Do You Know Our Heroes?

National Review Online: Wartime Is Horrific, But Brings Opportunities For Teachable Moments

(National Review Online)  This column was written by William J. Bennett.

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These are tough times for, and in, America. We are at war, and we find that war highly controversial. Many of our political leaders have record-low approval ratings and too many are held in ignominy. Washington - our nation’s capital - is held in contempt, as a laugh line by comedians. But perhaps a greater tragedy than all of this is that we seem to no longer have any kind of reference point. For indeed, we are not living in the toughest of times, we are not living in the worst of times, nor are we fighting the toughest of wars. But try telling that to our nation’s young people; too many of them absorb too much of the negativism taught by our culture to know this.

The truth is, we’ve been in far worse shape in terms of what we’ve had to endure in this country - but we may not have been in far worse shape in terms of what we know about our country. Too many of our high-school students do not graduate high school, and of those who do, too many do not know the basic facts of their own country’s history.

This year’s National Assessment of Education Progress (our “Nation’s Report Card”) revealed that over 50-percent of our nation’s high-school students - our population reaching voting age - are functionally illiterate in their knowledge of U.S. History. Tragically, students do not begin their education careers in ignorance: if you track education progress in the 4th, 8th, and 12th grades with the Nation’s Report Card, you will see students know more in the 4th grade, less in the 8th grade, and are failing by the time they are high-school seniors. Relative to what they should know at their grade level, the longer they live and grow up in America, the less they know about it. How did this happen? Why is knowledge of and about the greatest political story ever told so dim?

Too many of our nation’s adults have taken too dark a view of their country and have not seen fit to transmit her story down to the next generation. Too many in our culture would rather point out our nation’s failings than its successes. And in our schools, too many textbooks on American history are politically one-sided (turning off those with opposing political views). Worse, and more often, many of them are just plain boring.

Yet we know the study of our history can be bestseller material when presented with the glory and romance that resides in it. This is why historians such as David McCullough and Michael Beschloss, and networks like the History Channel, remain so popular. They capture our great triumphs and tragic failures with all the greatness of those triumphs and all the tragedy of those failures intact - they don’t redact, they don’t gloss over, and they don’t dull down.

But that is not the history we give to our students. One education expert recently wrote, “students in our high schools are rarely expected to read a complete history book.” That’s a history book of any sort: a biography, a "1776", a Bruce Catton Civil War book. And, a recent national survey found that a majority of public high-school students are never assigned as much as a 12-page history paper.

This is doubly tragic when we stop to consider we are not talking about just any country’s history here, we are talking about our country’s history - the country Abraham Lincoln called the “last best hope of earth.” We are, after all, a country that has prevented epidemics, improved the conditions of mankind, and saved other countries. We have fought wars for those who could not defend themselves, we have liberated the immiserated, and we are a city of refuge for foreigners as well.

With all that has gone wrong in our war and in our economy dare I repeat our merits and take a positive view? Of course I do. In the midst of a previous war’s dark days that had cost many lives and would cost many more - hundreds of thousands more - President Franklin D. Roosevelt could still say “we are a great nation” even as we fought for what he called “total victory” against an enemy that hewed to a “pirate philosophy” of fascism, even as we had just come out of the Great Depression. And, I remind that Lincoln could call us the “last best hope” only three months after Antietam, still the bloodiest day in American history.

But, America is not just the story of presidents. It is not just the study of great leaders, but, rather, of the undertaking of a great people - the study of great citizens who wisely choose how to save themselves and others, how to correct wrongs, and how to preserve what is still the greatest nation in the history of the world.

While we have our Washingtons, our Lincolns, our Roosevelts, our Trumans, our Reagans, we also have so many others - heroes in every walk of life, in every city in America. If we take on the complete study of our country again - the good, the bad, and the sometimes ugly - we will realize that for every anti-hero that we can be criticized for, there are hundreds of heroes; for every dark moment, there are thousands of rays of light to be seen through the passing clouds

Those who watched the recent Medal of Honor service for Lieutenant Michael Murphy were awestruck by the presentation to this young man’s family - by hearing of how Lt. Murphy’s “powerful sense of right and wrong,” guided him his whole life, and how he embraced from an early age the importance of “defend[ing] those who could not defend themselves.” “Murph,” as he was known by his friends, was our nation’s 3,445th Medal of Honor recipient, the highest honor our nation bestows.

Why don’t our schools take next week, as Veterans Day is celebrated, to start a program where they learn about “Murph” and the other Medal of Honor winners throughout their elementary- and secondary-school careers? Why not invite a veteran in to school next week? Such study would help teach our children history with real-life heroes and, at the same time, it would help repay the debt to those heroes by transmitting their stories unto the next generations. I cannot think of a greater way for young children and young adults to learn history than through the stories that make our history - and these stories deserve to be told and retold.

