Sep 06 2008
Place Your Bets: Which obscure history reference will stump Sarah Palin?
Ready, set, go! At this very moment our nation’s political reporters are crafting the questions they will challenge Sarah Palin with this week as she heads out on the campaign trail. Perhaps someone will ask her to define appeasement à la Chris Matthews and Kevin James. Perhaps she’ll be asked to name the current president of Russia like Hillary Clinton was last winter—at least Clinton covered for herself by saying it didn’t matter who he is because Putin is still really in charge. A brave soul might ask her to explain the difference between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, but then again is there an American journalist who understands the difference themselves?
As a history teacher I can’t wait to see what they come up with…and as a history teacher I really hope she answers correctly. As the year progresses and you, my students, learn world history you will come to find out that there are many things we Americans do not understand about foreign cultures. Obama’s July trip to Europe and the Middle East actually resuscitated McCain’s lifeless campaign. Certainly the secrets to our success as a country have been to “do our own thing,” and “think outside of the box” instead of relying on rote memorization of facts the way they do in countries where students score highly on standardized tests. We don’t dwell on the past and we don’t look around to see what everyone else is doing. We look straight ahead to the future and that is a terrific quality…up to a point.
On the campaign front I fear the questioning Palin faces in the weeks ahead will be less about vetting a candidate’s views on an international issue and more about trying to get her to make a mistake. Will it be “Can you pronounce the name of the current president of Georgia?” or “How should America respond to the growing alliance between Russia and Venezuela?” Please let it be the latter.
