Thursday, August 6, 2015

Are kids taught the whole story of American History?

Are our kids learning the truth about our founding in school? Sometimes I have to wonder. There are certain things that people do or say every day that make me wonder if they even have a clue about how and why this nation became what it is today. They don't seem to understand what makes this nation Exceptional.  

Here, I'll give you an example. On Monday Ted Cruse gave a speech announcing his candidacy for president. He talked about the Constitution and the preamble to the Declaration of Independence. The preamble, if you didn't learn it in school, goes like this: 
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
So, basically this is an acknowledgement by the founders of our country, declaring independence from Britain, that human rights are bestowed by God via creation, that the natural state of the human being contains God-given rights. It forms the foundation of the founding of this country.

Evidence that this hasn't been taught is when people who do talk about it are mocked and ridiculed. A perfect example comes from a Tweet by Yahoo News journalist Meredith Shiner:
Bizarre to talk about how rights are God-made and not man-made in your speech announcing a POTUS bid? When Constitution was man-made?"
Many people might miss this, especially if they hadn't been taught the true history of our founding. Yet to me this Tweet flat out shows that Shiner, a political reporter, was either not taught about the founding, or slept through that class. But, considering we see comments like this every day, I'm led to think it's simply not taught.

Surely history is taught, but things that don't support the progressive agenda are conveniently left out. Kids are simply not taught the true history of how our nation was founded. How else do you explain why people are so eager to sacrifice their liberties at the expense of moving forward their agenda? How else do you explain ignorant comments by adults who obviously graduated from American schools.

Just think of it this way. You have people like Shiner who are teaching our kids. You have people like this who are teaching adults. If all you do all day is read Yahoo News, then chances are pretty good you aren't going to learn about the true history of America. You're not going to learn it because the reporters teaching it have no clue. 

So when people who talk about the true nature of our founding the way Cruz did, people like Shiner look at them with dumbfounded expressions. Look, Shiner is a graduate of Duke University. She is well educated. But she is not well educated. This is sort of another example of how education does not make people smart, common sense does.

I would love to hear Shiner explain unalienable rights. I would like to see her reaction when I tell her that the idea that people are born with God-given rights is what separates our nation from all others. It's this idea that our Constitution was founded, and why it was written in a way to prevent our government from making any law that would "deny" these rights.

In the preamble only a few of the natural rights were listed. Jefferson didn't want to take up too much space listing them, so he wrote, "among these are..." This is because he knew that the other colonists knew what the other rights were. But, to make sure future generations didn't get confused, they listed all of them in the Bill of Rights.  (It is this truth that makes life so miserable for progressives who wish to advance their agenda, but that's a discussion for another day).

Yes, so our nation was founded on the belief that we are all born with God-given rights. No government can take these rights away, they can only be denied by government. Your right to make decisions you think are smart and some minority person in Washington thinks are stupid can be denied by a law -- but it can never be taken away from you. You can make whatever decision you want, even if it is denied. Of course if it's been denied, and you get caught, you might be punished.

I wonder if Shiner knows this. I wonder what her reaction would be to hearing this truth. She is totally clueless, and it's probably because the American School System failed her. She is probably one of many Americans taught in school that the government is better at solving problems than individuals. She is probably well educated about the theory of man-made global warming. She is probably well educated on political correctness.

She probably thinks, as too many Americans do these days, that her rights come from Washington; that everything she's allowed to do comes from the pen of man. She probably thinks that individuals need to be directed by experts in Washington. She probably thinks superior beings in Washington -- such as Duke or Harvard graduates -- need to act on our behalf to lead us in the right direction, which is whatever direction they think is right.

I wonder what Obama was taught about our history. I wonder what John Kerry was taught about our history. No, actually I don't wonder. I get a pretty good idea by listening to them talk that, even if they were privy to an accurate history, they weren't paying much attention.

The founding fathers risked everything so that Shiner could do what she does. Yet she has no clue. If such men existed today, she might think of them as extremists.

She probably thinks rights are whatever lawmakers say they are. But if that were the case, if this is what the founders thought, then this nation would not exist today. It would not be the same. Because, if that were the case, if rights came from the pen of man, the pen of man could take them away. If they are God-granted, then you always have them.

This reminds me of a story I heard once of a prisoner in a Japanese or German (I can't remember which) war camp during WWII. He was behind bars and had a gun aimed at his head, and he said to the guard, "I am more free than you right now." The enemy guard, laughed and said, "Now what would make you think that?" The U.S. prisoner said, "Because no matter what you do to me, I can still love my country."

Shiner probably wouldn't understand.

Just to make sure I am not off my rocker on this topic, I posted the following on Facebook knowing that some one would argue with me to prove my point. 
Too many kids get through the American educational system without being taught that this nation was formed based on the idea that human rights are bestowed by God via creation, and that the natural state of human beings contains God-given rights. My point is, the truth about our founding is not taught in many of those history books. So kids grow up not appreciating what American Exceptionalism really is
I received two quick responses, which included my nephew:
It's not the kids fault that we teach our kids the minimum requirements for a factory job and that we don't pay teachers enough to care as well as treat every student the same even tho every student is most definitely not the same, And standardized testing is just a joke.

And the whole "Merica" and "God" thing is just stupid.
And a cousin:
I'm confused. What do we need to teach kids about the founding fathers that we don't? 
This last one came with a link to Wikepedia: Separation of Church and State.

Yes, I do believe these comments help to prove my point: our government run school system is not doing a good job of teaching the truth about the founding of this country.  Our nation suffers as a result.

And you're welcome to disagree with me, although the consequence of doing so might prove me right


Further reading:

  1. Newsbusters: Yahoo Political Reporter: Cruz Talking About God-Given Rights Is 'Bizarre'
  2. RushLimbaugh.com: The Americans Who Risked Everything 
  3. The decline of American History in Public Schools
  4. What is American Exceptionalism
  5. Transcript: Ted Cruse Speech at Liberty University
  6. How do you define smart?

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