Yahoo - U.S. students don't know much about American history. Just 13 percent of high school seniors who took the 2010 National Assessment of Educational Progress, called the Nation's Report Card, showed a solid grasp of the subject. Results released Tuesday showed the two other grades didn't perform much better, with just 22 percent of fourth-grade students and 18 percent of eighth-graders demonstrating proficiency. The test quizzed students on topics including colonization, the American Revolution and the Civil War, and the contemporary United States. For example, one question asked fourth-graders to name an important result of the U.S. building canals in the 1800s. Only 44 percent knew that it was increased trade among states. "The history scores released today show that student performance is still too low," Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a statement. "These results tell us that, as a country, we are failing to provide children with a high-quality, well-rounded education." Education experts say a heavy focus on reading and math under the federal No Child Left Behind law in the last decade has led to lagging performance in other subjects such as history and science. "We need to make sure other subjects like history, science and the arts are not forgotten in our pursuit of the basic skills," said Diane Ravitch, a research professor at New York University and former U.S. assistant education secretary.
You ask me this is a huge step in the right direction. This is exactly the attitude that has led to US students sucking at school these days, falling behind in the math and science departments. Way too much history from history teachers that feel way too much self-importance.
You think those kids in Japan and China give a shit about what a bunch of sandal wearing bastards in Mesopotamia were doing millenia's ago? Hell no. They're focused on world domination, government propoganda, and crushing American kids in the job market.
I loved history growing up, but it didn't exactly do me any favors. Sure it may come in handy if I make jeopardy someday, and sure I don't have to cheat on my smartphone like everyone else during the history rounds of pub night trivia, but beyond that my trivial knowledge of history has been worth precisely dick. Oh, I won a geography bee in middle school once. Don't want to forget that glowing triumph.
