In our post-Parkland, current-Greta Thunberg world, many are quick to throw around the quote, “and a little child shall lead them.” Heading into presidential primary season, pundits are quick to talk about the number of millennials and Generation Z members (combined, anyone under the age of 35) who will be eligible to cast votes in 2020, believing they will seize the mantle of political power from both the boomers and Gen Xers simultaneously.
With great power comes great responsibility, or so Spider-Man’s Uncle Ben would tell us. Such power and responsibility at the ballot box should require strong knowledge of and appreciation for our nation’s history. But by most accounts, while the youngest generation of voters is more aware, more engaged, and more “woke” than any generation before it, such enthusiasm doesn’t necessarily mean it is more knowledgeable or more informed.
In late 2019, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation followed up its survey on history knowledge to better understand current high school student perceptions about history and American history instruction. The findings were disappointing but expected.
Less than one-third of today’s high school students said social studies would be important to them after graduation, with only the arts being seen as holding less value.
Only half of those students surveyed believe that American history knowledge is very important in helping understand current events and being a responsible citizen.
Only a quarter of students say learning history is exciting, while female students are more likely to say it is not. A quarter of students also found learning American history to be “bad” or “boring.”
With today’s newest voters showing so little interest or appreciation for history, it should be of little surprise that our newest voters actually know so little about what they don’t see as important. In 2019, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation surveyed 41,000 adults in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, seeking to understand our collective knowledge of American history.
When asked 20 questions from the sample exams for the U.S. citizenship test, only 27% of those under the age of 45 could pass, answering 12 or more questions correctly.
Even at a time when virtually every state requires American history as part of its high school graduation requirements, only one in four students remembers what was taught just a few years after graduating.
A generation of students has learned of Alexander Hamilton and the Founding Fathers because of a Broadway musical with a Lin-Manuel Miranda score. Millions of middle schoolers have learned about U.S. civics because of video games developed through the vision and commitment of former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. Tens of millions of cable TV viewers learn pieces of history not taught in the classroom because of Pawn Stars and the personal passions of its star, Rick Harrison. Each of these and many more like them show that history doesn’t have to be relegated to dusty history books telling the boring stories of generations of white, male landowners. History can, and should, be exciting, engaging, and relevant to the learner and to the times in which they live.
An informed voter driven to cast a ballot because of immigration and border detention facilities will also know about how Native Americans were treated in the 19th century and how Japanese Americans were treated during World War II.
An informed voter driven to cast a ballot because of impeachment proceedings will not only know about the Clinton impeachment but also of President Andrew Johnson’s.
Ultimately, an informed voter will move beyond asking, “What?” and will begin asking the more important questions about our history: “Why? How? To what end?”
For years now, we have been selling the 2020 presidential race as one of the most momentous, most important elections in the history of our representative democracy. If we believe that, then it is imperative that all voters, particularly the Gen Zers and millennials deemed so important to our future, begin to think and act like historians — asking questions, seeking out facts not originally taught, and understanding how we’ve confronted such issues in the past and how we can learn from those experiences, good and bad, in the future.
If we truly believe that today’s youth will lead us at the ballot box, we need to commit not only to more effectively ensuring that American history is both learned and understood but also to making history more interesting and more relevant to today’s students. We need education issues to be front and center in upcoming presidential debates, and we need such debates to focus not only on the dollars needed in our classrooms but also on what is taught and learned. Just as we’ve used the bully pulpit and checkbook of our nation’s capital to emphasize the importance of STEM education over the past two decades, so too must we now emphasize the importance of American history education for all of those who will go to college, start work, and cast ballots in this country.
When Benjamin Franklin emerged from the Constitutional Convention in 1787, he was asked what the Founding Fathers had gifted this startup nation. His response was, “A republic … if you can keep it.”
To keep the republic, we need an engaged, woke, and knowledgeable citizenry. We need generations of voters to know, understand, and appreciate our history and its impact on our future. Those who possess such knowledge will indeed lead us for generations to come.
Patrick Riccards is the chief communications and strategy officer for the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation in Princeton, N.J.
