Historical ignorance

In the course of my lunch-hour blogging and Web-surfing, I found this column by Kathleen Parker, which addresses a serious concern I have had for a number of years. I realize that not everyone is going to share my passion for history, but I do believe a basic knowledge of the subject is an essential requirement of good citizenship. Yet as we all know, the MTV Generation, with ample assistance from the public school system and perhaps some apathetic parents as well, is growing up without any kind of meaningful knowledge of the past. I have always been grateful that in my own fifth-grade American history class, the textbook we used devoted an entire chapter to Robert E. Lee, whom I have ever since regarded as one of the noblest Americans who ever lived; but of course, in our far more enlightened 21st Century, he is now thought of as being Politically Incorrect, and thus unworthy of serious consideration -- to say nothing of the 213 lines Ms. Parker refers to as having been set aside in one textbook for none other than Marilyn Monroe.