Saturday, January 30, 2010

Patriotism

One of my students wrote in her essay that she was surprised to learn that the concept of zero was brought to Medieval Europe by the Muslims and not by the Americans. Seriously.


That's patriotism for you. Now I feel like asking my students about Adam and Eve's nationality.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I often think you invent these stories about your students.

-L.L.

Clarissa said...

Would that I did, my friend. Would that I had imagination enough.

Anonymous said...

That's not patriotism; that's complete and total ignorance of history. The only way that's even possible is if some enterprising American got on a time machine and introduced the concept of zero to Europeans before they came into contact with the Arab traders who borrowed the concept from India.

Unknown said...

Europeans didn;t invent anything we consider the standrds of civilisation : the Chinese inveted gunpowder and the printing press, iron and the wheel are from the middle east, and writing is from the Carthaginians I believe. We wouldn't even have gotten out of the Dark ages if it weren't for middle eastern & northern African cultures- they were the ones that maintained the knowledge during that period.

Amanda said...

Eden is clearly somewhere in Texas, right? I mean... They must call Texas "God's Country" for a reason.... :-P

Tom Carter said...

Incredible. As Anonymous said, that indicates a complete ignorance of history, and it's a pretty serious indictment of our public schools.

In talking to kids in my own family who are in public schools, I'm often as amazed by what they are being taught as by what they aren't being taught. If I had school-aged kids, I'd be footing the bill for a good private school.

Unknown said...

That shouldn;t be necessary, the state should fund good schooling...