Hi, Tom!

From my chair, you're the one with the throbbing vein in your forehead.

If your daughter hasn't had American history by this stage in her education, this is a problem you need to take up with your school system, not with the universities. Is the curriculum in CA still supervised by the State Board of Regents? And what is the source of their authority, if so?

In PA, there's American history in 4th and 5th grades, American Civics with Constitutional history in 8th grade, and more American history in either 10th or 11th grade -- I forget. Not all of America shares this problem. But it's a serious problem.

Why would studying something mean emulation? I studied Hinduism some years ago. That doesn't mean I wanted to become a Hindu, just that I wanted to understand India better. It worked, too.

A more interesting question to me is, why do you resist the idea of studying about Islam? Is understanding Muslims something to be avoided? If so, then why?

You're right, I do resist ranking cultures. It makes cultural achievements sound too much like a dog food commercial jingle of my youth. ("My dog's better than your dog/ My dog's better than yours/ My dog's better 'cause he eats KennelRation/ My dog's better than yours.") Civilization isn't a sport, with points awarded in competition. It's a continuum. Initiative passes from group to group. Right now it's our turn. This too may pass; we'll see.

I don't want to live in any other culture than the one I live in right now, because it's the best one for me. But I resist ranking because I want to resist the arrogance that can develop out of "We're # 1" fever. To me, it's less important to be better than "them" and more important to be better than we were yesterday. To keep the initiative, we have to keep improving, not merely to appear to improve by saying we're better than someone else.

Regards--
Mary Anne