Teaching U.S. History: We didn’t start the failure…
This is anecdotal, so I don’t know whether the Billy Joel History Curriculum is part of a trend, but it’s just so depressing:
He’s in 11th grade. His course in American history — or whatever name they disguise that by these days — is coming to an end and the finale is a big project that will largely determine his grade for the quarter. In my high school, the college-tracked kids were taking electives by that time, and I remember writing two 20-page papers, on topics of the student’s choice, approved by the teacher. One of mine was on the legal challenge to Reconstruction after the Civil War, the other was on the Congress of Vienna.
My son’s comparable assignment: To write about the significance of the lyrics of “We Didn’t Start the Fire” by Billy Joel.
And it gets worse. I might be able to grasp that assignment if this was a class of low-achievers who were hyped about nothing but pop music and this was a current hit song. It’s not, they’re not, and it’s not. These are the the district’s college-bound kids.
There’s more, and worse. Don’t worry, though. Those college history departments will no doubt fill in the gaps with a thorough, unbiased, and sympathetic picture of American history. Pretty soon they’ll be able to pass the Diplomad’s “intern test” with ease.
AFTERTHOUGHT: You know, I’d never thought about it, but the song’s message is pretty much conservative–history has been driven by the same forces “since the world was turnin’”. It’s not at all utopian, and it’s rather pessimistic. Fashion and technology change, human nature and the problems we face don’t.
Regardless of which, I can’t see basing a major high school project around the song. Hello, here’s the culmination of my vast research on “Dacron”. I am now a full-fledged American citizen. Next, my classmate Shirley will present in two minutes everything you need to know about “Revolution in Iran”.
MORE: Commenter BrianF1967 reminds me how much worse it could be.
_____________
{Post by See-Dubya. H/t to Isaac Schrodinger. Another relevant rumination here.}
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- Music of the Day: “We Didn’t Start the Fire” « An Army of Principles
- Ed Driscoll.com
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At least its not a Rap song.
Oy vey.
In high school I did a project about Kurt Cobain, plus wrote a psychology paper looking at the lyrics of Metallica’s songs vs. Guns N Roses. This was in 1996. I found and read it last summer, and I was so embarrassed by it, I had to throw it away.
Heck, I’m embarrassed I was ever a teenager to begin with.
Actually, although kind of a cop out overall, the lyrics of the song do cover American History pretty well and would provide a decent background to write a paper. Here is a link to the lyrics with links from it to each section and how it relates to American History. Of course I still think home schooling is a great idea for those places where you can’t get a good privite school education but this example is not as bad as others I have seen recently here (M is for… is a good example)
http://www.teacheroz.com/fire.htm
Oh my, I had the same project in school. Wow, I thought my teacher was just crazy but I guess its been around.
Even though I don’t like the song, I wish I had been able to write a high school paper about “Uptown Girl”, just so I could interview Christy Brinkley. I know there’s some American history somewhere in there.
This sure doesn’t sound like any American History paper I had to write in High School or College maybe this type of assignment would fit better in a remedial Music Appreciation class. No wonder our kids don’t have a clue on the founding principles of this Representative Republic, which most think is a Democracy or know any of the significant events that forged this nation into its present form thanks to the indoctrination of the education cartel.
Why would anyone want to hear it a second time? And when I feel too smug about kids growing up with Justin Timberlake and Shakira, I recall American Pie, the song, being requested on radio shows, maybe by children not held hostage.
What kind of teachers are in our schools? This is outrageous. Of course, when you have a teacher having the class vote an autistic child “survivor style” out of the class, I guess I pretty much answered my own question.
Thank God, my kids are out of school.
Perfect example of why I resigned (AS A PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHER) to be a “domestic educator.”
MM – Thanks for the latest example.
Advice – I know two professional women who work part-time as chiropractors. (Two full days & one half per week) They’ve both hired very trustworthy (home-schooled) young ladies to stay with their children on those days. They also home-school them. I hope you’re serious about home-schooling your own “treasures.” It’s worth every sacrifice!
