America loses sense of history

As a royals watcher, I have been fascinated with the way the British have reacted to the death of their Queen Mum. In that choreographed-to-the-minute procession last week when a horse-drawn carriage brought her coffin from St. James’s Palace to Westminster Hall were centuries of pomp and circumstance, connecting the present to the past.

After all, Westminster Hall originally opened in 1099. The life of the Queen Mother herself, 101 when she died of “extreme old age,” as the coroner put it, spanned the entire 20th century. As a sign of these times, the funeral Tuesday was broadcast over the Internet.

“It was a pleasure to sit next to her at lunch,” her great-grandson Prince William said. “She always had some great war stories, and to hear them from her, it really brought it all to life.”

In this country, we are too busy  and too lazy  to be bothered much with current events, let alone history. You can see the appalling lack of knowledge on display in one of Jay Leno’s regular routines, the Jaywalk. He goes out, or his producers go out, with cameras rolling and ask passers-by to answer relatively uncomplicated questions. I used to laugh at the segment, but now it’s just painful  a display for all the world to see just how dumb we are in what is supposed to be the greatest nation on Earth.

Last week, Leno’s crew went to the University of New Mexico, where one student said the French Revolution was fought in England. Another knew that former Vice President Dan Quayle couldn’t spell “potato,” but couldn’t spell the word either. Someone thought Sandra Day O’Connor was the first woman in space, while someone else thought she was the first woman to swim the English Channel.

Parents of these proud numbskulls must be mortified, especially those who are paying college tuition. The average cost of a year at a public four-year college is about $9,000. Tuition alone averages about $17,000 at private four-year colleges.

Child-rearing should include not just the basics. Parents need to make awareness of current events part of the family’s routine  as well as a sense of history. That means the parents have to do some homework, but that can be accomplished as easily as sharing a newspaper or newsmagazine or watching public-affairs programs on television as a family.

It’s hard to put your best foot forward on the world stage when televisions across the world are broadcasting this sort of exchange between Leno and another University of New Mexico student:

Leno: Why did the Berlin Wall fall down?

Student: It was old.

Leno: What did the wall separate?

Student: It separated China.

Leno: Which city?

Student: Berlin.

Leno: And Berlin is where?

Student: Uh, China.

Ignorance may be bliss, but it’s no longer funny.

 E.R. Shipp’s e-mail address is eshipp2002@hotmail.com.