"Historically illiterate"-----David McCullough on What's Wrong with History Education Today - Intellectual Takeout

David McCullough on What's Wrong with History Education Today - Intellectual Takeout

"In an interview conducted by the Wall Street Journal in 2011, McCullough had some very interesting critiques of modern history education, which I share below.

• Regarding the historical knowledge of youth today: “I know how much these young people—even at the most esteemed institutions of higher learning—don’t know.”
• On the prevalent method of teaching history: “History is often taught in categories—women’s history, African American history, environmental history—so that many of the students have no sense of chronology. They have no idea what followed what.”
• On the content of contemporary history textbooks: “[They are] so politically correct as to be comic. Very minor characters that are currently fashionable are given considerable space, whereas people of major consequence farther back are given very little space or none at all.”...