Friday, July 04, 2003 :::
Apparently, American kids don't know American history. I'll bet that's a complete surprise to you, isn't it? You've never heard that before, have you? Been living under a rock, have you?
Anyway:
"I always tell my students: If I see you in the grocery store five years from now, I will not measure my success on can you tell me Hamilton's financial plan, but can you tell me if you voted," Meredith Elliott, an American studies teacher in Utah, said during a round-table discussion at the NEA convention. "If you answer yes, then I've succeeded as a teacher."
Well, there's your problem right there, innit? Actually, if they don't have all of the details of the founding down, that's okay, but if they voted, they should have some intelligent reason for whom they voted for, shouldn't they? "Yo, kids -- vote! Class dismissed," shouldn't be the entirety of our kids civic education. They should understand -- as is pointed out elsewhere in the article I've linked -- that one's Congressman has very little to do with the local dog catcher, and they should learn enough more than that to make an educated choice, or to stay out of the political process.
A friend of mine -- my predecessor as chairman of the Cambridge Republican City Committee -- has suggested that voters be required to give a reason for how they voted in order for their vote to count. He's not suggesting that some elections official should be able to accept your reason -- just that you be required to have one. If you can't even offer that, and you vote anyway, your civics teacher has failed.
Happy Independence Day. Don't abuse what you've been given. I know where you live.
::: posted by Steven at 12:14 AM
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