by Historical Illiteracy Reaches New Heights
In a development that should terrify anyone invested in functional democracy, surveys reveal that a concerning number of students believe Abraham Lincoln fought alongside the Avengers, freed the slaves using the Infinity Stones, and delivered the Gettysburg Address at Comic-Con. Educational experts are calling it “the Marvel Cinematic Universe problem,” where fictional narratives have become more culturally dominant than actual historical events.
The confusion stems partly from oversimplified history education that treats the past as a series of decontextualized facts rather than interconnected events. When history class becomes memorizing dates without understanding why they matter, students fill the gaps with whatever cultural knowledge they do have, which increasingly comes from superhero movies rather than textbooks that actually explain historical reality.
Teachers report increasingly surreal classroom moments, like students asking which Avenger helped with the Civil War or whether Captain America was named after the country or vice versa. One educator described grading an essay that confidently asserted Lincoln used Thor’s hammer to defeat the Confederacy, which would admittedly make history more exciting but lacks the minor detail of being remotely true.
The replacement of historical knowledge with pop culture has created a generation that knows more about fictional universes than actual human history. Students can recite the entire MCU timeline but get confused about which century World War II happened in, suggesting our educational priorities might be slightly misaligned with creating informed citizens.
Critics blame shortened attention spans, inadequate curriculum, and the general cultural dominance of entertainment over education. Defenders argue that at least students are engaging with narratives about heroism and sacrifice, even if those narratives involve magic hammers and talking raccoons rather than actual historical figures who did actual historical things.
The situation has prompted calls for education reform, better integration of media literacy, and possibly just showing students a calendar so they understand that the 1860s and the Battle of New York are separated by more than just narrative convenience. Until then, expect more essays about how Lincoln’s greatest achievement was assembling the Avengers, with supporting evidence from Wikipedia pages students definitely didn’t read.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/students-think-abraham-lincoln-was-in-the-avengers/
SOURCE: Students Think Abraham Lincoln Was in the Avengers (https://bohiney.com/students-think-abraham-lincoln-was-in-the-avengers/)
