Dear Anonymous

In response to my 1492 post someone named Anonymous writes:

My son has boy scouts, softball practice, basketball practice, student council
not to mention church choir. He depends on these things for a college scholarship.
When is he supposed to find time for something like history? Yawn!

I'm sorry, are you implying that your son's extra-curricular activities are more important than his school work? What is the point in getting him a college scholarship if he won't be able to answer grade school level history classes?

I am a huge proponent of students participating in extra-curricular activities, and I'm disappointed that so many fine arts and sports programs are being cut. I myself was a 3 sport student-athlete(note how student comes before athlete) all throughout school and I still managed to get good grades, as did many of my teammates. In fact more of my scholarships were academic rather than athletic. However, if you feel that history (and who knows what other subjects) is so unimportant you may have a difficult time finding any academic or athletic scholarships. All college athletic teams are bound by the rules of the NCAA which requires that student-athletes must receive a certain score on the SAT or ACT, as well as maintain a minimum GPA. In addition to this schools set their own grade standards which may be more strict than the NCAA's. Let's put sports aside for a moment. I'm wondering if history is so unimportant, or "yawn" inducing, why must you pass history and Constitution tests in order to graduate from both high school and college?

I understand that history is not the most fun or exciting subject, but it is an important one. Grades and tests aside, don't you think as an American citizen it's important to know this country's history? In fact it's because of a major event in the history and shaping of our country that gives us the right to express our differing opinions. That seems pretty important to me.