Historians Doomed to Repeat Themselves

Written by Tony Perkins | The public schools might be closed, but based on the country’s latest history marks, some kids aren’t missing much! In the “Nation’s Report Card” from the Department of Education, U.S. scores took another big dive in subjects like history, part of an alarming trend that’s prompted the Trump administration to call for “fundamentally rethink[ing] education in America.” And the sooner the better, most people say. At the rate things are going, the only civics our kids will know are the Hondas parked out back.

Calling it “disturbing” and “pervasive,” federal officials tried to come up with some explanation for the across-the-board failure in most eighth-grade classrooms. Except for the “top performing students,” scores in U.S. history were down four points from an already embarrassing mark in 2014. Now, less than a quarter of our country’s eighth graders are considered “proficient” in any social science discipline — and only 15 percent of those can make the grade in U.S. history. We’re talking about students who don’t know about the Lincoln-Douglas debates, the Bill of Rights, or basic global geography, the Washington Examiner laments.

But could these results be coming at the perfect time? Heritage Foundation’s Jonathan Butcher believes so. On “Washington Watch” with Sarah Perry, he pointed out that as discouraging as these numbers are, the coronavirus has actually given parents an opportunity to do something about them. For one, he explains, with more students at home, distance-learning, parents are catching on to what their kids are — and in many cases, aren’t — being taught. By the time children do go back to school in the fall, moms and dads will be a lot more knowledgeable about the gaps in textbooks and classroom lessons. And they’ll be able to bring up those issues and concerns with school administrators. “It’s one thing to be upset about what you read in the news when you hear about what’s being taught in schools. It’s another thing to sit at home with your child [and see it for yourself].”