I was just reading something last night from the state of California. And that the California universities – I think it’s seven or eight of the California system of universities don’t even teach an American history course. It’s not even available to be taught. Just to tell you how bad it’s gotten in this country, where we’re trying to disconnect the American people from the roots of who we are, so they have an understanding of what America should be.
I suppose that narrowly speaking, he might not be lying: he might have read “something … from the state of California” that said this. That something might of course have been scrawled in green crayon on a crumpled paper bag.
But there is certainly no substantial truth in this statement, especially the notion that either of the “California system[s] of universities” is “trying to disconnect the American people from the roots of who we are”.
Someone is trying to make Santorum look like a profoundly ignorant man.
I was able to find US history courses at the CSUs:
Bakersfield
Channel Islands
Chico
Dominguez Hills
East Bay
Fresno
Fullerton
Humboldt
Long Beach
Los Angeles
Maritime
Monterey Bay
Northridge
Pomona
Sacramento
San Bernardino
San Diego
San Francisco
San Jose
San Luis Obispo
San Marcos
Sonoma
Stanislaus
As for the UC’s:
Berkeley
Irvine
Los Angeles
Merced
Riverside
San Diego
Santa Barbara
Santa Cruz
Here at UC Davis, of course, American history is part of the General Education requirement of all students.
And UCSF is of course exclusively a medical school. But even it offers a history of Psychiatry in the United States as part of its History of Health Sciences program.
The Edge of the American West 
35 comments
April 2, 2012 at 7:16 pm
thetragicallyflip
Rachel Maddow was all over this tonight and even brought up a few courses you’re teaching as examples. I only know this because she included the instructor names in the courses on US history she cited.
It’s all what’s in Santorum’s heart you know. In his heart, he knows you don’t really teach American history in California.
April 2, 2012 at 7:17 pm
eric
Rachel Maddow was all over this tonight and even brought up a few courses you’re teaching as examples. I only know this because she included the instructor names in the courses on US history she cited.
Really? That was awfully nice of her.
April 2, 2012 at 7:26 pm
Robert M.
“Someone is trying to make Santorum look like a profoundly ignorant man.”
I have suspected for some time that someone is Rick Santorum.
April 2, 2012 at 7:29 pm
eric
I have suspected for some time that someone is Rick Santorum.
He’s certainly the short-odds candidate for the position, but I don’t want to leap hastily to conclusions.
April 2, 2012 at 8:55 pm
eric
Ah, here’s Maddow.
April 2, 2012 at 9:14 pm
TF Smith
Probably stems from this:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0401-uc-critics-20120402,0,6621298.story
which sterms from this:
http://www.nas.org/
Where’s Sleepy Sam when you need him?
April 2, 2012 at 11:55 pm
Lurker
From European standpoint, this discussion is interesting. I, myself, graduated from a university that did not offer any history courses. The university was a university of technology, and there was no general education requirement. In Europe, we usually don’t have such requirement, as the high school takes care of that.
On the other hand, as there was no general education requirement, the freshman physics laboratory was the first university course where the students needed to write a number of technical reports. I TA’ed that course for some years. Every now and then I came across a report that was badly written. (The university entrance exam only had questions on mathematics, physics and chemistry, so it was possible to be accepted despite utter lack of writing skills.) I had never any qualms about failing such reports, and, consequently, failing the student’s lab course. In fact, we TA’s viewed it as a positive thing that a student might drop out due to being unable to pass the obligatory physics lab because of their bad writing skills. Such student didn’t have anything to do at the university in the first place and would be, at a later date, a disgrace to the engineering profession.
It is the duty of the high school to give the students adequate preparation in composition, history, philosophy and other arts and humanities subjects.
April 3, 2012 at 12:02 am
erubin
The Green Crayon on Crumpled Paper Bag Times has really lost its journalistic integrity, as of late.
April 3, 2012 at 12:18 am
Malaclypse
I don’t want to leap hastily to conclusions.
It would be irresponsible not to speculate.
April 3, 2012 at 1:16 am
TF Smith
As far as I can tell, you have to go into about page 45 of the NAS document to get their point (I think), which is that according to them, on four of the nine UC campuses (UCSF gets a pass as a graduate program, apparently) a student can graduate with a BA without “doing any coursework in science, mathematics, a foreign language, economics, literature, or the history and institutions of their country” (presumably the US).
I guess, given enough contortions, this may be what the senator is referring to – but it’s a stretch.
There may be a question as to why the public UC/R1 system in California offers undergrad programs in competition with the public CSU system (or vice-versa), but I doubt the senator even understands there are two public systems in the state.
April 3, 2012 at 4:28 am
kevin
Santorum really has perfected that combination of total ignorance and complete arrogance that defines modern conservatism.
April 3, 2012 at 4:31 am
kevin
And the NAS group is led by an emeritus professor from USC who teaches German literature. I’m not even sure which part of that surprises me the least — that it’s an old crank, from the snobbiest school, or in a field of Prussian stuffiness.
April 3, 2012 at 4:54 am
Dave
The gap between ‘German literature’ and ‘Prussian stuffiness’ is probably large enough to drive several panzer divisions through, but then, as all students of German literature know, against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain.
April 3, 2012 at 6:13 am
kevin
The gap between ‘German literature’ and ‘Prussian stuffiness’ is probably large enough to drive several panzer divisions through
And yet probably not as large as “the University of California system offers no courses in American history” and the actual truth.
So, until they offer a correction for that idiocy, I’ll stand by my own baseless smear. And if those filthy Biedermeier lovers don’t like it, then they can cram it sideways.
April 3, 2012 at 6:57 am
rea
It is the duty of the high school to give the students adequate preparation in composition, history, philosophy and other arts and humanities subjects.
