After her first day as an elementary school teacher, Marge Simpson complains that "it took the children 40 minutes to locate Canada on the map," to which Homer responds, "Marge, anyone could miss Canada, all tucked away down there." Unfortunately, this anecdote from "The Simpsons" offers insight into an alarming trend that has developed in the American educational system. As American educators vigorously promote math and science to close the nation's achievement gap with the rest of the world, illiteracy among the American public in the social sciences has risen to disturbing levels. Now more than ever, Americans need to be just as proficient in history, geography and civics as the "hard" sciences.
In an increasingly global labor market, American students must be skilled in math and science to compete with students from all around the world for the jobs of tomorrow. However, the social sciences that allow Americans to better understand our world here at home receive a diminished emphasis in education today in order to maintain a competitive edge in math and science at the global level.
More than half of high school seniors tested below the "basic" achievement level in history in a recent National Center for Education Statistics survey, a distinction that did not apply to any other academic discipline. In fact, 52 percent of respondents failed to identify the Soviet Union as an American ally in World War II and 72 percent were unable to offer the significance of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.
Understandably, the study of math and science is rigorously taught, as the disciplines open doors to many lucrative career opportunities. However, as too many teachers today are programmed to "teach to the test," the unwise trend of "teaching to the career" has seemingly developed at premature levels, at the expense of offering students a lasting foundation in the social sciences. The No Child Left Behind Act specifically offers money for math and science programs, but neglects the social sciences. Along with the literature of Faulkner, chemistry of Pauling, biology of Watson and innovation of Edison, American history is a vital thread in the tapestry of the American national identity. A proverbial "national identity crisis" lurks behind the historical illiteracy of today.
Geography has been nearly gutted as an academic discipline. Few students even touch a globe after their last capture of Carmen Sandiego in the intermediate school years. Today, it takes an American invasion of a distant nation for Americans to learn about the geography of other countries. Americans probably know more about the characteristics of Afghanistan and Iraq than those of our neighbors in the western hemisphere. As citizens of lone superpower on Earth, Americans cannot afford to be ignorant about the world beyond its borders.
After the Soviet Union shocked the world by successfully launching Sputnik, President Eisenhower proposed massive budget increases in math and science education to close the "technology gap" and better prepare the nation to wage the Cold War. Similarly today, amid a war of ideas against "Islamofascists" that is as equally political as military in nature, Americans need to reemphasize the social sciences that foster a deeper understanding and appreciation of the American democratic identity and tradition.
American students display the same distressing deficiencies in civics and their understanding of their constitutional rights. A majority of high school students surveyed by the Journalism Education Association held incorrect knowledge about the rights of flag burning and the government's ability to restrict indecent material on the Internet.
The recent uproar surrounding unpopular remarks made by Harvard President Lawrence Summers and CNN Executive Eason Jordan further corroborate the existence of an unsettling cloud that hovers over free speech in the United States today. A dangerous mob rule mentality has fostered an environment that attacks the slightest controversial speech. In such a political landscape, students need an education that will stress the teaching of their liberties, so that they may exercise their right to speak out and be controversial.
The JEA survey revealed that only one half of surveyed students believe newspapers should be able to publish stories without government approval. Our generation is not instilled with the same sense of suspicion toward government that the Vietnam War and Watergate drilled into our parents' generation. In the age of both waning emphasis on civics in the curriculum and the PATRIOT Act -- when the government must take away some of our freedoms to protect us from those who supposedly want to take our away our freedoms -- will future Americans be willing to stand up for their rights?