So you grab your girls
And you grab a couple more
And you all come meet me
In the middle of the floor
Said the air is thick, it’s smelling right
So you pass to the left and you sail to the right
Would the teacher also assign an analysis of Billy Joel’s “Angry Young Man?”
At least he’s being forced to write something. At my daughter’s high school, most of her assignments seem to consist of PowerPoint presentations. When she does have to write, it’s usually in the form of a book review, which requires no research and consists of nothing more than her uneducated opinion. This is a girl who’s taking all Honors and AP courses in everything except math. Next year she’s got AP U.S. History, and I’d better see a 20-page research paper.
I recently found one of my history papers and it was on a biography of Henry Kid Douglas, one of Stonewall Jackson aides.
Nowadays anybody with the nickname Stonewall probably worked for the Clintons as the guy responsible for delivering supeoned materials.
1) Buy Bill Bennett’s America The Last Best Hope, Volume I.
2) Give to your child.
3) Have him read it cover to cover.
4) Buy Bill Bennett’s America the Last Best Hope, Volume II
5) Repeat.
History use to be written by the winners, now it is taught by the losers.
Next year AP Calculus is going to analyze the series deeply hidden in the lyrics of “there was an old lady who swallowed a fly…”
For extra credit? 99 Bottles of Beer…
Hey, I personally view Billy Joel as a bitter man with a modicum of talent that I prefer not to listen to. You want to listen to it, that’s fine.
Objectively, however, “We didn’t start the fire” doesn’t have much in the way of meaning. It’s a stream of consciousness, for the most part, that he tries to tie together as a “fire.” Perhaps you can spot him some “visualizations,” but meaning? Serious meaning?
Please.
Google the lyrics and you’ll see for yourself.
Then I guess this little video really qualifies as a educational aid…
God, I HOPE NOT!
Mr. P
It’s also being re-written by those same losers.
A stirring verse about the tragic irony of a man who is too busy planning for the future (the maps) or obsessing about the past (the medals) to actually walk out the door and do something in the present.
Do I get an A?
Well, they’re too busy teaching sex education, gay rights, Islam, et al.
So they need to cut someplace.
You know, this kind of stuff happens in all schools at all grade levels.
I taught English at a public Houston junior high and our kids had to read a short story about a poor boy who tried to snatch an old ladies purse. She caught him and pretty much dragged him home by the ear to feed him because she thought he was starving (which he was, the story took place in the projects of an unknown big city). When she finally gets him home, he admits he was stealing the money not to help his poor family or for food but because he wanted a brand new pair of designer sneakers. Now – the story ends by the old lady giving him the money to buy the expensive sneakers.
Now, first of all, what was the reason for reading this in the first place? To let kids know it’s ok to steal for expensive shoes? That old ladies are nice if you explain why you were trying to steal from them? To excuse the child’s actions because he wanted a little piece of livin’ the good life even though he was starving? (It was a bunch of 7th graders who were reading it BTW.)
I was really alarmed by this assignment and voiced my concern. I was told it covered the African American experience. Huh?
So, that was the first time I was really worried about what kids learn in public schools. If anyone on here has read my other posts, you know we pulled our kids out of public school and started homeschooling because of curriculum issues.
Now they have watered down American history and are either teaching kids that we are the bad guys OR not teaching them anything at all but how to analyze pop lyrics. Disgusting.
Yep, we not ever sending them back to public schools…………..
My last sentence should say “we are not ever sending them back to public schools…”
I was typing too fast and forgot a word. Oops.
CO schools have to teach a semester of American Government to all freshmen. For all of my kids, this has been a traditional class in government – the Constitution, presidency, Founding Fathers, etc. It may have a leftist slant, depending on the teacher, but they do cover all of the material. However, I suspect for most kids it’s “in one ear and out the other”.
As for a 2o page research paper, they don’t do them anymore, ever. It’s PowerPoint presentations or a notebook filled with small things like one page on something, some pictures, drawings, maps.
I read Children At Risk by Dr. James C. Dobson and Gary L. Bauer a few years ago, when I saw one of my interns reading it for a class. It was one of the most interesting books I had read in a while. It speaks volumes about the state of our public education system in the U.S.