A time of war is a terrible thing, but it brings opportunities for teachable moments, and it is about the best time there can be to make our heroes and their cause teachable and estimable again. If we rededicate ourselves to studying our history and our people rightly, if we take the time to look at the entirety of our firmament, we will see what our Founders saw we could be, what foreigners who came here saw all along, and what we ourselves can - even today - see once again: that we have something precious here. That something is called America, where young men and women sign up to protect her each and every day in the uniform of our armed services. And it is worth the time of every young man and every young woman in our nation’s classrooms to study why.

[alanrobisch]

did your wife''''s friend ever give English lessons to immigrants to the U.S when she lived there? Do you? Or do you get P***sed off and impatient with them

She is not bi-lingual and could not nor could I with my limited french. She took courses in French so she could speak with people in their native language.

I love to teach and I remember when we had a french exchange student who I tried to help learn english. I knew her only briefly.

[alanrobisch]

logicanada

I would love to do as you suggest. I met recently a french chef in my job who I got on famously with. He was a very kind and gentle person. He put up with my attempt to use my limited french to talk to him. I have studied french for 4 yrs but since I never immersed myself in it I never learned to converse in it.

As far as American students having a materialistic view, I would agree and this has been true for many years, Myself I went to college because I loved to learn. Many go because they are expected to and do not have a love of learning. I assume foreign student who come to the US to be educated would see that as their priority. I am not sure if this is a fair comparison. Note my best freind is multilingual and loves to vacation in the south of France. I myself find the most interesting when I get to meet people from other countries and find out about their cultures. I met a russian woman and our only common language was limited french and while we didn''t have a great conversation It was interesting

[alanrobisch]

It belongs to the scholars... like it or leave it! If you want to paint over our wrongness in this war, leave the U.S.A cuz my country is about TRUTH, not LIES.

Posted by ubrew12 at

In reading history I have found that much depends on your own preconceptions as what is right or wrong. Scholars often differ on the same issue where the facts are not in dispute. We fought in Vietnam because we thought is was necessary to stem the tide of communism. Were there bad things done by us in fighting the war I''m sure there were. as to leaving to scholars how we view a war or any event is irresponsible. I read a book sponsored by the UN about early history in the middle east. the russian marxist historian consistently differed from western historians on the same issue. He saw it through a diferent prism where economics was always the deciding factor.

the same can be said for the vietnam war. We can take all the bad things and probably make americans horrible mean person. We can take what was i think an honorable intention that failed. In part because of our fear that china would attack us if we invaded NOrth Vietnam as in the KOrean war. If we had won the war I am sure the enmity that many felt would not be there.

Please don''t tell other people who should live in the the United States simply because they don''t share your view on the vietnamese war.

[jon2012-2009]

logicanada: "I can''t think of one program on television these days geared toward good life values or morals."

So the endless televangelism doesn''t count? When I watch tv or go on the net, I seek entertainment or information. Generally, it offends me to find material in the public domain that attempts no matter how subtly to convey a moral stance. Just the facts, please. I know that''s hard to do. Ultimately, it''s up to the individual to search and process a range of information and reach his own understanding.

[ubrew12]

alanrobisch2 said: "Many of my fellow church goers were retired military who fought in vietnam and have a different view than your teacher."

I''m watching ''Saving Private Ryan'' right now as I write. The view Bennett wants to present to young Americans is the PREVAILING view. But ANYONE who fought and suffered in Vietnam owes it to young Americans to present a different view: that Americans can undertake wars of choice that have absolutely no strategic value to the homeland, and get so caught up in the romantic emotionalism of ''combat'' that they just CAN''T imagine leaving. This is how tens of thousands of young Americans are sacrificed: not to an honorable American ideal, but to a false god of pride and ego. It happened then, its happening now in Iraq, and NOTHING you can say or do changes that ONE TWIT. That''s the correct judgement of HISTORY!!! NO... it doesn''t belong to the conquerors. It belongs to the scholars... like it or leave it! If you want to paint over our wrongness in this war, leave the U.S.A cuz my country is about TRUTH, not LIES.

[imnho]

I have no problem with a balanced view of american history. The whole picture should be taught.This would include the times when the county shined and the times when the country wandered of the Moral reservation. The people on the far ends of the politcal devide are not interested.

