“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” George Santayana (1863 - 1952)

Someone needs to remind Kathy Cox about the above quote. Her proposed history curriculum forgets about all American history except the last century. Forgotten are Jamestown and Plymouth. Forgotten are the beginnings of slavery, the American Revolution and its causes, the expansion westward, the Alamo, the War Between the States and hundreds of other factors that constitute the foundations of our society.

We humans are cultural creatures. Our ideals, our music, our philosophy, our approach to God are all dictated by the cultural background. And our culture was developed over hundreds of years by the events that make up our history.

When our brave soldiers went forth to fight, they were defending a way of life, a culture. That motivation was greater than simply defending a national boundary. Otherwise, it made no sense for us to fight in Europe against Hitler, in Korea and Viet Nam against the communist or in the Middle East against radical Muslims.

In order for our children to become responsible members of our culture, they have to understand that culture and their place in it. Without a full understanding of our history, and the culture it created, they are no more than a group of innocents wandering in a jungle. Their chances of finding their place in society, and passing on the key elements of our culture are dismal.

Ms. Cox is correct on one point. Our teaching of American history is far too shallow. Her solution is to teach fewer points more deeply, concentrating on the last century. But our students will never understand the depths of the last century without being familiar with the centuries that precede it.

All this has developed from the “dumbing down” process of American education. It assumes that our kids have a limited capacity to absorb information. That is where we go wrong. Most of the problems we have with our children, bad music, too much sex, experiments with drugs, all come from too much vacuum in their brains. Not only are they not being challenged to use the mental capacity they have, they are being taught that they are lacking in ability. And when you teach a child that they are short in ability, they will believe it and conduct themselves accordingly.

We don’t need to reduce the content of our history lessons. We need to expand it. We don’t need to hide social, political, spiritual or scientific ideas from our kids, we need to enhance them.

When a child asks the basic human question, “Who am I and why am I here?” they need as much data as possible to find the answer. Most of those answers are in the history books. Unless they are well grounded in history, they will never know themselves. If they don’t know themselves, they will be unable to take the next steps forward.

Build a foundation of history under the education of our kids, and they will build a greater America.

Frankly Speaking by Frank Gillispie, this item was published with permission of the author. Published February 4, 2004 in the Madison County Journal - www.mainstreetnews.com