How come I didn’t get some easy assignment like this in school? We had to write papers on specific, significant points in history and outline the social, political and economic impact of them. I was cheated, I tell you!
I recall, oddly enough, listining to this song in history class in 8th grade I believe. Not sure what the point was, except for the teacher to show that he was still young and cool (the song was new at the time).
I also recall listening to “Killing an Arab” by The Cure in English class in conjunction with reading Caymus’ The Stranger and the “Battle of New Orleans” in 7th grade history.
Also, “Papa Don’t Preach” in Sex Ed.
Just kidding.
Sorry Caymus should be Camus.
Caymus is a winery.
No problem. Caymus is better than Camus, for sure…
I can remember in my public school classrooms often being reminded by my teachers that America is the greatest country in the world. My history teachers especially were fond of saying that. In an unscientific survey of kids in my neighborhood recently, I asked how many of them (eight) had been taught that the US is number one. The looks of utter bewilderment said it all. No wonder, when drivel like this ridiculous Billy Joel assignment pass for real education. I’m so glad we’ve home-schooled for the past 20 years. Zero regrets.
I had a similar assignment in my 12th grade Contemporary American Foreign Policy class. It wasn’t graded or anything, just a little paper on America’s culture shift and how it had been a long time coming.
I just want to on the record and say that I think Billy Joel’s music is absolutely horrible, insipid, and uninspiring.
Having just graduated from high school (a little over a year ago) and having taken both AP History and English classes, I would like to say that the situation is not as bad as it appears to be. In my history class, we did listen to “We Didn’t Start the Fire” but all we had to do was create our own lyrics about events since the year 1990. That might sound easy, but believe me, my history class was one of the most difficult classes I’ve ever taken. I made an A, once. Did I learn history? You bet. Was Billy Joel a big part of my class? No. Did I ever write a research paper? Nope, but we wrote papers all the time when taking exams.
All in all, most AP history classes aren’t that bad. I bet that this Billy Joel thing in the story listed above, only came after a year of grueling hours spent studying and writing essays. Either that, or it is a project piled upon test after test after test and AP Exams, and was given at the last minute.
I forgot to add that my unscientific survey was made up of five illegal immigrant kids and three kids whose parents have green cards.
I just want to on the record and say that I think Billy Joel’s music is absolutely horrible, insipid, and uninspiring.And to think I used to respect you Rusty. Well not more. Rusty, or should I say cRusty, you can just call me undrseige248 (aka l’ilseige) from now on.
Rusty, you and I may have found something on which we can agree. I’ve never been a fan of Billy Joel. Now, Christy was hot. I’m still trying to figure out how he landed her. Hmmm?
What woman could resist fancy dancing and collar poppin’ from a grease monkey?
She didn’t have a chance against his good looks and wiles.
Chap, I get into this argument with people all the time. I just don’t get him. “Just the Way You Are” makes me reach for a gun.
Oh geez… something else I disagree with Rusty on. I find Billy Joel to be a talented entertainer, and there are very few of his songs I don’t like.
I must have missed the “fancy dancing”, “good looks” and “wiles”. But, hey, I’m a guy.
I did see the “collar poppin’”, though.
Gee, I’m a U.S. History teacher and I have my students research on topics such as: what does the First Amendment really say; was Southern secession is constitutional or not; was John Brown a hero or a madman; should Harry Truman have used the atomic bomb. Guess I’m mean!
I support those of you who home school, but I must admit, I get really aggravated with people who just throw in the towel and let the liberals run the school systems. Why have so many conservatives capitulated? Take them back–get in there and fight for our kids! More conservatives should go into teaching and fix it from within! I need some help here!
This isn’t new; I was in HS when the song came out and immediately teachers seized on this “talk about the song” as a way to be more popular with the kids and simultaneiously avoid reading term papers about important but dry topics (not sure what could be more boring than “rock and roller cola wars”, but I’m not typical).
Now that the song’s going on 20 years old, I assume it just annoys the kidlets to have to listen to a dead white male.
Oops, sorry strike this Is after secession–should’ve proof read!
