Beech Tree News Network

The notion that the past predicts the future has been around long, and proven to be true over and over: we could almost call it a law--like gravity or centrifugal force. We welcome calamity when we fail to heed this.

If a boy slaps his girlfriend around before they are married, he will after they are married, or worse. If a man cheats on his first wife and they divorce, he will do the same with his second wife if he remarries.

How does this translate into what we call HISTORY? History happened yesterday or a zillion years ago; the important this is what was the cause and effect of the happening? How does it affect our lives now, and the lives of our generations to come? If things keep going like they are, NOT GOOD.

In a recent student survey, 556 seniors, from fifty-five of the nation's top rated colleges and universities, were asked thirty-four questions from a high school course in U.S. history. Four out of five flunked. Only 22 percent linked the words, "government of the people, by the people, and for the people," to Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. The good news--98 percent knew the rapper Snoop Doggie Dog, and 99 percent identified Beavis and Butthead.

California's Stanford University has thrown out it's required course in The History of Western Civilization and replaced it with a course called, "Culture Ideas and Values." WHOSE VALUES?

In the new Virginia State Standards for Learning History, first graders will find Pocahontas gets equal time with Cap. John Smith. In introducing younger children to the Civil War, teachers have dropped Lee and "Stonewall" Jackson. Third graders will study the "highly developed West African kingdom of Mali," that of our old friend Mansa Musa. A new emphasis is to be placed on Confucianism and the Indus Valley Civilization. Who and what was dropped to make room for Confucius?: Paul Revere, Davy Crockett, Booker T. Washington, John Paul Jones, Thanksgiving Day, Pilgrims, and Independence Day . . . they were all sacked. In addition, third graders got to study Aztec "skills, labor system, and architecture." Somehow they left out the quaint old Aztec custom of human sacrifice.

Russian dissident, Alexander Solzhenitzen, said, "To destroy a people you must first sever their roots." UCLA was awarded two million dollars by the U.S. Department of Education to develop new National History Standards for textbooks from fifth through twelfth grades. One of the things that stood out was the fact that the Presidency of George Washington was never mentioned, nor his Farewell Address. America's moon landing in 1969 did NOT appear. BUT, the Soviet Union was commended for its "great advances" in space exploration. Teachers were urged to have their students conduct a mock trial of John D. Rockefeller (that terrible old capitalist). Has the U.S. Department of Education lost sight of the fact, THIS IS A CAPITALIST NATION!??? Is it trying to SEVER OUR ROOTS? Yes. It's called SOCIALISM - where the Government says "what's yours is MINE, if I want to take it and give it to somebody or something other than you . . . I will, and I'll decide who this is."

Some may remember in the 1950s Americans Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed for selling atomic bomb secrets to Russia. They were U.S. citizens. Our own U.S. Department of Education in accepting UCLA's National History Standards, URGED "leeway" for teachers to teach the right or wrong of this dastardly act, "either way." THIS IS WHAT YOUR KIDS MAY BE LEARNING IN THE STUDY OF HISTORY.

"Sail on O ship of state; sail on O union strong and great."

Kindest regards . . .