How the Torrent of Anti-Americanism Affects Teenagers

Jeff Zaslow:

Knowing that America is hated in many corners of the world, some of our best high-school students have a few requests.

Their school curricula require them to study the French Revolution, which began in 1789. Why, they ask, aren't they also learning about the Iranian Revolution of 1979?

They're taught foreign languages -- lots of verbs and nouns -- but not enough about the cultures where these languages flourish. Why, they ask, are they not given more insight into the politics and religions of those countries?

I learned of these and other concerns last week, when I interviewed about 70 students taking advanced-placement government and international-affairs courses at two suburban Detroit schools. These juniors and seniors -- they were the 11- and 12-year-olds of Sept. 11, 2001 -- had a good sense of the issues threatening the nation they will inherit. Aware that many of their contemporaries overseas are being taught to hate the U.S., they wonder what confrontations lie ahead when their generation reaches adulthood.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at October 5, 2006 9:21 PM
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