Knowing History and Knowing Who We Are
David McCullough, Historian, gave the speech entitled “Knowing History and Knowing Who We Are” February 15, 2005, in Phoenix, Arizona, at Hillsdale College National Leadership Seminar. (Hat tip: Extreme Wisdom)
I will excerpt several passages below, but it talks about how we are failing to teach the next generation the history of our nation. They are growing up “historically illiterate”.
We need to show our children love of history. We need to require our teachers know history so they can teach it. We need to have history books that are enjoyable and encourage learning. These are the things we need and are failing at.
|
The task of teaching and writing history is infinitely complex and infinitely seductive and rewarding. And it seems to me that one of the truths about history that needs to be portrayed – needs to be made clear to a student or to a reader – is that nothing ever had to happen the way it happened. History could have gone off in any number of different directions in any number of different ways at any point along the way, just as your own life can. You never know. One thing leads to another. Nothing happens in a vacuum. Actions have consequences. These all sound self-evident. But they’re not self-evident – particularly to a young person trying to understand life. … We are raising a generation of young Americans who are by-and-large historically illiterate. And it’s not their fault. There have been innumerable studies, and there’s no denying it. I’ve experienced it myself again and again. I had a young woman come up to me after a talk one morning at the University of Missouri to tell me that she was glad she came to hear me speak, and I said I was pleased she had shown up. She said, “Yes, I’m very pleased, because until now I never understood that all of the 13 colonies – the original 13 colonies – were on the east coast.” |
