“Mrs. Powel, we gave you a republic if you can keep it.” – Benjamin Franklin, September 18, 1787
Civil illiteracy runs rampant in this country. This last election was a perfect example of this. People blamed our country’s problems on the president so they voted in a new one from another party. Astonishingly, they found no need to replace a Congress that had a lower approval rating than the president! According to a recent Zogby poll, 57% of those voters surveyed did not know which party controlled Congress. It’s disturbing few people knew the president has zero powers to make laws.
Even fewer surveyed knew that the president proposes the budget but Congress has no obligation to accept it. The Constitution gives the House of Representatives power to propose and to approve laws, taxes, and spending. The speaker of the house who leads the majority party determines what budget best suits the interests of their party and proceeds to act on it. Not the president. Even if he vetoes the budget, they will still pass it. Then the president is obligated by law to sign “their budget.”
America has a civics problem if over half of the voters do not know that 100 senators, 435 congressmen, not one president, are responsible for the problems that plague our nation. Further proof of this pathetic civil illiteracy is that the voters reelected the majority of these congressmen.
“In the U.S., we believe the best way to improve lives is to improve public education.” – Bill Gates
The results of a recent National Assessment of Educational Progress show that only one-fifth of eighth grade students have attained proficiency in civics. The test included the past history of the significant events in our nation and the basic knowledge to understand the responsibilities and the rights of an American citizen. The test included students of all races regardless of economic status.
Only 13% of these students met the basic standards of history proficiency. The remaining 87% did not know our past major periods, the events that affected our nation most, or the people who were responsible for many of the ideas and concepts that influenced the United States we live in today.
“Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance.” – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
A 2019 RAND survey of 223 public high school teachers found that only 43% said it was essential for students to be knowledgeable about periods such as America’s founding, the Civil War and the Cold War. Even fewer felt it was essential to teach about the protections guaranteed by the Bill of Rights; teaching the concept of federalism, separation of powers and the necessity of states rights.
A Foundation for Individual Rights in Education survey of 159 college students in 2021 found 23% of teachers think it is OK to use violence for controlling campus speech. It is no wonder that 66% of college students today believe that shouting down speakers to control their speech is acceptable.
The results of these tests and surveys should serve as a wake-up call for Americans, that “woke public education” is failing miserably in teaching our youth how to become good citizens. Children without proper knowledge or national identity grow up to become ignorant adults who yield to the voices of social media, TV news and the liberal fish-wrap and vote collectively not individually.
These are troubling signs that the wokes’ method of teaching social studies and U.S. history in public schools is not only producing bad citizens, it is destroying the principles of our republican government.
“Burying our heads in the sand does not make problems go away.” – Milton Freeman
School boards defend their teaching methods and claim that these scores were so low because some schools were closed during the pandemic. Others claim that the criteria given to them by the U.S. Department of Education deemphasizes teaching traditional history, civics and social studies.
Until 1979, when Jimmy Carter created the Department of Education, the states controlled public education and were able to employ their own teaching methods and subject matter. They taught students things they felt important, which included civics. Today, federal law requires students are tested in English, math and science but not social studies, which encompasses history and civics.
Some teachers confuse their role of conveying knowledge with meeting and maintaining minimum test scores. It is no secret that what is tested directly affects what will be prioritized and taught in schools since a great deal of funding is based on test results, not on the quality of teaching skills.
A bill requiring all students in community college take a course in American history or government in North Carolina is causing havoc with a group of UNC professors. They are trying to stop it in its tracks, claiming that it is government “overreach” and an insult to the faculty’s intellectual expertise. Yet, “The purpose of education is to replace an empty mind with an open one.” – nMalcolm Forbes
This bill simply states students must read the U.S. Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and the Emancipation Proclamation. They also must read five Federalist Paper essays, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s entire Letter from the Birmingham Jail along with the Gettysburg Address.
Our republic is in danger because progressives control the federal government and they are force feeding their woke political agenda on our public school system. They have their own idea of what should be taught in civics and social study classes, which is totally void of republican civics classes.
Dorothea Wolfson, director of the Johns Hopkins University Government Program, said our public school system is failing to meet the needs of young Americans. “Something is off. Either we are teaching American history in a way that alienates students or we aren’t teaching it much at all.”
John Adams told us, “Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom.” Our founders firmly believed that all Americans must receive a public school education to maintain the principles etched in our founding documents. America was unique unlike anything the world had ever seen before, and without knowledge of civics it could easily fall into the hands of the elites.
During the pandemic, parents realized that teachers are not always trustworthy partners, helping them to raise confident and educated kids. After peeking into virtual classrooms, they questioned their ability to teach their children to think, feel, act and speak independently for themselves. Many feel that is why they were “banned from virtual classrooms” during the pandemic. They also now realize why so few of them are allowed to speak openly and candidly at school board meetings.
We don’t need progressive clones. We need future civic leaders.
“An efficient totalitarian state is one which all-powerful executive political bosses and their army of managers control a population of slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude.” – Aldous Huxley
