Monday, July 4

The Dumbing Down of America or Were you born in Mexico padra

Sad state of affairs. Through all patriotic noise of today I read only 1/4 of adults in America know when the Declaration of Independence was signed. I'm not so much talking about the exact date, as I have heard it wasn't July 4 but the year... 1776. Beyond that, most don't know what country we won independence from. Was everyone sleeping in American History class or something? I mean I didn't do well in school but even I know these facts. A few years back I was living with a woman and her 12 year old daughter, when asked "who won the Revolutionary War" answer was "I don't know and don't care". I was shocked to say the least.  Though my grades were poor, at least I did enjoy learning, exercising my mind, and coming away with knowledge. So I guess to most all the fireworks are shooting off tonight just to make excessive noise and the exact reason of the celebration got lost in the kaboom somewhere down the road. Bet if asked most the "who was Thomas Jefferson" question most would answer "didn't he make english muffins" or may be "yea, he made that one song" (he was author of the Bill of Rights and 3rd president of this great nation) WAKE UP AMERICA!!

4 comments:

Tempo said...

Those who dont learn from history are doomed to repeat it..
Not just your country mate, it's like that here in OZ as well, the damn govt saving money by NOT educating our kids and too many parents who just dont care.

Douglas said...

Having just taken a quiz on this (and not doing all that well), the July 4th date was the approval of the Declaration, the first signature was on July 2, and the last signature (for the 13th colony) came on August 2. But these were facts that weren't taught to me (except, I think, the lengthy period of signing). And that's trivia when you think about it. Ask people what is in that document and all they might know is the "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" part.

Windsmoke. said...

Didn't like history at high school down here in OZ to boring. When i got older i started to read more about Australian history and haven't stopped since. Tempo's comment rings true :-).

Commander Zaius said...

I agree with everything you said, in fact I am daily reminded from my coworkers of such weird fantasies as that the majority of the United States government budget goes foreign aid, Einstein got the General Theory of Relativity from the Bible, and the ever present Obama is a Kenyan-born Muslim and damn that fake birth certificate.

Great blog, adding you to my blogroll.