David
McCullough on 60 Minutes last night:
"We are
raising children in America today who are by and large historically
illiterate...I ran into some students on university campuses who were bright and
attractive and likeable. And I was just stunned by how much they didn't know.
One young woman at a university in the Midwest came up to me after one of my
talks and said that until she heard me speak that morning she'd never
understood that the original 13 colonies were all on the East Coast. And I
thought, "What are we doing that's so wrong, so pathetic?" I tried it
again at several other places, colleges and universities, same thing. Now, it's
not their fault. It's our fault. And when I say our fault I don't mean just the
teachers. I mean the parents and grandparents. We have to take part. The
stories around the family dinner table. I say bring back dinner if you want to
improve how children get to know history."

