On Aug 24, 2007, at 8:14 AM, Ismail Lagardien wrote:
> Teaching a Class on Africa's International Relations a year ago
> (Aug- Dec) I felt like an ancient freak. Not a single undergraduate
> knew, beyond "a" name (one Nelson Mandela), what apartheid was. I
> didn't know whether to laugh, or cry. But then, some of them
> couldn't discuss McCarthyism, the Watts Riots, Kent State, Tet...
> They had never heard of the Sandinistas/Contras... To his credit,
> one student liked The Clash!!! (and thought he knew about the
> Sandinistas)
It's odd how that Beloit list, and some of the punditry it inspired, seems to assume that you have to have had personal experience of a historical event to know anything about it.
Doug