I could’ve also titled this piece “Cringe-Worthy” and “Mind-Numbingly Painful to Watch.” Um, the video you’re about to see is that awful for two reasons: 1) It’s a clear reminder that we’re losing our ethos and heritage as a country and 2) Wow, oh wow, our education system is quite the disaster. So here’s the deal: On the cusp of the Fourth of July, late-night comedian Jay Leno filmed one of his usual “Jaywalking” segments, this time testing the historical knowledge of Americans on… American history… in light of America celebrating her triumph over tyranny.
Alas, the stupidity is all there…
America gained independence from… Greece! Martha Washington sewed the first American Flag! Winston Churchill was the general who led the Revolutionary War! There were 30 original colonies! America came to being in the year… 1922! (That gem, mind you, came from a college professor. Seriously.)
This Leno clip may be funny, but as you’ll see following the video, the answers contained therein really do mirror the dumbing down of the American mind. See for yourself.
Now that the laughs are out of the way, how scary is it that these folks actually can go to the voting booth on Election Day? I mean, these people don’t even posses rudimentary knowledge of this country: the reasons why we broke ties from England and the moral basis our forebears articulated while organizing a limited form of government.
The Leno segment is not some anecdotal anomaly, but rather a national indictment. Writing on the pages of HUMAN EVENTS, Dr. Richard Brake pointed out that only 46 percent of college seniors were able to identify that the line “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal” is in the Declaration of Independence. If that weren’t bad enough, only 49 percent of Americans overall can name the three branches of government. Forty-nine percent, people!
Similarly, according to research done by the American Civics Literacy Program, 75 percent of college grads have no clue what purpose the First Amendment serves, and barely 50 percent can describe what a free-market is. One main reason why we have an army of ignoramuses out there—or, Obama Zombies, as I like to call them—is because of our Leftist-dominated education establishment. Western Civilization and American civics are no longer education staples. Multiculturalism has replaced George Washington. Schools proudly offer classes like “Native American Feminism” (University of Michigan) and “Cyber Feminism” (Cornell University).
Or how about the University of Pennsylvania’s “Adultery Novel” class, which studies a series of 19th and 20th century works about adultery and watches “several adultery films” to place adultery “into its aesthetic, social and cultural context” Heck, UPENN even finds room for Marx in a course on marital infidelity, viewing trysts through “sociological descriptions of modernity, Marxist examinations of family” and “feminist work on the construction of gender.”
This is what the Left means when they talk about “diversity” and “multiculturalism”: heavy on nonsense and short of American education. But this kind of erasure of American identity and history goes a long way toward explaining the MTV-driven crap that preys on students’ abysmal understanding of the workings of the most powerful and affluent country on the planet.
As we’re celebrating our country’s beginning, let us remember the words of Thomas Paine, as we take it upon ourselves to educate the next generation: “Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.”
