Sunday, September 20, 2009

Traditional History Courses Are in Decline

One of the obvious reasons we are living in this 'entitlement' age is the lack of education in history. Since the 60s, we are looking at the long progression in dumbing down our children by the radical left of the 60s.

"A university is not a political party, and an education is not an indoctrination." David Horowitz, reformed 60s radical.

We must take back our schools and universities, and home-school (full or part-time) in the meantime.

From Eagle Forum's Education Reporter:


Traditional History Courses Are in Decline
September, 2009

The teaching of history has changed significantly since the 1960s, with modern history departments deemphasizing great people and events and instead calling students' attention to social and cultural history and trends.


"The boomer generation made a decision in the 1960s that history was starting over," Naval War College history professor David Kaiser explained to the New York Times. As a result, today the teaching of history "is no longer focused on government, politics, or institutions" — in other words, on the field of diplomatic history. This change in focus recently became even more evident when the executive editor of the journal Diplomatic History, the sole publication devoted to the subject, proposed changing the journal's name.

Since the 1970s, the number of history professors at four-year institutions has more than doubled, but the growth has primarily occurred in newer specialties such as women's or gender history. Four out of five history departments now boast at least one faculty member who focuses on women's history. Just half of departments employ a diplomatic historian, and 31.7% employ an economic historian. In 1975, three-quarters of history departments had at least one diplomatic historian, and 54.7% had an economic historian. Intellectual and constitutional history have also shrunk as specialties, while cultural history has grown.

Brett Lintott, a Ph.D. student in international relations at the University of Toronto, said that "being a young historian in this field is thus a rather lonely and sobering experience." Some historians in more trendy fields, according to Lintott, feel and express "genuine derision" toward the study of international relations in history. (New York Times, 6-11-09)


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