This doesn’t bear much resemblence to the way the American educational system operates.
April 3, 2012 at 7:21 am
Dave
…then they can cram it sideways.
That reminds me of a joke I heard once, about a British Tommy, a lady of easy virtue, and a German who’d lost his tank…
April 3, 2012 at 9:38 am
pa joe
Rick deserves credit for knowing his targeted audience of ignorant boobs.
His future is assured on the right wing lecture circuit when his days as fake presidential candidate are over.
April 3, 2012 at 10:26 am
TF Smith
Remember when Republican presidential candidates had served as presidents of Ivy League schools?
Rick doesn’t…
April 3, 2012 at 11:40 am
Colin Danby
The slip from “doesn’t require” to “doesn’t offer” that TFS alerts us to is pretty common. It mirrors Santorum’s conflation of tolerance of religion with oppression of religion.
April 3, 2012 at 12:34 pm
TF Smith
Along with the senator’s obvious lack of knowledge of the California master plan for higher ed and misunderstanding of the rules of evidence, this is pretty much a stock criticism of the UC/CSU/CalDOE from the right that goes back three decades now; see Gary Nash and “History on Trial”…of course, California’s K-12 history standards are pretty damn sound and because of the market, influence text book content for publishers nationally – which ticks off some people to no end.
That these statements are coming from a graduate of Pennsylvania’s public system – BA-Penn State; MBA-U. of Pittsburgh; JD-Penn State’s law school – could make one wonder what the taxpayers of the Keystone State are getting for their money.
Best,
April 3, 2012 at 1:23 pm
Anderson
Probably Santorum will be correct in a few years, because California will de-fund the history departments as a cost-cutting measure.
April 3, 2012 at 1:28 pm
Donald A. Coffin
It’s been a long time since history was a cost-effective discipline. So why’s Santorum whining about it? (Tongue firmly in cheek.)
April 3, 2012 at 1:45 pm
TF Smith
It’s just one damn thing after another, after all…
April 3, 2012 at 3:57 pm
kathy a.
there aren’t US history courses per se at UC Hastings College of the Law. just an entire graduate course of study involving mostly historic US judicial decisions.
April 3, 2012 at 5:16 pm
kathy a.
sorry, my UC alma mater was left off the list, but perhaps intentionally because it is the only one that does not offer undergrad courses.
the third tier of public post-high-school education in CA is the community college system. it is possible that not all community colleges can currently offer a full complement of core classes that can are needed for transfer to the 4 year universities upstairs — because funding cuts have been devastating to those colleges. the community colleges are not, however, public universities offering bachelor degrees and beyond.
April 3, 2012 at 8:45 pm
TF Smith
Actually, given those involved, I expect the good senator’s tidbit stems from the NAS document above, which is silent on the CCs and has nothing but good to say about the CSU. (I feel so validated). It focuses on the UCs (absent Hastings and UCSF).
So, in essence, it is all Dr. Rauchway’s fault, I think.
April 3, 2012 at 9:21 pm
kathy a.
i believe eric has vindicated his campus, UC in general, the CSU system, and then some.
doesn’t anyone on santorum’s team have any basic research skills? or is he serious about not caring about facts, so long as his heart is somewhere? i’m guessing the latter, but it makes me feel icky.
whichever way one looks at it, he’s not exactly shining in the competition category of “who do you trust to have the button?” but i’ll wait for the swimsuit competition to make my final decision.
April 3, 2012 at 10:03 pm
TF Smith
I don’t think Santorum is going to make it to the “talent” round, however. The fact that he is about the best the social conservatives could come up with is illuminating.
Romney attended Stanford, BYU, and Harvard (no love for public colleges there), so my guess is he probably knows enough to not say something as factually stupid as the senator; but in terms of intellect and affect, I’m sure we’ll see some more “I like to fire people”-level absurdities before the president is re-elected.
The establishment GOP, such as it is, got into bed with the SCs a long time ago; they will continue to pay for it for a long time yet to come, I think.
Best,
April 4, 2012 at 4:21 pm
Martha Goff
This topic was covered today on Michael Krasny’s program on KQED radio…however, they did not mention Santorum specifically.
April 4, 2012 at 7:01 pm
TF Smith
Maddow just had a spokesman from the Santorum campaign; his response was “if you say so”…
Pretty sad.
April 4, 2012 at 7:35 pm
Main Street Muse
“Doesn’t anyone on santorum’s team have any basic research skills? or is he serious about not caring about facts, so long as his heart is somewhere?”
He seems to be channeling Ronald Reagan, who tossed aside facts if they were not working for the story he wanted to share.
April 4, 2012 at 8:35 pm
kathy a.
i remember reagan, but don’t remember him as quite so mean. also, those alzheimer’s jokes turned out to be true.
April 5, 2012 at 2:44 pm
eric
I’m sorry I missed UC Hastings College of the Law – but then, so does the UC itself! (It’s not listed as a “campus,” but under “more UC locations.”)
April 5, 2012 at 3:38 pm
kathy a.
oh, well. everybody hates lawyers anyway. (unless they need one.) still, it is a little punch in the gut to see the UC compare its only site dedicated to legal education, founded in 1878, to (for example) agricultural education extensions.
not that i’m putting down the good work of ag extensions! which i have a feeling santorum doesn’t support, because that would be meddling with dog’s will and/or maybe profits for profitable bidnezz. or something! maybe he was counting the lack of US history courses offered at the ag extensions.
April 6, 2012 at 4:27 pm
DiNovia
I was in Boston when same-sex marriage became legal there. Santorum sang the same songs then as he does now. Now, he has a bigger megaphone and access to a broader audience.
Facts were never part of his repertoire.