GDG- history jeremiad

[John Wood (faculty)]

I did not see the article or original post,  but I would like to comment
on the general point of how educated or uneducated our youth are today. I
have taught history for 17 years and been a student of history much
longer. Having recently finished a doctorate (and not at all in timely
fashion) in the subject, it's fair to say that I've been fairly well
immersed in the field for a long time. 
These jerimiads, often with a political tone (i.e., liberals not teaching
kids to respect the founding fathers adequately), sometimes not, seem to
be typical and and repeat themselves over the generations. I have seen,
but cannot cite, reference to reports in the 1940s and other decades that
young people didn't know essential facts of history. My guess is that if
we researched it, we would find complaints throughout our history that the
rising generation doesn't 1)know enough, 2)care enough, 3) work hard
enough, and 4) just plain isn't as good as earlier generations. I believe
complaints that young people are becoming disrespectful, criminal, overly
sexual, etc are also quite common historically. It's not that we don't
have issues or should ignore problems, it's just that there seems to be a
very short memory on these things. 

Umberto Eco makes sport of this in his novel The Name of The Rose when the
aged priest circa 1290 is remembering his young days as a novice in the
early part of the 1200s and complaining that the novices of the late 13th
century just aren't up to snuff with those of his day. 

In short, if we were getting dumber at the rate the occassional hysterical
commentator has claimed over the decades, we'd be brain dead by now. 

I suspect that today's students are probably more well informed, though
not nearly well enough, compared to earlier generations. 

Finally, while it's great to know when the civil war is, the fact is that
one can be an excellent citizen without knowing this. Indeed, having
followed what textbooks used to teach (and some may still do so) about
slavery, the civil war, and reconstruction, I would argue that a studious
teenager from the past would have had a terribly distorted, destructive
view of our nation's history - to the point that knowing when exactly the
civil war took place or the declaration of indipendence was signed would
be of no consolation. 

I happen to be one of those people with a great memory for specific dates
and details - used to know the order and dates for all the kings and
queens of England from William the Conquerer to Elizabeth II - and
specifics facts do matter. But we place far, far too much weight on
walking around with pieces of data in our brains.

John Wood
jwood at mcdonogh.org