Okay, granted he has some bad stuff, but “Always a Woman” or “Stilleto” or “Only the Good Die Young”…
Some real clever lyrics there.
You just don’t like him because he is a working man (mechanic, steel mill worker, swordfisherman, marine, arson apologist) and you are an elitist liberal.
And remember, its now l’ilseige to you. I may petition the mods for a formal name change.
My children are learning US history from ME! I’ve deal with 3 school systems in 2 different states and a high school diploma isn’t worth much today. I learned more in 1 yr of US history than my children each learned in 2 (and that’s with skipping the War of 1812 and a few other major events). When I complained, I was told that all this sillyness in history is to make it more relevant to today so the students feel more connected. That’s why the schools chose hollywood movies for the class instead of History Channel documentaries. All subjects are now flawed with poorly written text books and tests. These pathetic excuses for education would not exist in the free market, but trive because the money is extorted from the taypayer. My children went to school to see their friends and were homeschooled in the afternoon, since I didn’t trust that the teachers actually taught anything during the day.
My lovely wife is entering the fray, Special K. She is interviewing with the principal of the local high school next week for a position as an English teacher. As much as she loves music, I don’t foresee her having them write papers about contemporary music.
She is even more conservative than me, if any of you can imagine that.
I think you can handle that yourself, if you just click on your current moniker above the text box. But, it will be in vain. It won’t make Billy Joel’s music any better.
SWEET!
Good luck to your wife, Barry F! There’s more conservatives out there in the schools than you think, but it seems too many of them are afraid to speak up. It only takes one to speak out first and then the others follow suit.
And I always tell my students that we are the best country in the world, otherwise, why would so many people want to come here?
For any history buffs out there, check out the website, http://www.authentichistory.com. The World War II era has such hits as “You’re a sap, Mr. Jap” by the Murphy Sisters and “We’re Gonna Have to Slap the Dirty Little Jap (And Uncle Sam’s the Guy Who Can Do It)!” by Lucky Millinder. They don’t write ‘em like that anymore!
-Rusty
Wow, I gotta go with chap on this one. Yeah, some of Billy Joel’s music is rather trite, but some of it is excellent to the point of being iconic. He’s an absolute master on the piano to boot.
There are alot of songs by iconic songwriters (i.e. Elton John, The Boss, John Mellencamp, David Bowie, Billy Joel), that I don’t actually like much, but ‘insipid’ or ‘horrible’? No way.
GEORGE WASHINTON
Oh-WELL ….
Are ANY of the Founding Fathers mentioned in the history books of the public schools?????????
NOWWWWWWWWWWW ; I’m NOT talking about the RE-WRITTEN (Wright style) history!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My favorite songwriters are probably Neil Young, Aimee Mann, and, of course Bob Dylan. The piano types never did it for me. Except for Fiona Apple, but her production has all sorts of weird loopy instruments.
The Boss is a huge blindspot in my musical tastes.
What a waste! Why bother then if no real work is being done or much less actual thought put into this project. The teacher is lazy or just stupid. What school district is this?
I’d like to go on record that I agree with you 110%. As if hearing BJ sing “Piano Man” isn’t bad enough, it’s also become a karaoke staple everywhere I’ve ever been. The song is brutally stupid to begin with, and hearing drunk amateurs sing it is even worse.
I had to deal with an English (they call it something else) teacher who gave assignments that required heavy usage of colored markers. The 14 year old students were drawing the majority of their English assignments. And, I had to pay for the art supplies.
To make matters worse, I read the history textbook. I could cry.
I have to admit, I love the song on my ipod when I go for a run. The thing I always think about is how much all these things are still problems all these years later and yet it’s all Bush’s fault! I always point this out to my boys that see, the world wasn’t perfect when this song was popular in the late 70’s or early 80’s when this song came out.
That is a great little song to use, I have used it when I taught but I certainly don’t base my curriculum around it. The books are bad as Tuffy said. I have a 4 y/o now and I still have some of the books that I started teaching out of “The American Pagent”-it was a fantastic text that I kept that will be used with him.
