Wow that is pretty sad. What has happened to our education system?
Glad you had a nice trip. 3 more sleeps for us!
I believe I may have mentioned in an earlier post, but I met John Glenn a few times, and once spent 15 minutes or so chatting with him after he arrived at Andrews AFB late one night before Christmas (I was working a late shift on the flight line). He fit my description of servant for the people, and that encounter has stuck with me more than all the other VIPs I met at Andrews (and they number in the hundreds). Humble, thoughtful, caring, and true representative of his constituents and his country--all those he was. As far as history goes, I don't blame you for saying something
Dad as I would have done the same, but I wouldn't use that one example as an indictment of the educational system. We can't know the type of students they were (likely not Honor or AP classes) and, to be fair, what Mr Glenn did was over five decades ago, and to teens, that is ancient history. When I was in school, few of my friends could have told you anything about World War I or the Great Depression even though they were seminal events in our history--I knew because I was a fan of history. Another factor is that when I was growing up (and I figure for many or most of you, as well), my world was defined by real world heroes, visionaries, and accomplishments: John Glenn, Audie Murphy, Martin Luther King, Billie Jean King, the Civil Rights Movement, soldiers, firefighters, et. al. Anymore, the "heroes" in this world are ball players, music stars, reality TV personalities, and YouTube stars--not one of whom has slipped the bonds of space or laid down her life to save others. It's a focus that is completely alien to my world growing up. Schools simply can't compete. That's not to say schools aren't culpable to some extent--they are--but when we have movies where space travel is considered a given, remembering one actual man who went into space alone during the infancy of space flight doesn't rate an eye blink.
A lot also depends on the teachers, the focus of a particular school system, and even parents. This is where the indictment of our educational system is fair. We focus far too much on standards of learning than actual learning. I see it first-hand every day that parents don't reinforce what is learned in school because for them a John Glenn is no big deal, either. I've always attempted to keep my daughter abreast of current affairs, history, and significant events, but in her case, a few teachers barely tried to make history relevant. A few years ago, I substituted in a 10th-grade history class and found the teacher used old--as in mostly black and white--VHS tapes to teach his classes. He would plug one in, hand out sheets of paper with blanks to be filled in by the students as they watched, then sit back and do nothing. The two days I taught for him covered the Vietnam War era, the Kent State shooting, and other topics. The kids had no clue about the era, so I filled them in with details. I stopped the tape often and gave them back stories. After class, I had several students come up to me and say this was the first time they had actually been taught anything in class and they loved it. My own daughter says of her AP history class this year, "I've learned more in this half of a year than all my other history classes combined." So, yes, our schools do have some accountability. Still, I would say that as a collection of nearly 400 million people, we no longer value history beyond what the latest political, entertainment, or sports scandal provides. And that is achingly tragic.
Sorry for the long musing, but it's a foggy, cold, rainy Sunday morning, and I'm tucked under a blanket with a steaming mug o' java with nothing better to do.
Have a great week before Christmas, Groupies!
Not a fan of gingerbread.
