Question:
Mr. Limbaugh must still be on the
OxyContin. In fact, I take his bizarre comments personally.
Not only did my daughter . . . recently attend and graduate
from ETHS (and then the University of Wisconsin, Madison),
but also within the last 3 years, received her Master's in
Education -- and now teaches U.S. history! -- to sophomores
at Chicago Vocational High School, [a choice she made] . . .
largely because of her ETHS experiences & its curriculum.
And, as always, Rush's research is nonexistent. Many ETHS
students live in Skokie, whose parents and grandparents were
directly harmed by one Adolf Hitler. Perhaps Rush never
heard about that little historical incident called the
Holocaust, and how to this day it deeply affects the
Evanston/ Skokie community?
Answer:
Polls show that American public schools are failing to teach students basic
facts about American history. I wouldn't trust any alleged secondary quotes
by Limbaugh in the news media, or by public school educators, most of whom
get vdegrees from liberal, biased Departments of Education at liberal
universities.
By the way, George Washington never said anything about the Treaty of
Tripoli; the quote below is a questionable quote from the alleged first
Treaty of Tripoli that does not appear in the final Treaty of Tripoli
ratified by Congress years after this quote was alleged to have been made
(see David Barton's well researched article on the treaties available on the
Internet). In fact, a recent book by two history professors, "A Patriot's
History of the United States" (Sentinel/Penguin Books, 2004), shows that the
United States was indeed founded as a Christian nation. It also points out
that elected officials are required by the Constitution to take an oath or
affirmation before God, even though no religious test is required (by the
way, an oath or affirmation before God is stronger than a religious test
because a religious test does not legally affirm a belief and a commitment,
but an oath or affimration does).
Perhaps public school education has improved since my day, but, after doing
extensive reading in history through independent study in graduate school
and post graduate school, I find that the history taught in the public
schools I attended, including my college preparatory classes in high school,
taught me little of what I truly needed to know. Thus, it is doubtful that
the average student of ETHS is really well-versed in American history,
whatever Mr. Limbaugh is alleged to have said.
