would vote Dems in.
Joe j at October 31, 2016 8:09 PM
Well Wikileaks showed Democrats deliberately dumbing down education so they would vote Dems in.
What? Not doubting you, just not sure what that particular leak consisted of.
Kevin at October 31, 2016 8:11 PM
I always read, a lot, and could make the arguments for both sides of most propositions. But then most books, except for those written by a few from the lunatic fringe, presented facts as facts. Now there are plenty that are full of lies.
Michael Bellesiles book is still in the public library, despite being a proven fraud.
MarkD at November 1, 2016 5:03 AM
Kevin: "What? Not doubting you, just not sure what that particular leak consisted of."
There was this excerpt from a staff member's email:
“What do you think she is giving away in those meetings? She doesn’t want the people knowing about her relationships on Wall Street She wants to achieve consistency and the best way to do that is to keep the people ignorant.”
… From: Roberts, Kelly Sent: Friday, May 13, 2016 12:05 PM To: Comm_D Cc: djtspeaks@hillaryclinton.com"
I think the context was a discussion about the content of her meetings with and $250,000 speeches for Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and other Wall Street institutions.
Ken R at November 1, 2016 7:10 AM
And then there was this from one of Podesta's emails:
"Secretary Clinton is not an entertainer, and is not a celebrity in the Trump, Kardashian mold; what can she do to offset this? I'm certain the poll-directed insiders are sure things will default to policy as soon as the conventions are over, but I think not. As I've mentioned, we've all been quite content to demean government, drop civics and conspire to produce an unaware and compliant citizenry. The unawareness remains strong but compliance is obviously fading rapidly. This problem demands some serious, serious thinking - and not just poll-driven, demographically-inspired messaging."
The context was a discussion about the conflation of entertainment with politics by the media, and how to deal with the advantage that Trump's celebrity gives him over Clinton in that environment.
Ken R at November 1, 2016 7:47 AM
Why, it's almost like their parents exercise absolutely no influence over their lives or education.
I can tell you that if I didn't have the rudimentary knowledge of American history, literature or basic science, my father would've whupped my ass (metaphorically speaking). How do these kids get through 12 years of class without picking up the basics?
Kevin
____________________________________
Same here (sort of).
Yes, it's terrible that American teens don't have basic knowledge of 18th and 19th century American history. However, it would be just as bad if they didn't have basic knowledge of any quarter century in American history after 1899 - and the amount of American history they need to learn is just going to increase.
As I've mentioned before, it's clearly not the teachers' fault that they have to pick and choose all the time when history keeps increasing - including world history, of course. Therefore, it really is the parents' job to stop fuming and spend more "quality time" TEACHING kids life skills, doing housework together, and reading aloud important works of fiction and nonfiction (especially history, of course - a parent can start with the "If You Lived" series and the "Who Was" series) instead of spending it on, say, chauffeuring kids to ball games and so on. The more non-academic sports and music lessons kids take, the more their education and solid skills are going to suffer.
lenona at November 2, 2016 8:33 PM
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