Students Should Be More Aware of American History
By: Steven Romo The Battalion (Texas A&M)
October 13, 2006 6:03 PM

(U-WIRE) COLLEGE STATION, Texas - When it comes to the subject of history, the most clichéd aphorism is probably "If you do not learn from history, you will be doomed to repeat it." This proverb may hold a warning for college students today.

The Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) based in Delaware has published a report that warns of an approaching crisis for American citizenship. The institute surveyed 14,173 freshmen and senior undergraduate students at 50 four-year colleges and universities in the United States. The survey, developed by university faculty nationwide, covered 60 themes on a variety of historical topics from the Federalist papers to the Persian Gulf War. The results are not encouraging.

The national average for freshmen in the study was only 52 percent correct, while seniors averaged 53 percent. The additional years of higher education increased the score by only a single percent. Tuition dollars well spent.

Eugene Hickok, former Deputy Secretary of Education and board member of the nonprofit ISI warns that students are at risk of one day taking over leadership of this country without knowing what it stands for, according to The Detroit Free Press.

While it is unlikely that the nation will return to mistakes of the past, such as slavery and denying women the right to vote, not knowing the intricacies of our nation can leave young people unaware of where their rights as citizens come from. This is an ominous sign for the years to come.

The ISI places blame for this situation on the universities - not the students. It recommends increasing the course hours required in history, economics and political science.

Students from the top-rated schools in the study, Rhodes College in Memphis and Colorado State University in Ft. Collins, took an average of 1.3 additional courses in history and political science than those in the lowest scoring schools, The University of California at Berkeley and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Requiring additional courses may help alleviate the situation in part, but the responsibility ultimately lies with the students. Just as you can lead a horse to water and still leave it needing hydration, so can you put a student in a class and leave him needing knowledge.

Here in Aggieland, there seems to be no lack of American pride. There is no shortage of American flags and "Support Our Troops" bumper stickers; however, without knowledge of what has gone into making this country what it is today, this pride is empty and easily shaken.

Knowing the sacrifices made and the conflicts that surrounded the foundation and molding of this nation helps give citizens a sense of roots and history. Situations such as the war in Iraq, the looming Social Security problem and illegal immigration can be better understood with the knowledge of how the United States handled similar incidents in the past.

Pick up a book. Take a class. Skim the Bill of Rights. It would be a shame to make assumptions and judgments without truly understanding the story.

Comments

What a well-rounded perspective from a college student!
Posted by: Tom Gunn | October 18, 2006 8:29 PM

NO! Not MORE STUPID FREAKING CLASSES. "It recommends increasing the course hours required in history, economics, and political science." I am a 19 year old first-year college student, already up to my ears in all this useless crap, from "theater appreciation," psyc, tech and info management (by the way, most of us students know as much as our professor about computers and tech), and "speech." But my degree is going to be Actuary Science! Yet i have to take 64 hours of otherwise pointless stuff, and its getting overwhelming. You want us to know more history? Take out the useless "culture studies" courses as Gen-Ed requirements, the stuff the requires us to learn something about theater or music. Or kill off the pointless "science" classes like biology (honestly, when I'm installing RAM or writing software or just filling out an Excel sheet, why do I need to know about a Marsupials nether-regions?). I am so tired of this overbearing Baby Boomer generation and its high standards that (if history serves well) they themselves did not hold: anyone else ever read about the hippies? And I do not know about this study, because I got all A's in my history courses throughout high school.
Posted by: Jake O'Brien | October 18, 2006 11:44 PM

I think this is the point the op-ed was making. Students are more concerned with getting the degree they may not be learnign what is really important (from classes or otherwise).
Posted by: Tom Gunn | October 19, 2006 12:33 AM

Mr O'Brien's opinion is a case in point. Truly frightful.
Posted by: Chris Hill | October 19, 2006 1:40 PM

Should a student not be concerned with getting their degree? Most degrees require a lot of time, money and effort and while I do believe in the value of a general education, what is "important" is extremely subjective. I do believe American history is important; however, I also believe that ancient history is important. I would like to take a class on contemporary nuitrition or maybe particle physics. Are those things not important? The point of general education in college is to encourage students to branch out and take the things that interest them but that they might otherwise not use their time and money on. Forcing them to take particular classes defeats the purpose of expanding their horizons if they take the class because they must instead of because they want to. The real question here, and the real failure, is why are these students coming to college with such a limited knowledge of American history? Haven't they just had 12+ years of public education? Why do they need to spend thousands of tuition dollars to be force-fed in college what they should have already learned, at the cost of their other interests and actual degree?
Posted by: Stacey Alberts | October 20, 2006 3:34 AM

I think you may be missing the point that the problem already exists in this generation of college students and the responsibility to address it lies with the students. The guy who wrote this seems understand this keenly.
Posted by: Kelly Plath | November 1, 2006 6:36 AM

Right. Those who don't learn from history can be doomed to repeat it.
Posted by: K. Berger | August 30, 2007 8:50 PM

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