Teaching Identity While Losing Our History

The American flag flies in front of the U.S. Capitol dome in Washington on Sept. 10, 2021. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Commentary

In 2026, just two years away, America will be celebrating its 250th anniversary. As we sit on the cusp of that momentous moment, we’re witnessing a nation that’s hopelessly divided as our national fabric continues to fray—turning us against one another rather than uniting us in the common bond of liberty bequeathed to us by our Founding Fathers.

Why is this so? It is so because we no longer have knowledge of our past, which means we are ignorant of how it affects the present and will eventually lead us to repeat the same bad decisions made by civilizations that have come and gone before.

As we approach our 250th anniversary, the question must be asked: How does the world’s oldest constitutional republic prepare to properly celebrate its history without a major new project to address its lack of constitutional and historical literacy?

It’s a question that must be asked, because the present lack of knowledge among our citizenry is so stark. For instance, a recent survey by the University of Pennsylvania Annenberg Public Policy Center discovered that only 40 percent of adults are aware that the First Amendment guarantees freedom of religion, and just 28 percent knew that it guarantees freedom of the press.

And the most recent National Assessment for Educational Progress report found that only 13 percent of eighth graders are proficient in American history.

A recent article in The Washington Times looked at the findings of the National Commission on the Teaching of American History in Our Universities report on what’s taught in entry-level college history courses, and the results were alarming. The commission found that instead of teaching about the common principles that unite us as a nation, history curricula focus on accentuating our divisions while ignoring the teaching of long-held historical facts.

What’s being taught? According to the commission, “identity-focused terms” such as “toxic masculinity”—terms that pit groups against each other—prevail in introductory college history courses, while events such as the Declaration of Independence, Civil War, and World War II get little mention.

This lack of teaching, replaced by the pointing of fingers, puts the future of our entire nation at risk.

In his book “The Disuniting of America,” liberal historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. said Americans must be diligent in protecting and promoting the things that unite us, rather than fixating on what divides us. Schlesinger warned that fixating on the things that divide us would shatter our educational institutions into war zones, groups pitted against each other with no sense of collective identity.

Now 32 years later, Schlesinger’s warnings couldn’t have been more prophetic. Many young people are not being taught even the most basic information, resulting in a citizenry that’s divorced both intellectually and emotionally from its heritage.

I had the opportunity during my time at the White House to spend an afternoon with Schlesinger in his Manhattan home.

Even though we differed politically, we found that we shared a common interest in maintaining national unity. We had differences, but we recognized that we had a common bond. One of us may walk the left road and the other the right road, but we have a shared destination: the best our country can be, based on our love of that country.

And a society that’s no longer proud of its heritage is on the road to losing the freedoms it has enjoyed for nearly 250 years—or, as Dwight Eisenhower said in his 1953 inaugural address, “A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.”

Instead of what isn’t being taught in our nation’s educational institutions, I want every young American, as our nation approaches its 250th birthday, to know and understand that America is an exceptional nation founded on religious liberty, personal responsibility, and respect for our fellow citizens—not a nation founded on oppression, hatred for others, and self-interest.

Every young American needs to learn the story of a nation with a glorious vision of unity, freedom, and dignity for all. That’s what I'll be celebrating two years hence, and it’s my hope that all Americans will join me in properly celebrating our nation’s true heritage by learning about its history. If we do so, we can once again be what the Founding Fathers envisioned: a united nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.