almostaugust

I found this news headline at www.abc.net.au/news.

It got me wondering about the US education system. Can somebody maybe tell me a little about what the History syllabus is like? The Americans ive met in my travels have seemed pretty knowledgable on world affairs.

US expert panel decries America's 'ignorance of outside world'
A panel of prominent US politicians and educators have decried what it called "America's ignorance of outside world," arguing that Americans' reluctance to study foreign civilisations could eventually become a threat to national security.

The scathing report produced by the Strategic Task Force on Education Abroad marked the first attempt to question Americans' ability to fully grasp the meaning of events abroad since the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

"We strongly believe that the events of September 11, 2001, constituted a wake-up call - a warning that America's ignorance of the world is now a national liability," the task force headed by former education secretary Richard Riley and former US senator Paul Simon said.

The report points out that the gap separating Americans from the rest of the world became particularly evident on that tragic day when most Americans were forced to ask themselves the anguished and confused questions, "where did this come from?" and "how could anyone want to do this to us?"

The answer is that Americans are largely "ignorant" about the Middle East and suffer from "a pervasive lack of knowledge" about the world at large, task force members insisted.

They decried the fact that some Americans had made speaking only English "a point of national pride instead of a disgrace".

"We are unnecessarily putting ourselves at risk because of our stubborn monolingualism and ignorance of the world," the task force went on to say.

"As strong as our country and our economy are, we cannot remain prosperous and secure if we do not understand the words and actions of our international neighbours."

The panel said the United States needs military personnel, diplomats and business executives who speak Arabic, French, Spanish, Chinese, Swahili, Russian, Korean, Farsi, Hindi and dozens of other languages.

"To successfully navigate the new millennium, we will need leaders who are able to understand global crises not only from an American vantage point, but also from those of our allies and our adversaries," the report said.

It does not mention by name either US President George W Bush or other current leaders from any of the political parties.

-- AFP

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ARTelevision

The problem with the American Educational system is not the syllabi. It's really a mirror of all and every social problem in our culture. And our culture is loaded with social problems.

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Moskie

For a handful of various reasons, my knowledge of history is atrocious. I'm 22 years old now, grew up half my life in southern California, the other half near Baltimore. They were fine schools there, but the subject of history was the exception to the rule. I had to put up with history teachers who were either only teachers because it was the off season for the sport they coached, or history teachers who were in their last year before retirement. In both situations, the classes were jokes. Admittedly, I didn't put forth as much effort into learning the material as I could have, but that's just because I was kid who wanted to get away with doing the least amount of work as possible. Had I been motivated (like some of my math teachers had done), I would have a lot more interest and learned a lot more.

So recently I've been bitten by the history bug. September 11th and the war in Iraq definately have something to do with that fact, but I'm also just getting a bit older and simply want to learn. I've been reading general US history articles and books, trying to get a good picture of things before I jump to too many conlusions.

As for what the article says about learning languages, I think they're absolutely right. Americans hardly study other languages to a great extent, and they're lucky if they can use what they learn to order food from a restaurant. I'm not sure how related that fact is to how ignorant Americans are to other cultures... I think what's more important is for people to actually get out of the US for extended periods of time. Most Americans have no idea what life is like outside the US. This past year I've visited Venezuela (first time I was in South America), and am now studying in Germany. I can't even begin to explain how healthy it is to do things like this. You really begin to see how extraordinarily petty the things are that a lot Americans worry about. Freedom Fries, gay marriage, the 10 commandments on public property... most countries would love the oppurtunity to worry about these things as opposed to their own problems. I've also learned how lucky Americans are to even fathom not caring about their goverment. Their lives often go so well, that they are able to ignore the government completely. Such a perspective is impossible in other coutries.

So, yes, from my own experiences, I'd say things need to be done to have American students learn more about history and the rest of the world.



*edit* stupid typos.

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splck

The Americans I've met while traveling in foreign countries seemed to be knowledgeable of world affairs, however the people I've met while traveling in the states remain blissfully unaware about the goings on past their borders for the most part.
I did three years of schooling in an American school system, when I returned home I had to do a lot of studying on world events to catch up to my peers. I knew a lot of American history and such, but very little of the world around me.

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gabshu

Very interesting article. I am not American but I live in the U.S. and I have noticed that my peers at school have had very different schooling than me. I don't have the most comprehensive knowledge of history, but it seems that I rival my American peers in many respects, one of the most important being interest. I've been traveling to the US since I was 1 year old, and the photo in my passport is of me being 1. I was very surprised to find out that most my peers here in the states didn't even have passports. I am lucky to have come from a wealthy South American family, but opportunities in America are much higher, travel abroad is easier and cheaper for them.

I also agree that Americans are blissful in their ignorance. Having had to escape my country because of a near dictatorship, I really envy how great things are here. Worrying about gay marriage and statues in public spaces is sooo much better than worrying about going to protest and getting murdered by the government.

I think that since Americans don't travel that much, the ones that people meet outside of the U.S. are much more knowledgeable about foreign affairs and history that the average American. I don't mean to sound offensive to any one, I love America but I think it would be in the interest of everyone to know more about the world around them. For those who can, a trip to Europe is much more interesting that going to Disney World.

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Sparhawk

As far as the language bit goes, most high schools require some sort of foreign-language proficiency (2-3 years) to graduate. Unlike most of Europe, they start in high school, whereas they start from primary school on up.

My mom's in the foreign service, and my dad's an international consultant, so I was raised with a serious 'foreign affairs' bent, and I know several other FS brats who are the same way (my sister being the big exception).

It irks me that so many of my peers are pretty clueless in this regard, but hey, I end up winning those trivia prizes with questions like 'what is the dryest place in the world?' so it doesn't bother me too much.

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cheerios

2 yrs language OR 2 yrs fine art. so a year of drama and a year of art class'll fill that requirement. handy for us dunces who really just CAN'T speak another language(I can't keep grammar rules down, I do it intuitively which screws me over royally when trying to do another language's grammar), in allowing them to graduate high-school at all.

wilbjammin

The problem with education now is the massive defunding effort by the Republicans to drain all of the money out of public domain (that is, the government) and into the private domain (yes... business/corporate run). I think NCLB is atrocious, and as a pre-service Social Studies teacher I'm going to have to deal with it until we get a regime change of sorts. The defunding of education I view as part of an agenda to keep a large section of our population uneducated, because it makes it easier to keep a large section of the population in crappy service jobs and unemployed (you all know that the Fed has institutionalized maintaining a certain percentage of unemployment because they view the idea of full employment in our economy as a bad thing, right?). The more educated someone is, the more likely they are going to vote Democrat instead of Republican, surprisingly.

Have faith skeptics and Democrat haters, I'm not going to push my "agenda" on the kids. I welcome differing views into my classroom. But the state of education in the US is looking pretty sad.

Test-based education is a big mistake, we want accountability and assessment... but don't ruin lives over it, and be realistic, these things are <b>not</b> objective. It is documented quite well that test scores don't have a strong correlation with life achievement. So, there you have it, my feelings based on facts and inferences.

Even the Supreme Court realizes that education is the "most important" service administered by the states - so let's do it right, and fund it!

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guthmund

I went to a handful of different schools so I certainly can't speak for the whole.

I will say that I have never been offered a world history class. I have attended scores of American history classes, which, conveniently enough, are about the United States. They also tend to slant things pro-America. (The Revolutionary War was fought by brave bands of altruistic patriots not a colonial uprising started by a handful of smugglers and miscreants. Et cetera, et cetera....)

Everything I know about international affairs (and that not as much as some) is the result of private study and personal reading.

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