WHY KIDS FLUNK HISTORY
By Mumia Abu-Jamal
[Col. Writ. 5/15/02]
"There is no history, only fictions of various degrees of plausibility." -- Voltaire [1694-1778] French Writer
Most historians would react angrily to the wry observation of the great French philosopher and satirist, Voltaire. "Of course, there is history!," they would argue. But, if a recent report of the U.S. Department of Education is to be believed, to millions of American school students, for all intents and purposes, there is no history.
This is not to say that there are not history classes, or perhaps millions of history books issued to junior high, or high school kids all over this vast, wealthy nation. But, history is not a formal course, nor a thing, an artifact, like a book. If it is not in the minds of millions of youngsters, for them, it doesn't exist.
According to published reports, the Education Dept. study found levels of historical knowledge that one member of the test's governing board, historian Diane Raritch, called "truly abysmal" (USA Today, 5/10-12/02, pp.1A). The study found, among other things, that of a majority of the tested students (some 29,000 4th, 8th, and 12th graders), 57% could not handle history at a basic level; 32% were at basic; 10% were at grade level, and only 1% were at advanced levels.
Put another way, 89% of U.S. students at junior and high school ages could not meet the requirements of American history at their grade level!
What does this mean?
Why can't Jamila or Jimmy or Jesus learn?
I think these are improper questions. The questions should be more like: Why can't we teach Jamila, Jimmy or Jesus history?
The study gives some ideas: 54% of those who taught junior and senior high school kids in 1996, neither majored nor minored in history, according to the U.S. Education Department! How can a teacher teach what s/he doesn't know? As important as is the question of who teaches, is: what is taught?
If "history" means the same lies about American history that reigned when I was a teenager, then, no wonder kids turn off to the subject in droves. They know it's lies!
I doubt that the works of historians like Robin Kelly ("To Make Our World Anew": History of African-American People") or Howard Zinn (A Peoples History of the United States) are required reading in most U.S. history classes. They should be.
For "history" must be more than the numbing line-up of "great men," and the rote recitation of dates from antiquity. They must tell the stories of real people, who fought, and still fight, for freedom against great odds, for social justice, for the rights of women, for a broader view of a life which they can recognize, and become a part of.
Text © copyright 2002 by Mumia Abu-Jamal.
All rights reserved.
Reprinted by permission of the author.International Action Center
39 West 14th Street, Room 206
New York, NY 10011
email: iacenter@action-mail.org
web: http://www.iacenter.org
CHECK OUT SITE http://www.mumia2000.org
phone: 212 633-6646
fax: 212 633-2889
To make a tax-deductible donation,
go to http://www.peoplesrightsfund.org
Share this page with a friend