I woke up early on June 14th. After hanging up “old Glory” at my front entrance and draping a few historical replicas over the garage door, I returned to a second cup of coffee and began my search on the internet. After checking the editorial pages of over a dozen papers across the nation, I found just two that had anything resembling mention of “Flag Day”. More space was seemingly devoted to latest work of our nation’s most famous historian, David McCullough, than to traditional “Flag Day” sentiments. That seemed okay. His book, 1776, might just provide an even better history lesson. One thing all the stories seemed to have in common was the belief – thanks to the widespread ignorance of today/s America’s youth - that the Republic’s civic health is in grave danger. McCullough was described as ‘demoralized’ by Jim Ritter of the Chicago Sun Times, who heard him speak recently. In his Flag Day article, “What Young Don’t Know About History is Staggering”, Ritter - who cited no statistics concerning the extent of such ignorance among our young - concluded with the hope that Tom Hank’s two upcoming HBO miniseries about McCullough’s books may eventually “spark some interest in young people”. Malcolm Kline, the executive director for Accuracy in Academia who also heard McCullough speak recently, noted the same tone in the best selling author. “Why is it possible that an otherwise intelligent person does not know that the original 13 colonies were on the East Coast or who George Marshall was,” McCullough “ruefully” asked the crowd? I’ll try to answer him..
First, what should he expect? Surveys have been reporting this result since Chief Justice Warren Burger resigned from the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1970s to give us, what he then termed, a very needed “ national civics lesson”. Thank goodness Burger, like the Founders, isn’t around today to see just how bad things have become. McCullough worries about “George Marshall”. I’m more worried whether today’s young adults possess even the most rudimentary knowledge to function as citizens. A Roper Survey in 2002 found Americans aged 18 - 24 coming in last or second to last when compared to their peers from among eight other nations in such things as: the ability to identify the location of our nation on a world map, knowing the approximate size of the U.S. population, being able to identify what two nations have over 1 billion people each, knowing who the Taliban are, and in understanding other basic bits of information. I can easily imagine that their European peers could tell them who George Marshall was.
This is no surprise. The National Assessment for Education Progress (N.A.E.P.) is responsible for national testing and maintains a web site called “The Nation’s Report Card”. What McCullough never mentions in his talks is that U.S. History, Civics and Geography are viewed as “second class subjects” by N.A.E.P., Congress and the U.S. Department of Education. While state-by-state comparisons are available for reading, math, writing and science, no such accountability is available in courses thought helpful for effective citizenship. Any K-12 educator will tell you that if you don’t hold states or schools accountable, not much will get done. Take Florida for example. Governor Jeb Bush and several of the leading legislators serve as ‘state directors’ to the Education Commission of the States (ECS). As such, they also serve on a subsidiary group known as the National Center for Learning and Citizenship (N.C..L.C.). The second group is charged with improving Civic Education programs in all 50 states. While serving on this group, Jeb Bush signed into law an act that eliminated American History, American Government, and Economics as graduation requirements for all students in our state. Incensed, Tampa Congressman Jim Davis immediately introduced HR 3592 in the last Congress to threaten his own state with the loss of federal education funds for eliminating these vital courses . Social studies educators had to actually amend Senate Education Chair Lee Constantine’s bill to ‘resolve’ this issue the following year in order to restore these graduation requirements. Why would Jeb Bush do such a thing? For the same reason the President delayed the Civics N.A.E.P. assessment only a few years before. Again, if no one keeps score – who cares? President Bush, whom David McCullough has met with regularly to discuss how to improve the teaching of history, has also recommended eliminating assessing this very subject by N.A.E.P. at grade 12. Funny, but I never hear Dr. McCullough or anyone else at the national level point out to the President or his younger brother that things such as non-accountability, the second-class status given to civic knowledge, advocating the elimination of such assessments at grade 12 or eradicating such courses as high school requirements might actually give folks the impression that civic knowledge isn’t very important.
I happen to agree with David McCullough that civic knowledge among young adults is so bad that ‘national security is at stake.” But you wouldn’t have thought this from watching this spring’s confirmation hearing of Margaret Spellings as Secretary of Education. Not one question was posed to her about how she and the federal department of education might reverse the decline of civic literacy.
Into the fray comes Senator Lamar Alexander. His current bill – S850 – has a public hearing on June 30th. The bill would grant some equity to History and Civics on N.A.E.P. by authorizing enough funds to compare up to 10 states to a national standard on the upcoming 2006 N.A.E.P. History and Civics assessments. Senator Alexander cited in a speech in the last Congress that, according to N.A.E.P., U.S. History is our students “worst subject.” His bill would cost a few millions as compared to the almost half Billion we’ve spent on training U.S. History teachers in the last four years. Unfortunately, his bill wasn’t even given a hearing in the last Congress. Concerned citizens can only hope it passes committee in time for Independence Day on July 2nd.
For over two years national groups and noted historians like Dr. McCullough have bemoaned the decline in civic understanding. Perhaps if they get behind the Alexander bill, some state leaders might even be held accountable for how well they prepare young adults to be citizens. Some might even take their ‘responsibilities’ as directors of N.C.L.C. – and guardians of civic knowledge -- more seriously.
Jack Bovee
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