Alarming Education Fact!
Today I was reading an email I received from ASCD. Within an article listed in the email on "Schools as Guardians of Democracy" the following statistics were given:
Less than one-third of our nation's 8th graders can identify the historical purpose of the Declaration of Independence. Fewer than one in five high school students are able to explain how citizen participation benefits democracy. And nearly 100 million U.S. citizens who were eligible to vote didn't exercise that right during the 2008 presidential election.
This is extremely alarming to me. How do students go through 8 years of civil/American history and not know this fact. Why do high school students not know why they should vote, advocate for change, etc? What is ever sadder that in a population of 300 million, 100 million decided to say I do not care?
Unfortunately, we are learning the hard way that who we vote for makes a difference. That the things we neglect to spend five minutes on to review each day, bite us in the behind. Lastly, that we could potentially setting up those that will protect us, provide for us, and be leaders in change to simply adopt to the motto of "Who gives a damn!"
As a child I always found history quite interesting, partly due to the the enthusiasm my teachers had while teaching it and the ability to discuss historical themes with my mother.
Here is a link to the actual report: http://civicmissionofschools.org/site/documents/ViewGuardianofDemocracy/view
As parents and/or teachers, its just a little something we may want to pay more attention to! Just a thought!
Less than one-third of our nation's 8th graders can identify the historical purpose of the Declaration of Independence. Fewer than one in five high school students are able to explain how citizen participation benefits democracy. And nearly 100 million U.S. citizens who were eligible to vote didn't exercise that right during the 2008 presidential election.
This is extremely alarming to me. How do students go through 8 years of civil/American history and not know this fact. Why do high school students not know why they should vote, advocate for change, etc? What is ever sadder that in a population of 300 million, 100 million decided to say I do not care?
Unfortunately, we are learning the hard way that who we vote for makes a difference. That the things we neglect to spend five minutes on to review each day, bite us in the behind. Lastly, that we could potentially setting up those that will protect us, provide for us, and be leaders in change to simply adopt to the motto of "Who gives a damn!"
As a child I always found history quite interesting, partly due to the the enthusiasm my teachers had while teaching it and the ability to discuss historical themes with my mother.
Here is a link to the actual report: http://civicmissionofschools.org/site/documents/ViewGuardianofDemocracy/view
As parents and/or teachers, its just a little something we may want to pay more attention to! Just a thought!
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