American students are worse at U.S. history than any other subject. This is not a new fact, but continues to be troubling, particularly for Kenneth Davis, author of "Don't Know Much About History: Everything You Need to Know About American History but Never Learned." The New York Times reports that only 12 percent of high school seniors demonstrated "proficiency" in U.S. history and 55 percent scored "below basic" in nationwide testing. In other words: we don't know our own history and haven't improved for the past two decades. Davis takes a closer look at the reasons behind this continued lack of historical knowledge.
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The show is a co-production of WNYC Radio and Public Radio International, in collaboration with New York Times Radio and WGBH Boston.
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Comments [3]
Fair enough. Where was the "distortion" on Paul Revere?
I don't always reply to Comments. But the one above is simply not correct. I said, "a symposium on Paul Revere." I don't believe it was "snide" and I certainly mentioned no person connected to it by name.
The obligatory and snide comment about Palin was utterly predictable (and unfair) but what about this quote from the President.
""I'm always worried about using the word 'victory,' because, you know, it invokes this notion of Emperor Hirohito coming down and signing a surrender to MacArthur."
Hirohito did not sign the surrender document with MacArthur. Biden's mistakes are too many to mention.
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