if history were taught right

If American history had been taught in the schools-really taught, not used as a dull, memory-testing exercise-the country wouldn't have gone into open-jawed shcok when the civil rights movement began and the black man finally walked out of his shack and said enough is enough. If people weren't so disgorged by the public schools with their ignorance of government intact, they wouldn't scream "traitor" every time the Supreme Court affirms a constitutional safeguard. They wouldn't be so muddled about what a free society is that they want to preserve it by tossing all dissenters into a dungeon. For a country to be as steeped in racism, prejudice, internal hatred and distrust, and as fold of TV situation comedy as we are, the edcational system has got to be about as vigorous and effective as a 90-year-old gigolo.

- M. Royko, 1970