The last movie that my family and I went to see had a
preview for a new World War II film entitled Dunkirk. Now, I’ve never been the biggest history
buff, but I like to think I know at least the important events in our
history. However, after watching this
preview, it started to dawn on me how little the American education teaches us
about anything that occurs after the Civil War.
As a matter of fact, the only thing I ever learned in school about
either of the World Wars was about the Holocaust and that was in English, not
history. I do vaguely remember learning about
the Victory Gardens, but I’m not even sure that was in school. We were never taught about the World Wars,
not even about Pearl Harbor. Most of
what people my age know about these wars has either been from movies or from parents
who are history buffs.
To be honest, this realization started while I was in
Italy. Not only was I taking classes in
the subject, but I picked up a copy of the Monuments Men book (because it was
one of the few that were in English). Between these two sources, I was rather surprised by how much I didn't know. Pretty much the entirety of Italian
history that we learned focused on how the wars affected their country and
culture. Now, I know that it is a much
bigger deal for the European countries because the wars were actually fought on
their soil, but America was still a major force in the World Wars. I just don’t understand why our history
education essentially stops with the Civil War.
Even my Government class didn’t really go into modern day. In four months, I learned more about the
World Wars and America’s role in them than I did in the last 15 years. The saying goes that “those who do not learn
history are doomed to repeat it.” What
does that say about the future of our generation?
I think a lot of this has to do with outdated curriculum
requirements. Just look at all of the
things that people NEED to know to live as adults that they are never
taught. Very few schools even offer
classes like Home Ec., and when they do it’s a complete waste of time. Schools need to be teaching us some of those
basic life skills like how to sew on a button, how to write a check, and how to
do our taxes, but that is clearly less important than taking X number of
classes so we can get into college. In
fact, we’re expected to decide the course of our lives by picking a major when
we still have to raise our hands to go to the bathroom. How is that a good idea? Schools preach that they are preparing us for
the real world, but how? We don’t know our history, we don’t know basic life
skills, and the next generation is even worse off than mine is.
