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Podcasts | General Education

Grateful Americans Fight for U.S. History

August 31, 2016

Grateful American Foundation President David Bruce Smith and ACTA President Dr. Michael Poliakoff join Higher Ed Now to examine how and why American history is disappearing from school curricula.

David Bruce Smith talks about his organization’s efforts to increase interest in American history for K-12 students. Dr. Poliakoff supplements this work at the college level with ACTA’s latest report, No U.S. History?, which found that even history majors in college are rarely required to take a course dedicated to American history. Both experts agree that improving teacher education may be the key to reigniting interest in our country’s story.

 

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Frederick Douglass was born to Harriet Bailey, an enslaved field hand in Talbot County, Maryland, and an unknown father, probably of European descent. Although his exact birth date is unknown, Douglass was told by his former owner that he had been born in February 1818, and he later proceeded to celebrate his birthday on February 14 alongside Valentine’s Day. A fierce orator, ardent abolitionist, and brilliant thinker, Douglass eventually won his freedom and became one of our nation’s greatest proponents of the Constitution and the importance of education.
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On October 6, the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal released a report on civics requirements in college and secondary education across all 50 states. Worried about growing civic ignorance and political polarization, more states are requiring high schools and colleges to teach civics: the history, institutions, and traditions that form America’s political system. The Martin Center’s report found that 14 of 50 states require students to take a civics class in order to graduate from public universities.
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