In President Obama's State of the Union, he said that we needed to emphasize education. I agree with that. Where Obama and I disagree is his focus on science and math. Don't get me wrong, science and math are integral to education, but when a lot of students in this country have serious problems writing and reading and also don't know anything about this country's history, something is going seriously wrong. When a lot of adults don't even know this country's history, there is something even more wrong.
Say what you want about math and science leading to innovation, but what can an innovator create and promote if they lack the skills to read and write and present? What accountant can effectively do his job if he can't communicate with clients? What would this country be if the leading historians on American History weren't American? What happened to the sense of pride in American literature?
I know a lot of people claim that history is boring, that it's not interesting memorizing dates. History doesn't have to be about that. Learning and studying history is more than just knowing what happened. Being trained and exposed to learning history is a way of thinking that is lacking in today's society. It involves reading books and critically evaluating them in a way that you can develop your own opinions. It's about being informed. It's about taking an issue and researching the story behind it. If you look at it, history is a collection of stories that have been passed down and deserve to keep living.
History is also about a sense of pride. Knowing the way this country was founded, knowing the milestones and celebrating the way we have come to be the society we are, is integral to the way we feel about being citizens. Even if you think critically about events in the past and don't agree with what happened, studying history gives you the tools to piece together your own thoughts about why things happen.
So yeah, let's get a better education initiative. But let's be fair to liberal arts as well as math and science. Why can't the two get along?
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