Part I -- Lost: A Common Cultural Knowledge

The educational establishment's focus on tests and accountability has, combined with a lack of reading and imagination, coupled with governmental mandates, left us with generations with no sense of geography, history or our cultural and literary heritage. Parents and grand parents share some of the blame for not passing this material on to their children and grandchildren.

The real concern is that as one generation follows another, the core common knowledge will be lost forever.

When I was growing up and, indeed, while I was a student in college and law school, graduation from the latter in 1959, my friends and I would spend hours discussing religion and politics and current events. In these discussions, it was acknowledged that we all possessed a wealth of knowledge of events that did not necessarily come from formal school training. This common base of knowledge allowed us to discuss events and place them in appropriate perspective so that we could argue, from our common background.

What was the composition of the common bond?

It was a mixture of ancient and world history, geography, literature and contemporary culture. We did not have to explain a reference to Lamont Cranston ("Who knows the evil that lurks in the heart of man? The Shadow knows."). We knew sufficient American history to place the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Civil War in context and could discuss the ramifications of those wars and what resulted from them. We were familiar with our national governmental structure and, for example, the ramifications of the adoption and repeal of Prohibition.

We had our music and the popular culture of the day; but, we knew that there was more to the world. We were exposed to would-be, self-proclaimed and imagined celebrities, but they could be placed in context because we were aware of past examples of celebrities and their foibles.

Children today, and, indeed, young adults, do not have this cultural body of knowledge. Instead, they are filled with information about celebrities and pseudo-celebrities, all seeking their "fifteen minutes". Armed with I-Pod, cellular telephone and blogs, the young people are, alas, isolated from the real history that surrounds them and are not encouraged to stretch their minds and explore.

Certainly, the school system does not encourage independent reading and imaginative thought; instead there is an emphasis on tests, scores and statistical accountability. Moreover, the federal and state governments impose measured accountability, sometimes not with the most pure of motives. Certainly, there is nothing wrong with accountability but in order to fit into the forms and score sheets, imagination takes a back place.

I decided to check on my opinions, albeit in a purely unscientific manner. I have distributed copies of a questionnaire to a number of persons in different parts of the United States. While the information presented will not meet the requirements of random surveys, I have asked the persons conducting the interviews to pick respondents between 20 and 40 years of age. Some of the questions require some knowledge of history (When did the United States declare its independence and who was the British King at that time?), others require some familiarity with literary classics (Who was Tom Sawyer, Ichabod Crane, Rip Van Winkle?) and others require some familiarity with American folklore (Who was The Lone Ranger, Paul Bunyan, and so forth.).

I will not prejudge before the results are in but I have my gut opinions!

Keep tuned for the results.

If any educator sees fit to challenge me or my views, I encourage such challenge. Perhaps a dialogue will be helpful to everyone!