Ronald Reagan spoke the words in the video above during the final portion of his Farewell Address as the President of the United States. He made these remarks twelve years before Joe and Didi Foss founded the Joe Foss Institute, but President Reagan's words of warning are as important to hear today as they were on January 11, 1989.
His thoughts reflect thinking of our Founding Fathers, who believed there was a profound link between our freedom and the education of those who would inherit it. In 1816, Thomas Jefferson wrote, "if a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Nearly 30 years before that, John Adams said "Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom."
Yet today, for a variety of reasons, the U.S. Department of Education's own study has shown that students at elementary, middle school, and high school levels in the United States struggle with even basic history questions.
The Wall Street Journal, on June 15, 2011, ran an article entitled "Students Stumble Again on the Basics of History." The article referred to the recently completed, and alarming, National Assessment of Educational Progress, a report card produced by the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics (download or view the Report Card here).
Writer Stephanie Banchero highlighted the facts that: "only 35% of fourth graders knew the purpose of the Declaration of Independence;" that "more than half of all seniors posted scores at the lowest achievement level, 'below basic;'" and that only 20% of the tested fourth-graders, 17% of the tested eighth-graders, and 12% of the tested twelfth-graders were 'proficient' or advanced,' in their understanding of "key historical themes, including the basic principles of democracy and America's role in the world."
The New York Times Sam Dillon also covered the release of the Report Card, and pointed out that "American students are less proficient in their nation's history than in any other subject." In Mr. Dillon's article, he quotes history professor and chairwoman-elect of the National Council for History Education Linda K. Salvucci, who said, "History is very much being shortchanged." Dillon wrote, "Many teacher-education programs, Ms. Salvucci said, also contribute to the problem by encouraging aspiring teachers to seek certification in social studies, rather than in history. 'They think they'll be more versatile, that they can teach civics, government, whatever,' she said. 'But they're not prepared to teach history.'"
In a different article, also in the New York Times, Mr. Dillon quotes former Supreme Court Justice Sandara Day O'Connor, founder of Joe Foss Institute partner iCivics.org, who said that the results "confirm that we have a crisis on our hands when it comes to civic education."
At the Joe Foss Institute, we know that there are many wonderful teachers of history in the United States. But we also understand that fewer and fewer schools are teaching civics in any sort of substantial way. We know that the recent educational emphasis on math and reading (based on the No Child Left Behind law) has had a negative impact on the study of history, civics, and other subjects. And we believe that Thomas Jefferson, for one, would have been dismayed. He clearly believed that the teaching of history was critically important for the future health of our nation and its freedom.
We may not be able to turn the tide with regard to how schools teach history or civics. Still, we can support teachers and schools. We can provide speakers who will visit schools to provide a first-person perspective on the importance and cost of our freedoms. And we can work to develop programs and even lesson plans to support those teachers who are in the schools every day, working hard to make a difference in the lives of our children.
We believe in the teachers in our schools. Our goal is to help make them even more effective, and to help support their work as they build into those who will grow up to lead our nation into the future.
Yet today, for a variety of reasons, the U.S. Department of Education's own study has shown that students at elementary, middle school, and high school levels in the United States struggle with even basic history questions.