say … what ???
Thursday, July 13th, 2006have i been super sensitive lately? i feel like i’ve posted a few where i might have gotten a bit too "excited." well, i’ve found something else that infuriates me.
for the life of me, i cannot understand how this could happen. are these ignorant fools the same ones who sat in the back of the classroom and fucked around or are they ignorant because they never learned the basics of our government.
Add Sen. Lamar Alexander (news, bio, voting record), R-Tenn., who is trying to get his American History Achievement Act - to test the degree of knowledge in schools - through Congress. He points out that half the states don’t require a course in U.S. government.
A few years ago, I supported the City University of New York’s decision mandating the teaching of American history on all its campuses. I was denounced by several department heads for "jingoism." They insisted "world history" be taught instead.
someone please tell me what freedom of the press means. yup… thank you. you can write whatever you want without having to worry about the government.
Not surprisingly, a Knight Foundation national survey last year of more than 100,000 high school students on "The Future of the First Amendment" found that 73% either had no opinion or said they took the First Amendment for granted, whatever that meant. Moreover, 36% believed that before publishing, newspapers must first get government approval.
reading this just kills me! i’m just in so much shock right now!
i don’t understand how this next one can happen. even if people didn’t learn "american history" they still would have learned about king george in "world history" and i’m sure they would’ve covered the impact of having a monarch on the new colonies in america…. and maybe how that would impact the type of government the colonies would eventually form…. the significance of this and the schism that eventually formed this country not only touch england, but it also touched another "super power" - france. (france sent troops to help fight england) this american schism / revolution is so important in history because it ignited the fight that lead to what the french now celebrates (oh and it’s tomorrow - july 14) as bastille day which lead to the bolshevik revolution in mother russia. (figuratively lead to…)
i just can’t believe this. i must remember to thank my parents for moving to a city where the high school is ranked in the 10% of the state then. because if they didn’t, i might not have learned how we got our freedoms and what keeps in alive and in place.
As for this nation’s adults, in an American Bar Association poll last summer, a little more than half of those surveyed were able to name the three branches of our government. Fewer than half had any idea what "the separation of powers" means.
Since congressional oversight of this president’s powers has been lame - and more of our federal courts are yielding to the administration’s invoking of "state secrets" to dismiss cases critical of expanding presidential powers - even fewer Americans will know that the Framers insisted on the separation of powers.
In April, Michael Greco, president of the American Bar Association, warned - without hyperbole - that "many Americans do not even know the basics of how their government works, and that is a long-term threat to our democracy. … When people do not understand their rights, it’s easy for others to take those rights away." And those who would take those rights away are not just our external enemies.
UNBELIEVABLE! absolutely crazy.
