In the September study of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute showing that college students across the nation lack a rudimentary knowledge of history, one finding was left out of virtually every report in the newspapers: the conclusion that family matters. The report stated:

[W]e found that family matters. There is now a large body of educational research demonstrating that family structure significantly influences student learning, and the evidence on civic learning further corroborates this. Clearly, what the university or college does is paramount in terms of learning during the undergraduate years, but we cannot ignore the background role the family plays. Family influences for which data were collected and which were associated with increased civic learning included the parents’ marital status, their education levels, and the extent to which parents discussed public affairs with their children.Specifically, we found that students from intact families—those who report having two parents married and living together—demonstrated greater civic learning than did students whose parents are separated or divorced or where at least one parent is deceased. Furthermore, parental education and the frequency of family discussions of current events are associated with higher civic learning.

The study clearly shows that intact families are more likely to discuss the sort of things students should be learning at college.

At the two lowest-ranking colleges—Berkeley and Johns Hopkins—“only half of all families engaged in discussions of current events or history on a weekly or daily basis,” the report stated.

It’s not surprising that the media would find that particular conclusion uninteresting, but as parents—educators for our children—we should take the family approach to education as a defining principle.

The point here is not that your family must have a mother, a father and 2.5 children for your children to understand history; rather, this study shows that the interaction you have with your children—even your grown children—has a profound effect on their education. The way we spend our time with them will help determine whether they are ignorant of history—and, consequently, of what has shaped current events—and whether they are able to apply the lessons of history in their lives. If we want our children to have a contempt for history, we should simply do nothing. As the study shows, the colleges will take care of that, unless we intervene.