Rick Santorum Blames Bad History Scores On Left Wing Conspiracy (VIDEO)

Presidential candidate Rick Santorum says he knows who's responsible for students' abysmal history test scores. According to the Republican hopeful, it's not the students, teachers, parents or school administrators -- it's the left.

Speaking to the Story County GOP Central Committee in Ames, Iowa, Santorum addressed a report released last week suggesting only 12 percent of high school seniors are proficient in history.

"This is, in my opinion, a conscious effort on the part of the left, who has a huge influence on our curriculum, to desensitize America to what American values are so they are more pliable to the new values that they would like to impose on America," the presidential candidate said.

Santorum also made headlines today for unrelated remarks he made during his stop in Iowa. The former senator criticized Attorney General Eric Holder for his support of prosecuting terror suspects in civilians courts.

"Maybe he is eating mushrooms," said Santorum. "I don’t know what he is doing. You can’t even make this up."

Via ThinkProgress comes video of what Santorum had to say about the educational matter.

WATCH:

Comments

[yournext865]

04:29 PM on 06/26/2011

How low can he go?

[Keyop]

01:50 PM on 06/26/2011

I bet the students know that Ricky lost his senate seat.

[ocrmom59]

09:46 PM on 06/25/2011

When we sit back and not vote or go to PTA meetings we are letting school administrations do exactly what they want in the schools. It was better when students knew that the person sitting beside them in class is going through the same thing in their home and have the same kind of problems. Parents today think their children do no wrong no matter what and will turn the tables on the teacher if he punish a child for being mean to another student or someone else.

I can remember that in the old days if a student did something wrong and went to the office, they knew they would get punish twice, once by the principal a the other by the parents. Now the student knows that the principal better not say anything to them or their parents will be ready to sue no matter if their child is in the wrong. Guess what these children grown up to be, bullies like some of our politicians.

Those who were allowed to mistreat people because of their skin color or for some other reason are still doing it today and guess where we can find them at. They get elected to office every year and we wonder why our children are not listen to nothing we say.

[ocrmom59]

09:39 PM on 06/25/2011

I lived in the south in the 50's and 60's before white children and black children went to school together and I can say that things are a lot different. Even then the blacks had the same books as the whites but the difference was our teachers and they taught history as it was supposed to have been taught, concerning the fact that some of history was not in the books. Black children had to rely on family history to give them the real details of slavery and how it became about and ended and white children was given the history that their parents wanted to keep secret.

That is why the children of today are confuse and don't know who to believe and when the late Alex Haley wrote his book ROOTS it hit home to those who did not want it to really come to light of day. His book was the new beginning for people to really learn what blacks and other slaves went through during that time period and it was not pretty history.

History that involves anyone in slavery is never pretty and that is why they like to keep it quiet but each race that have ever been held in slavery is a lesson that it can and does happen to anyone at any given time. The difference now is that all the races are slaves and that is to money, power and greed the worst kind.

[Timothy D. Slekar]

09:27 AM on 06/25/2011

Santorum is an idiot. The Social Studies curriculum in this country is largely driven by a economic/military capitalistic focus. This means that the curriculum is actually controlled by the right.

[cosmiCataclysm]

07:48 PM on 06/25/2011

One of the most frustrating things about all these so-called 'conservative' nut-jobs is the fact that they are actually dead wrong about everything. Liberal Media? I'm not seeing it, it looks more conservo-capitalist to me. Liberal bias at the schools and universities? I never saw that. In my state a state representative threw a tea-party rally using, guess what? TAX PAYER MONEY! You can't make this stuff up...

[arkady967]

11:07 AM on 07/04/2011

I doubt that. I certainly didn't learn respect for capitalism or the military when in school. Besides, were it true, and I doubut this as well, that text and curricula leans right, that's no guarantee a teacher wouldn't spin the lessons to the left. Regardless, regarding history education, that the facts are distorted or lost on most of us, is a viable charge either way.

[healthanalyst]

03:42 AM on 06/25/2011

Google Santorum, the urban definition fits him more and more every day...

[Demarcus Jackson]

05:51 PM on 06/24/2011

I blame it on politicians and society bashing and scapegoating public schools at every turn (as the harborer of all things evil), on a wholly apathetic American citizenry unconcerned about its essential history and how that history can help guide us toward greatness once again, and the corrupting and mindless romanticizing of American history by Regressives longing to return to the America they grew up in.

[WhereSheStops]

03:07 PM on 06/24/2011

I'm not a fan of Santorum fan but PC history is not history. He's right about that.

[Marklyn Johnson]

04:42 PM on 07/10/2011

LETS GET THE FACTS STRAIGHT.... THE ONLY PEOPLE ADJUSTING THE HISTORY ARE THE RIGHT WINGERS... SLAVERY DID NOT HAPPEN... RIGHT WINGERS... NOT WANTING ASPECTS OF THEIR GREED AND CONFUSED SELFISH WAYS IN HISTORY RIGHT WINGERS.. DO AS I SAY NOT AS I DO... RIGTH WINGERS....

[Jett7]

11:56 AM on 06/24/2011

And I blame the country's problems on republicans. That is a factual statement, his is not.

[mumi009]

06:50 AM on 06/24/2011

Young people on the whole are not interested in learning - history or anything else. Reading? Forget it! Society and commerce has dumbed us all down. We prefer to view "Dancing With the Stars" and "American Idol" instead of the History Channel. What about critical thinking? Negatory for most (young) people.

History is about from where we come and how we got where we are. It's about morals and ethics, politics, environmen­t, war and peace as much as it is about Paul Revere's ride. It is about reflection and critically examining events.

