On the heels of the whites-only basketball team idea and the pastor who refuses to marry mixed-race couples, here’s another gem from the South: A proposed high-school curriculum that would eliminate U.S. history prior to 1877.
Um, wasn’t the Civil War in the 1860s? And there was something about founding fathers in the second half of the 18th century, as we recall.
As it states above the west entrance to Norlin Library at our local university, “Who knows only his own generation remains always a child.”
Apparently, the plan for North Carolina public schools would be to start U.S. history in 1877 so that more time can be devoted to recent historical events, such as the Vietnam War and the current conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Proponents say that other stuff, like slavery, could be addressed in a required civics and economics class.
Oh, and they would compensate for losing everything prior to 1877 in the 11th-grade course by adding more U.S. history to the elementary and middle-school curricula.
As if elementary school children can really get a good grasp of the Reconstruction, the tenets of the 10th Amendment, or the socioeconomic factors that contributed to secession.
High schoolers can get enough information about the situation in Iraq from the evening news or, even better, reading a newspaper.
History should be about what has happened in the past — events far enough back that we have some perspective on how they contributed to our present.
