Will future Kentucky students understand and appreciate Memorial Day?

It’s kind of ironic. In preparation for Memorial Day, the Cincinnati Enquirer just published “He jumped on a grenade: Vietnam veterans remember sacrifice that allowed them to live,” a story about combat action in the Vietnam War that led to one soldier receiving the Medal of Honor and others getting awards for valor, as well.

The irony here is that a pending revision to Kentucky's social studies standards includes no mention what-so-ever to either the country of Vietnam or the Vietnam War. In fact, the terms “Southeast Asia” and “Southeast Asian” don’t appear anywhere in this social studies document, and social studies is supposed to include geography as well as history.

The Vietnam vets are not the only ones getting slighted. Also unmentioned in the social studies standards revision are the Korean War and the Persian Gulf wars.

At present, only one legislative review before the Interim Joint Committee on Education remains before these deficient standards get final approval.

If you think every Kentucky child should learn about Vietnam and other armed conflicts after World War II and a whole lot more that the proposed standards leave out, you need to tell your legislators -- now.