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Celebrate Freedom Week
In
the post-September 11th world, it seems that we Americans
are all trying to outdo each other in our show of patriotism.
This is to be expected and is not necessarily a bad
thing. After all, we are at war. However, among the
many good ideas that have been proposed, one particularly
bad idea has reared its head, courtesy of my conservative
colleague.
He
seeks to resurrect legislation requiring New Jersey
school children to recite from the Declaration of Independence
on a daily basis in school.
Before
you get the wrong idea about me, let me set the record
straight. I am as fiercely patriotic as the next person.
Do not confuse me with some pusillanimous pen pusher.
I support the President and our government. We are fighting
an evil as great as any we have ever encountered, a
direct attack on our American way of life.
But
that does not mean that I should yield common sense,
and support any supposedly “patriotic” idea
that comes down the pike.
The
suggestion that mere rote recitation of a 55-word passage
from the Declaration of Independence will make better
citizens of our sons and daughters is ridiculous.
We
all recited the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag each
morning as children. Did you really learn more about
the flag or about your country by reciting those same
31 words over and over every day? Do you really believe
that schoolchildren in Newark, Jersey City or Randolph
will become better citizens by additional forced memorization
and recitation?
I
don’t buy it and neither should you. Mere rote
recitation is just that, a meaningless act. Just one
more thing to do in the morning.
By
the way, we should not lose sight of how conservatives
have made careers out of railing against unfunded state
mandates, or attempts to dictate local public educational
policy at the state level, on measures just like this.
Conservatives are what you might call “local control
guys.” Unless of course, it is one of their pet
attempts to impose morality on the rest of us. But that
is another story for another day.
The
sad fact is that the real failure in citizenship education
is not that we do not require enough rote memorization.
That is not going to help students understand the Declaration
of Independence, the American Revolution or of what
our country stands for. No, it will merely become a
hollow daily exercise.
Rather,
the problem is our failure to meaningfully and properly
teach history and social studies in our schools. At
the risk of offending teachers who may otherwise share
my views, I call your attention to a study last year
by the Center for Survey and Research Analysis at the
University of Connecticut.
Some
556 college seniors, from the 25 top colleges and universities,
were given telephone interviews to measure their knowledge
of American history, government, popular culture and
famous quotations.
The
results reflect poorly on our educational system: 80
percent received a ‘D’ or an ‘F’
on a 34 question high-school level test, including Harvard
and Princeton students. While 99 percent knew who Beavis
and Butthead were, little more than half knew the basics
about democracy and the Constitution.
Only
23 percent correctly knew that James Madison was the
framer of the Constitution. Believe it or not, and I
hope you won’t be tripped up by this yourself,
37 percent thought that Ulysses S. Grant was the general
at Yorktown, where the British surrendered to George
Washington in the American Revolution, although Grant
wasn’t even born until 41 years later.
Now,
do you really believe for an instant that memorization
will make our children better citizens?
Celebrate
Freedom Week
I have a much better suggestion for conservatives to
pursue if they really care about citizenship education.
I suggest a law here in New Jersey patterned after a
new Texas law, designating a full week in September
as “Celebrate Freedom Week.”
The
law would require schools to find a way to impart the
intent and importance of the Declaration of Independence,
the Constitution and significant events in American
history into the school curriculum. This could be done
through reports, projects, programs, speakers and assemblies.
A real effort to teach history. Real education, not
rote recitation.
Real
patriotism is not forced or indoctrinated, like we learned
our ABCs. It comes through education and understanding.
You can learn it, but you cannot impose it through apathetic
and meaningless acts. Perhaps Mark Twain was right when
he said. “I have never let my schooling interfere
with my education.” Maybe, 90 years after his death,
it is finally time to prove him wrong.
February
4, 2002
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