Do Americans Deserve to Keep America?

  

Periodically I will see a video asking men/women in the street certain questions:

• What are the three branches of government?
• How many U.S. States are there?
• What is the name of the U.S. Vice President? 
• What country did America fight for its independence? 
•  Other questions of that ilk.

• Some of the answers in order.
• I don't know. Some didn't understand "branches of government."
• 68, 45, 10 were some of the answers
• I don't know 
• Vietnam 

The answers should be as forthcoming as breathing. It's terrifying that the destiny of 341,963,408 (source CIA Fact Book) of these people who if they vote do it with fact-free brains and can hurt those who know.

Every person who applies for citizenship has to pass a test. https://civicsquestions.com/questions/  Experiments over the years show that of those citizens from birth tested, a majority could not answer the basic questions on their country government. Can you pass it?

No wonder the U.S. is in the mess it now is with such an  illiterate voting population. A population with such a small amount of understanding of the history and structure of the country, perhaps it would be better if they didn't vote.

In public grade school outside of Boston back in the fifties, I remember coloring maps of the different states. We were expected to know their names, capitals and even what they produced. 

Third and fifth grades featured U.S. history. Other grades had ancient history of Egypt, Rome and Greece and then European history with an emphasis on Europe. We never made it, however, into the 20th century. We never were taught much about Asia or Africa.

In Seventh Grade Soc (Social Studies) we learned about the world. A game we played pitted row against row. A student went to the world map and stood with their back to it. The teacher named a country. The student needed to find it and tell the class about it. 

In my Freshman year of high school civics was required. Mr. Bronner was a messy dresser and boring. He also taught drivers ed. We already knew about a bill and how it got passed thanks to the cartoon showed during Saturday cartoons.

For U.S. history in my senior high school, each of us was assigned a subject to report on every Monday. Mine was Cuba and since it was the time of the Cuban Revolution there was plenty to report. Also it was the year of the Kennedy-Nixon election so discussion topics were prevalent.

Now they talk about not wanting to upset kids with the facts of U.S. history.  

If I were running the education system what I would do is the following.

Grade one: History of the Indians including information about their cultures.

Grade two: Discovery of America including Jamestown and the true story of Columbus. None of this fairy tale hero crap.

Grade Three: Settling of the colonies

Grade four: Indian wars, relations with the other European countries

Grade five: American revolt giving both the British and U.S. sides.

Grade six: The Revolution, the failure of the Continental Congress and the writing and contents of The Constitution, which should take January to June going over each article.

Grade seven: From 1787 the signing of The Constitution, the slavery issue, the War of 1812, the Indian massacres, Louisiana Purchase, Underground Railroad, The important politicians, scientific developments, Mexican-American War from both sides until 1860.

Grade eight: The Civil war thru to 1899.

Grade nine: America through 1900 to the Great Depression.

Grade ten: The New Deal, the lead-up to WWII, WWII.

Grade eleven: After World War II through to Iraq War including simple economics and U.S. influence good and bad. The Marshall Plan, the rebuilding of Europe, the Korean War, Vietnam should be there. Included should be information about the governments that the U.S. helped overthrow.

Grade twelve: 9/11 Afghanistan, Iraq war, Middle East problems including the history, comparative religions and their influence in society?

Too much for children, you say? 

Not if it is broken down well. The cartoon Just a Bill is not difficult for kids to grasp. Terms such as socialism and communism should be defined as well so they no longer would represent the bogeymen that can be used to frighten people but be applied, or not, based on real information and understanding.

What could happen. If the kids who had been through this curriculum for 12 years get to the voting booths, they would not be swayed by the lies politicians love to tell.

Silly me. I know it won't happen. 

Meanwhile, because people often just want to lead their lives, they don't take the time to learn what they should have learned in school Not their fault, but if they don't take the time, do they deserve to live in a country that was formed on the ideals of the U.S. 

Throughout history, countries have been formed, succeed, fail and disappear. Perhaps that's because the alleged leaders are flawed human beings as much as those they govern are not participants. But that's the subject of more than a blog.