I no longer teach for many reasons, issues like this apply.
l’ilseige and cRusty, is it merely a coincidence that every time he plows a Porsche into a tree, the cops find “Uptown Girl” playing on the 8-Track he has installed in it? I think not.
see-dubya,
Check this one out from a student in a publik skool
Hey, if song lyrics can be used to achieve academic benifit, then this could be used for spiritual benefit.
in college I did a 20 page technical writing paper on “How to properly tap a keg” and followed that with 20 pages of the “Proper technique for pouring a beer” I found an English paper on “The exciting life of the earth worm”
Ok so I worked in a bar and was bored….
They’re still teaching that song? I had to hear it in 8th grade (wayyy back in 1992) and thought it was crap even then.
Great, I just reminded myself that 1992 was a long time ago. Hooray.
Special K,
The greatest piece of musical propaganda to come out of World War II was “Der Fuehrer’s Face,” in which Spike Jones gives the leader of the 1000-Year Reich a “backdoor salute.” Still hilarious after all these years.
Billy Joel sucks but he’s better than the Michael Bolton CD chapoutier keeps on autoplay in his 325i. “How Am I Supposed to Live Without You,” Lol.
nbarry, yes, I agree “Der Fuehrer’s Face” is excellent, and they have the Donald Duck cartoon on YouTube! Isn’t it interesting that the last time the country’s media moguls made propaganda to demonize the enemy during war was WWII–and it’s also the last war we won? Then again, it was also the last time Congress actually did its job and declared war!
“I’m a Cranky Old Yank, in a Clanky Old Tank, on the Streets of Yokahama with My Honolulu Mama, Doing Those Beat-o, Beat-o, Flat on My Seat-o, Hirohito Blues.”
- by Hoagy Carmichael
Cheers
JMH
Let me not be too sobtle.
The schools are in the hands of the forces of evil.
.
The people running the schools see America’s kids as sex toys and potential slaves.
They have their perverse aesthetics too. The whiter the slave the better, but an east Asian will do in a pinch, the rest are ordinary fare, burgers and fries so-to-speak.
Sounds like cracked-pot hysterics?
Seems pretty objective to me.
I’d much rather be wrong.
.
It has been a little over 40 years since my Brylcreem and CandyApple Red shoes days and I still cringe. But welcome to the fight for our next generation. You are needed.
Woah…joeblough. Are you sure your real name isn’t Teri Smith Tyler?
I don’t know about making that song a center point in curriculum, but it isn’t a bad song. I sang it at a Karaoke Bar—IN CHINA. (”china’s under martial law”) haha
chapoutier said:
The cyborg has got to be related to chapoutier’s family or maybe chapoutier met her in the hills of West Virginia and now he has a little cyborg of his own. Heh Chap do those cyborgs come with a corkscrew in the side of their head?
My first reaction to this story was about the ‘Downfall of the Modern American Education System’. I grew up in the 80’s, my sister in the 90’s, and my kids in the 2K’s.
Then I remembered that when this song came out, I told my sister that she would need to know EVERYTHING that was in “We Didn’t Start the Fire”. She ended up graduating as her class Valdictorian. (Im pretty sure it had nothing to do with me though
)
Hmmm…. I never took the time to tell my own kids that…
But then again, Im not sure who/what to blame. My grandparents and parents worked in the fields of the South (as a little kid, we had an outhouse) and from 16 on, I always had two jobs or worked/went to school concurrently. My two oldest kids that are out of high school have ZERO interest in getting ahead in life. They would rather be poor that spend one day working a real job or having a coach tell them what to do. (forget the military, they wouldnt survive a week – and I served in two different branches)
Well it wasn’t too long ago and my major high school Global Studies/History papers were about Boris Yeltsin’s reforms in Russia, the effect of the Zimmermann Telegram on U.S. Entry into WWI, and the Liberation of Russian Serfs by Tsar Alexander II. (I took Honors and AP courses, and then majored in European history in college.)
The “We Didn’t Start the Fire” thing was something that was done as a class project sometime in elementary school. About 5th grade or so…
I like the song, but it isn’t a quality high school project.
