Did your education prepare you to know enough about these issues to make you feel confident that you can discuss them with others? Write an essay explaining to someone who does not
know what these issues are why they are important and why students should learn about them in school. Why
should we know our own history?
Paragraph 18:
Come to a thoughtful judgment about political affairs, citizens need a solid grounding in history,
economics, and statistics. They will hear candidates make conflicting claims about what history proves and
what the economy needs. Citizens need to understand the great issues in American and world history. They
should know about Jim Crow,4 the Progressive movement, Prohibition, the Great Depression, the McCarthy
era, the Brown decision, the Cold War, and the other events and issues that shaped our world today. They
need to understand the measures that have helped or harmed the economy. They need to recognize how
conflicts have started and ended. Provide enough to reach their own judgments
about candidates and issues and proposed legislation.