Most people can agree that the American Education System has its flaws. But why is that? I've often wondered what I've been missing in my classes. The main subject that seems to be missing quite a lot is History. So I decided to do some research as to why.
To start off, I went back to the root of the issue. The American Education System itself. To start off I needed to go way back. It’s the late 1700’s in Prussia. Fredrick the Great lays out his model of public education. Great idea, right? The U.S. decides, why shouldn’t we adopt this ourselves? We have kids, they need to be educated. But the funny thing was the industrial revolution kind of changed everything in the U.S.
Adults wanted children to be educated in a way that would produce a good workforce. And they all knew factories. So, that’s what school became. We all know the basics of a factory, don’t we? Raw materials are used by workers in a factory to create a final product. The raw material is children, the worker's teachers, the factory a school, the final product functioning, educated members of society. A great thing to look at for more information on this is Alvin Toffle’s 1970 book Future Shock. He explains it a bit more in-depth than I do.
So, the history of the education system isn’t the point of this post. Well, not entirely at least. The real thing is, the American education system is flawed. Of course, it is, I mean it’s run by humans. And as humans, we have an agenda. It’s not even our fault sometimes. But miseducation is rampant in this country right now.
Let me ask any reader right now to think about something: how far did you get in history classes back in school? WWII, right? In elementary school, you would start with the Revolutionary War just about every year. Then restart. In high school maybe you had a Western Civ class and learned about Rome. If you went to a Catholic high school like me, maybe you learned a bit about Jerusalem, but not really.
In college, you probably took a few history courses, but you mostly focused on the world pre-WWII. Maybe took a Holocaust Studies class. But honestly, did you ever learn about the 1980s in your history class? And I mean really learn, not just skim over. Sure on September 11th we always have a memorial lesson. On Martin Luther King Jr. Day we learn a bit about civil rights. But can you honestly say that before college you really learned about United States history past the 40s or 50s?
My guess, probably not. So now the question becomes, why have we not been taught these things? Everyone knows about Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence. But ever heard of President Truman and the Smith-Mundt Act of 1948, you know, the act that the government used to create and spread propaganda to foreign territories? Did you also know that in 2012 the Smith-Mundt Modernization Act made it so that the same propaganda would be spread domestically as well?
So, how do we learn about these things? Why is there so much information in the U.S.? I believe it's because the moment schools teach people about things that activity affect them and their political views, people will change how they feel. People are fickle and the more they learn about a subject, the more likely they are to change their views.
Like knowing about the Pro-Nazi rally in Madison Square Garden back in 1939 with more than 20,000 American’s in attendance. Or the American Committee on Public Opinion, yet another fine example of American Propaganda. But the issue is, people don't know these things, so they are unable to form true unbiased opinions on their views about life and the U.S. government.
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