A few years back we surveyed several high school girls in Federal Way with a few simple historical questions like which came first- the Civil War or WW II.
See video of Texas Tech Survey.
One girl in our unscientific survey knew the Civil War came before WW II but had to think about it- a lot. She remembered Harriet Tubman from Black Studies and that jogged her recollection. The video linked above exemplifies the same kind of results we discovered in Federal Way
Most of the HS students in Federal Way get taught much about critical thinking and diversity- both very big with modern educators; history is just for senior year, or so the Federal Way high school students claim. Supposedly knowing the difference between an ad hominem argument and a priori reasoning is more important than knowing any facts. (more…)