Dan J. Harkey

Educator & Private Money Lending Consultant

Systemic Ignorance: Why So Many Americans Know So Little History—and Whether It’s by Design

If people remain ignorant from one generation to the next, then change and exploitation can easily be introduced. Each subsequent generation remains unaware of the preceding generations and only holds a frame of reference of their current generation. Manipulation and exploitation are easy because people know no difference; Ignorant people think that is the way it has always been.

by Dan J. Harkey

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Summary

Our public employee, labor union, and monopoly-driven educational infrastructure focus on processes and reporting rather than the kids’ education. Members of the group find it easy and in their best interest to focus on standards, reporting, and bureaucracy, rather than demanding that students receive an education in reading, writing, and math, coupled with the skills necessary to find and hold a job.

Overview:

The ecosystem is clearly broken, but few have the political will to change it. Politicians are frightened to go up against the most powerful labor union in America, the teachers’ union. I hold a lifetime teaching credential and have the expertise to back up my claims.

The evidence of a problem

  • The impact of the decline in national test results is staggering and should be a cause for concern. The 2022 NAEP (Nation’s Report Card) found just 13% of 8th graders proficient in U.S. history and 22% in civics—declines that extend a downward trend since 2014. These are not pandemic blips; the deterioration began before COVID-19. This is a clear indication of the severity of the problem and the urgent need for action. 
  • Basic civic knowledge is alarmingly fragile and should be a cause for alarm. The Annenberg Constitution Day survey shows large shares of adults who cannot name the branches of government or core First Amendment rights (e.g., in 2023, 17% could name none of the branches; only 66% could name all three; the 2022 survey showed declines from prior years). This fragility underscores the gravity of the situation. 
  • Topic-specific knowledge has soft spots. For example, fewer than half of Americans know that about six million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust or that Hitler rose to power through a democratic process.
  • Watch the news blips where reporters go on college campuses and ask fundamental questions about government, the economy, and how the world functions, and you will get a rude awakening.
  • We need to send education back to the states for regulation and clearly provide vouchers so that families and students can choose the best education.
  • That requires breaking the monopoly of the federal teachers’ union, which is a monumental, difficult task since it controls the entire educational system, through college.