|
|
|
|
|
|
All great principles and institutions face challenges, and the wisdom of the humanities, and the principles of democratic self-government, are not immune. We are standing along the periphery of a horrendous attack from without on our way of life and government. But we face a serious challenge to our country that lies within our borders--and even within our schools: the threat of American amnesia. One of the common threads of great civilizations is the cultivation of memory, Lincoln's "mystic chords of memory, stretching from battlefield and patriot grave and to every living heart and hearthstone all over this great land." Many of the great works of antiquity are transliterated from oral traditions. From Homer to the Beowulf epics, such tales trained people to remember their heritage and history through story and song, and passed those stories and songs throughout generations. Old Testament stories repeatedly depict prophets and priests encouraging people to remember, to "write on their hearts" the events, circumstances, and stories that make up their history. We are in danger of forgetting this lesson. For years, even decades, polls, tests and studies have shown that Americans do not know their history, and cannot remember even the most significant events of the 20th century. Of course, we are a forward-looking people. We are most concerned with what happens tomorrow than what happened yesterday. But we are in danger of having our view of the future obscured by our ignorance of the past. We cannot see clearly ahead if we are blind to history. Unfortunately, most indicators point to a worsening of our case of American amnesia. I'll give just a few examples. One study of students at 55 elite universities found that over a third were unable to identify the Constitution as establishing the division of powers in our government, only 29% could identify the term "Reconstruction," and 40% could not place the Civil War in the correct half-century. The recent National Assessment of Educational Progress test found that over half of high school seniors couldn't say who we fought in World War II. And lest you think I'm picking on students--and hey, I'm a former professor--a nation-wide survey recently commissioned by Columbia Law School found that almost two-thirds of all Americans think Karl Marx's dogma, "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs," was or may have been written by the founding fathers and was included in the Constitution. Such collective amnesia is dangerous. Citizens kept ignorant of their history are robbed of the riches of their heritage, and handicapped in their ability to understand and appreciate other cultures. If Americans cannot recall whom we fought, and whom we fought alongside, during World War II, it should not be assumed that they will long remember what happened here on Sept. 11. And a nation that does not know why it exists, or what it stands for, cannot be expected to long endure. We must recover from the amnesia that shrouds our history in darkness, our principles in confusion, and our future in uncertainty.
Wall Street Journal |
