Tom Shuford, a columnist for EducationNews.org, starts his column today with a quote from one of my favorite historians, David McCullough, on one of my favorite subjects — the importance of history in current affairs:

The Founding Fathers ?were steeped in, soaked in, marinated in, the classics: Greek and Roman history, Greek and Roman ideas, Greek and Roman ideals,? says two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David McCullough. ?It was their model, their example. And they saw themselves very much like the Greeks and the Romans, as actors on a great stage in one of the great historic dramas of all time, and that they, individually and as a group, had better live up to these heroic parts in which history had cast them.?

Although Greek and Roman civilizations were of the very distant past, they were vital to the task at hand. Had the Founding Fathers not been supremely literate in a cultural sense, there would have been no United States of America.

McCullough, in another context: ?Historical memory is as much a necessity to the preservation of liberty and American security as is our own armed forces.? In that light America’s young face coming threats unarmed. They do not read, few can write, they know little. They ignore the civic life of their communities and the nation. When their time ?on a great stage? in the next great historic drama comes, they will be mute and confused.

Personal note: when we told the nurse our newborn son was named Samuel Adams, she was incredulous — “You named him after the beer?” She was not joking.

Schools of education are aided in promoting culture-free schooling by another efficient device for that purpose: standardized tests. Culture-free, high-stakes standardized tests produce ? over many years ? culture-free young adults. What is tested is what is taught. America?s standardized reading tests?… contain NO TRACE of Western culture, history, literature, politics, art.

Standardized tests? cultural sterility does not trouble leaders of school systems. It does not disturb presidents of universities or CEOs of testing companies. These were ?educated? in schools and universities much like those they now lead or serve. We can expect nothing from them. Not in the way of understanding or of remedy. They cannot tell us why the young ? after thousands of hours and years upon years of seat time in their institutions ? and hundreds of hours taking their tests ? know so very little.

It’s long for a column (over 2000 words) but worth a read. Shuford, btw, is a retired teacher in Lenoir, N.C.