We are sadly lacking in these skills. As evidence I submit Rick's own comments.

God save us from people like him.

[rksnj67]

02:32 PM on 06/24/2011

Even the History Channel is showing more "ghost" and "UFO" shows now. I guess purely historical shows don't get the ratings. A no truer statement has ever been uttered. "Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.".

[cosmiCataclysm]

07:50 PM on 06/25/2011

The history channel used to have Jennifer Love Hewitt come on and talk about how great US militarism was; this was in the mornings around the time the Iraq war started. They've been a laugh for a long time. The History Channel is a commercial for warfare.

[mumi009]

07:07 AM on 06/27/2011

We in Germany pay a tax (about 19 Euros (or about $25 a month) ffor publc, non-commerical TV. The German constitution guarantees the right of individuals to be informed (not just entertained) by radio and television freely and independent of government interference. All without commerical interruption and in HD quality.

If we have sat reception, we don't pay a monthly fee for it. We buy the hardware iinexpensive here), set it up and watch TV or listen to the radio.

Our cellphone subscriptions cost only a fraction of what one pays in the U.S.

Not bad for "old Europe" I think.

There is also commerical TV that shows the same shows as in the U.S., adapted for the continental audience. You know, "Dancing With the Stars", "American Idol" and chopped up and commercially interupted Hollywood action films.

[taxi648]

03:22 PM on 06/24/2011

Critical thinking went out the window with Zero Tolerance. My husband and I fought out school district to allow our son to carry his asthma medication (orders of his doctor). They (SD) wanted the medication to be locked in the school nurses office. Didn't matter that there was no full time nurse, he could go to the office and the school secretary could unlock the door, oh unless she was at lunch). He could have passed out getting there and died. We won!

Next came the case of the K in Maryland (?) whom allowed another child to use his inhaler and was kicked out of school for being a drug dealer. We told our son if this was ever the situation to help someone out and we would handle the backlash. What our we teaching our children?

[mumi009]

07:14 AM on 06/27/2011

I agree 100% with you. I have been following the ZT issues for a long time. It makes me very mad that people who are supposed to think and use judgement (they must have to look that word up) in caring for the education and safety of our children just turn their brains off.

I am apalled to read that elementary school kids are hauled off in handcuffs, expelled from school and face criminal charges for such innocuous things as a plastic handgun on a key chain (a real life-threatener for some, apparently). Or teenage girls having to undress so the school can check if she has any (OTC) drugs.

The case of your son with his asthma inhaler is a case in point.

Sometimes I think it is a power trip with school officials. They can get away with bullying young people in a dependent relationship. It's easy for an adult to bully a child. If they dared to do the same to you or me at all we would most likely tell them to f***k off or ask them what kind of idiots they are.

[Marklyn Johnson]

04:47 PM on 07/10/2011

We are teaching our kids that people will do anyting for money and so should you. gone are the days when you knew your neighbor. Gone are the days when you could share a lunch and not get in trouble. Trust me one day you will read two kids share a lunch and the one kid did not mention Mommie made it with nuts the other kids gets sick and the parents sue. I don't blame left of right. I blame people in general for having a warped sence of I did not have it or I did not get it when I was younger so I will make sure my kid has it. Or because mommy and daddy are working all the time they don't know how crazy their child is and they are in shock when their kid wants to blow up a school......

[Footwarrior]

11:04 AM on 06/23/2011

The real problem is that American high schools don't hire people that are skilled at teaching history. They hire a coach for the football team and have him teach history on the side.

Did anyone here have a high school history teacher that wasn't called "Coach"?

[broui]

11:44 AM on 06/23/2011

Not true. Not supportable with evidence.

The truth is due to standardized testing, the required number of Social Studies courses a student needs to graduate has been reduced over the years.

Most states no longer require Civics anymore.

This has NOTHING to do with the teachers.

[healthanalyst]

03:44 AM on 06/25/2011

Sure it does. Education majors are the bottom of the barrel in SAT or GRE scores. Been that way for decades.

[IamSteele]

03:05 PM on 06/23/2011

Actually, while I agree, my High School teachers were never coaches...

My English teacher was Tennis Coach, Economics was Women's Tennis... I think the swim team's was my math teacher, water polo was Spanish- My god! Did I have any class not taught by "Coach"?

[rksnj67]

02:33 PM on 06/24/2011

In my high school, there were more coaches who taught academic courses than phys. ed. courses.

[farmilyman]

07:11 AM on 06/23/2011

The right has scholars like Palin, Bachman, and Santorum.

[healthanalyst]

03:45 AM on 06/25/2011

Don't forget Beck, he has a UNIVERSITY....

[k pr]

11:03 PM on 06/22/2011

I forget, are we on the left elitist bookworms or uneducated? Ii

[Rocka-Billy]

10:19 PM on 06/22/2011

Say what you will about Santorum, he gets very passionate and fervent about the things he believes. I would even say he is frothing at the mouth.

[BobDobalina1]

08:20 AM on 06/23/2011

He seems to have a Google problem with frothing!

[RC81]

07:43 PM on 06/25/2011

Oh, was that his mouth he was frothing out of? Fav'd.

[Jet4Life]

10:06 PM on 06/22/2011

Also, the reason for such low scores is the school curriculum structure. There is no emphasis on history. My past experience has shown me that some teachers like to hear themselves talk, and try to impress the class with talking about their views on historical events. A lot of bs for an important class.

[arkady967]

11:02 AM on 06/25/2011

Second that.... I had more than one educator go on as if the classroom was an opportunity to inculcate personal views on the subject of U.S History and government (The audience is rather captive, after all, and not often likely, or willing, to check, or consider the source).