It recently came to my attention at a sporting event that my daughter didn't really know "The Star Spangled Banner". I found out it was not taught in elementary or middle school to my horror. So we are working on that. She was good to go on the pledge of allegiance, which the schools still observe. Along with that, my other daughter, a Senior at FAU only had one year of US History through elementary, middle, and HS.
The one year she did get had a leftist slant with the US always the bad guy in the World. The best thing that has had happened to her are friends returning from military duty overseas giving her another perspective and she readily admits that has help open her eyes.

(03-11-2013 11:02 AM)Boca Rocket Wrote:  It recently came to my attention at a sporting event that my daughter didn't really know "The Star Spangled Banner". I found out it was not taught in elementary or middle school to my horror. So we are working on that. She was good to go on the pledge of allegiance, which the schools still observe. Along with that, my other daughter, a Senior at FAU only had one year of US History through elementary, middle, and HS.
The one year she did get had a leftist slant with the US always the bad guy in the World. The best thing that has had happened to her are friends returning from military duty overseas giving her another perspective and she readily admits that has help open her eyes.

Good for you and your daughters Boca!!!

Pulitzer-prize winner, historian David McCullough agrees with you. Here's a Washington Post article which echoes what I heard him say in speech in Santa Fe.

Good advice = read his works and those of other award-winning historians since the teaching of history (and civics) is clearly lacking in our schools. I recommend Jon Meacham's: Thomas Jefferson The Art of Power

Who here was ever "taught" the National Anthem in school? I never was. When you grow up hearing it at every sporting event, most with the words on the big screen...does it really need "taught" in schools?

FYI - I went to a middle/high school orchestra concert last week and they played it before the performances began.

I imagine it was taught to me in school but that would be longer ago than my memory.

But let's be honest, most people reciting it are doing it because that's what they've been told to do. The one's not doing it are the one's that have made a conscious decision. Tossing aside the reasons they do not sing or recite the pledge is a mistake. Very few kids have met anyone that has actually fought for their freedom that wasn't trying to recruit them and few are those not impressed when they actually do meet someone that has been to war to defend a freedom.

Kids need to meet these folks outside the recruiting room, where they do not feel someone is trying to get something from them.

This isn't on the history teachers. They teach what they are mandated to teach. It's probably on all of us for letting go a part of our culture. There aren't going to be that many schools, if any, that would refuse a vet coming in to tutor or help in school activities. That's a way to build patriotism, not indoctrination.