Another example of why schools should operate under free market principles and free from government control. Better yet, homeschooling. Think for a minute, kids are FORCED to go to school. How different is that from communist countries? A truly free country, which ours is so far from, doesn’t infringe on any of our liberties, educational or otherwise. We’re NOT owned by any government and we don’t exist to serve any government. Our liberties are NOT granted to us by anyone because that would imply we’re property or slaves. Sorry to say but our country has seen it’s best days a long time ago. People think we’re free but we’re not. It’s a shame because it could be so much better.
This is no big deal as long as it is not treated as the ‘final’ and kept in context. I went to a Catholic high school and we actually had one of the sister’s challenge us to find ‘protest’ music and analyze it as a project (not a final). I think I pulled out a really good Jackson Browne song and killed the curve.
The project was about opening our minds and applying analysis to what people said/sang. It was a fun assignment and all the kids went after it with zeal (unlike our other assignments….).
How about a term paper for a fashion design class analyzing the lyrics to “It’s Still Rock & Roll To Me?”
Should I buy a pair of new sidewinders and a bright orange pair of pants?…
Don’t waste your money on a new set of speakers / Ya get more mileage from a cheap pair of sneakers (etc)
[To be fair, I once did a paper for a college Criminology course on theories of juvenile delinquence as portrayed in "West Side Story." Got an A. The song "Officer Krupke" outlines nearly every major theory in one song.]
delinquenc
edelinquency (sorry)
I couldn’t afford a private school nor could I arrange homeschooling for my children.
However….From elementary school on I could and did initiate conversations with my children as to what they learned in school that day. Some of those conversations lasted until bedtime when necessary. I helped them with their homework. As they grew older we entered into discussions as to the validity, relevance, and truth of the assignments that they were given.
Now that they are in high school and junior college it seems that a lot of their instructors dislike them. My kids know politically-correct BS when they hear it and have a tendency to wreck the grading curve.
If you’re just now finding out about what passes as “curricula” in public schools it may be too late to undo the damage.
It’s our duty as parents to pay attention and be involved in our kid’s lives from an early age.
They deserve nothing less.
Why the hate for the song?
It is an exceedingly great song for gym and other workouts (fast-beat, you know – can run at a good 8kph on the treadmill).
And, I believe that as long as you do it right, it can provide a very good basis for a 20-page (or however long you want it to be, even) thesis on CONTEMPORARY American (and World) History.
Just a taste;
Dien Bien Phu falls can lead to a treatise of the start of the Vietnam War; how it came about, the background conditions, a little bit of Vietnamese history going back to the French colonial times, the effect of the war on Americans, politically, economically and culturally, the fallout of American withdrawal, and the repercussions resulting thereof.
Red China and China’s under martial law – a discussion of Tiananmen Square would not be complete without going into the reasons for their demonstration, the incident itself, the aftermath, and communism (or Maoism) in China in general.
North Korea, South Korea and Syngman Rhee – a general discussion on the Korean War, pretty much the same topic areas as the Vietnam War.
Vaccine – a short essay on polio, its effects, morbidity and mortality rates, the efficacy of the Salk vaccine as well as of vaccines’ role in disease prevention and eradication.
The King and I – Ranging from Anna Leonowens (and her book) to King Mongkul (and the history of Thailand) to Rodgers and Hammerstein to Yul Brynner (a sideline to ‘One Night in Bangkok’ would take you to ‘Chess’, another play) to Jodie Foster (in Anna and the King, the ‘remake’).
England’s got a new queen – Great Britain history, how the Queen ascended, the gradual decline of the monarchy’s powers, the American Revolution (as part of GB history), even WW2 can play a part in this discussion.
Juan Peron – Eva Peron, Argentinian (and by extension, Central and Latin American) politics, strongman/dictator tactics, populism, socialism (communism-lite).
So, like I said, if you did your treatment right, you can come up with a whole lotta stuff, and not just on history too.
So show the song some love! After all, it’s true that “we didn’t start the fire” but we sure trying hard to put it out.
PS Shure, for really ancient politics, you’ll probably have to use ancient songs. The “Battle Hymn” comes to mind, so does the Star and Stripes, but let’s face facts, that sort of stuff you should be learning from books anyway.