The foundation of what America and Western Culture are all about requires an understanding of the philosophy that drove the Founding Fathers and those who followed them. There is more to our colonial era than Williamsburg, and learning how to bake bread in an iron oven and wear silly clothes.

Understanding the current alignments of our political system require a foundation in the history of the totalitarian regimes, the philosophies that drove them, how they have been defeated and why, and what their remnants are doing. A middle school kid may know who Hitler is just from popular culture. But Roosevelt? MacArthur? Churchill? Stalin? Ask anyone under 12 who Anne Frank was. Ask any kid under 14 who is not Jewish about the Holocaust. Does any student hear the word communism in any context other than Joseph McCarthy?

While even I am not paranoid enough to think that the leftist educational establishment is trying to suppress the history of collectivism in the world, the gap is real. I really think it would be useful for a kid to understand the real difference between the principles of collectivism and freedom before they get to college.

Fortunately, like many parents, I also have a hand in educating my kids.