[logicanada]

Alanrobisch... did your wife''s friend ever give English lessons to immigrants to the U.S when she lived there? Do you? Or do you get P***sed off and impatient with them?
The issue in Quebec is not about being French. It is about preserving the French culture there. This small vocal minority of French speaking advocates have a large voice but it is only because they speak out against anything(and I mean ANYTHING) that threatens what they see as a threat to their preference. It almost resembles the vocal Jewish minority in the U.S. as manifest by B''nai B''rith, the Jewish defense league etc.
The purpose of my post was not to comment on the difference between our countries because they are too similar in many ways. I was commenting on the decline of value education occurring in the U.S. as opposed to their developed industrial counterparts around the globe.
If you ask a foreign student schooling in the U.S what he wants he will say ''an education''. If you ask a domestic student what he wants he will likely say ''a new cell phone or i-pod. Education in the U.S it seems is growing more introverted, as is sometimes evidenced by your own lack of global savvy.
Visit Quebec city.
Go to a real French restaurant.
Order in French. . . . tip well and don''t forget...
Thank them for not serving freedom fries with the Chateaubriand pour deux.

[alanrobisch]

You live in a progressively aggressive and angry society. There is little hope for generation ''''screwed'''' other than as sandbags for the bullets in wars to come.

Posted by logicanada at 02:33 PM : Nov 11, 2007

If their is a reason I could dislike you is your us against you attitude. Apparently as a canadian you are proud of a your country and find it very easy to criticize the United states and its problems.

I might remind you that pride goeth before a fall. We americans have this problem and iot would seem you do as well. I might note that the perfect society of canada has come close to fracturing because of the french chauvinism.

My wife''s best freind lived in canada lived in Montreal for six years and tried her best to learn french yet when she stumbled in french and had trouble expressing herself french canadians who spoke english would not help her but pretend not to know English

[logicanada]

''See the soldier
with his gun,
who must be dead,
to be admired''.

Gordon Lightfoot;
Don Quixote.

[logicanada]

Knowledge is power. Ignorance is bliss. With the evolving wealth gap in the Untied States the wealthy will need millions of bliss-filled, distracted people to fill their low paying jobs and to die in wars for their benefit. No educated person would willingly stay in a country where he or she will never own their own property or be able to retire at an agreeable age.
One of the biggest issues during the time of slavery in the U.S. was to see that slaves were denied an education, and when that time passed, die-hard southerners didn''t want their children and grandchildren to receive the same education as their white counterparts. Most children these days may know how to read but are kept in a bubble as far as world events, history and culture. Not much exists for them beyond Hollywood nonsense and video games designed to condition them against violence and agression. I can''t think of one program on television these days geared toward good life values or morals. Instead Dog the Bounty Hunter dominates and prison or cop shows dominate. You live in a progressively aggressive and angry society. There is little hope for generation ''screwed'' other than as sandbags for the bullets in wars to come.

[alanrobisch]

My high school history teacher had been a Marine in Vietnam. His view of our history was, to put it mildly, just a bit more jaundiced than the view Bennett would like to indoctrinate young Americans with. Say it with me, Bennett... Sig Heil!


Posted by ubrew12 at 11:52 AM : Nov 11, 2007

Many of my fellow church goers were retired military who fought in vietnam and have a different view than your teacher.

Objective history is impossible but what Mr. Bennett doesn''t take more money to teach history just a balance. Many liberals feel the need to take our history and emphasize the negatives and often conservatives do the opposite. What he is speaking for is a balance. the current preponderance of liberal views in academia have resulted in a very negaitve view of american history being taught

[jon2012-2009]

"Too many of our nation%u2019s adults have taken too dark a view of their country and have not seen fit to transmit her story down to the next generation. Too many in our culture would rather point out our nation%u2019s failings than its successes. And in our schools, too many textbooks on American history are politically one-sided (turning off those with opposing political views). Worse, and more often, many of them are just plain boring."

The point of this paragraph is vague as to how it relates to the sad condition of our young people not knowing the basic facts of our nation''s history. What role do parents have in "teaching" history to their kids anyway? In primitive cultures, without a fancy educational system, I imagine this is a shared responsibility that members of the culture accept and cherish. In today''s America? I''m not sure about that role. While were at it, why single out history? How about math and science? I heard we aren''t doing great either in those subjects especially with certain groups trying to corrupt the system with religious ***.

[ubrew12]

Bennett: "Wartime Is Horrific, But Brings Opportunities For Teachable Moments"

That reminds me of an editorial I read last week that suggested that Global Warming offered a chance for American ingenuity to rise to its finest hour.

You can almost smell these people in their back rooms planning personally-financially-rewarding havoc in order to give other American''s ''a chance to learn the value of sacrifice''. Then they loudly complain that those of us who are on to their duplicity are ''America haters''.

"Why not invite a veteran in to school next week?" Why not. Thanks to Bennett-style cutbacks the students aren''t learning the three R''s anyway.

My high school history teacher had been a Marine in Vietnam. His view of our history was, to put it mildly, just a bit more jaundiced than the view Bennett would like to indoctrinate young Americans with. Say it with me, Bennett... Sig Heil!