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86–582 PDF 2003

S. HRG. 108–92

PUTTING THE TEACHING OF AMERICAN HISTORY

AND CIVICS BACK IN THE CLASSROOM

HEARING

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, EDUCATION,

LABOR, AND PENSIONS

UNITED STATES SENATE

ONE HUNDRED EIGHTH CONGRESS

FIRST SESSION

ON

EXAMINING S. 504, TO ESTABLISH ACADEMIES FOR TEACHERS AND

STUDENTS OF AMERICAN HISTORY AND CIVICS AND A NATIONAL ALLIANCE OF TEACHERS OF AMERICAN HISTORY AND CIVICS

APRIL 10, 2003

Printed for the use of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

(

COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, EDUCATION, LABOR, AND PENSIONS

JUDD GREGG, New Hampshire, Chairman

BILL FRIST, Tennessee

MICHAEL B. ENZI, Wyoming

LAMAR ALEXANDER, Tennessee

CHRISTOPHER S. BOND, Missouri

MIKE DEWINE, Ohio

PAT ROBERTS, Kansas

JEFF SESSIONS, Alabama

JOHN ENSIGN, Nevada

LINDSEY O. GRAHAM, South Carolina

JOHN W. WARNER, Virginia

EDWARD M. KENNEDY, Massachusetts

CHRISTOPHER J. DODD, Connecticut

TOM HARKIN, Iowa

BARBARA A. MIKULSKI, Maryland

JAMES M. JEFFORDS (I), Vermont

JEFF BINGAMAN, New Mexico

PATTY MURRAY, Washington

JACK REED, Rhode Island

JOHN EDWARDS, North Carolina

HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON, New York

SHARON R. SODERSTROM, Staff Director

J. MICHAEL MYERS, Minority Staff Director and Chief Counsel

CONTENTS

STATEMENTS

APRIL 10, 2003

Page

Alexander, Hon. Lamar, a U.S. Senator from the State of Tennessee ................ 1

McCullough, David, Historian and Writer, West Tisbury, MA ............................ 8

Byrd, Hon. Robert, a U.S. Senator from the State of West Virginia ................... 16

Cole, Bruce, Chairman, National Endowment for the Humanities; Eugene

W. Hickok, Under Secretary for Education, U.S. Department of Education;

and James H. Billington, The Librarian of Congress, Library of Congress .... 21

Ravitch, Diane, Research Professor of Education, New York University,

Brooklyn, New York, and Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution .............. 35

Dodd, Hon. Christopher J., a U.S. Senator from the State of Connecticut ......... 40

Berg, Russell, student, Trumbull High School, Trumbull, CT; accompanied

by Peter Sullivan, History Teacher, Trumbull High School, Trumbull, CT;

and Blanche Deaderick, History Teacher, Memphis, TN ................................. 44

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL

Statements, articles, publications, letters, etc.:

Senator Byrd ..................................................................................................... 67

Senator Cornyn ................................................................................................. 68

Senator Cochran ............................................................................................... 68

Bruce Cole ......................................................................................................... 70

Eugene W. Hickok ............................................................................................ 71

James H. Billington .......................................................................................... 74

Blanche Deaderick ............................................................................................ 75

Diane Ravitch ................................................................................................... 76

Russell Berg ...................................................................................................... 78

Philip D. Duncan .............................................................................................. 79

Lawrence M. Small ........................................................................................... 80

Robin Butterfield .............................................................................................. 82

(III)

(1)

PUTTING THE TEACHING OF AMERICAN HISTORY AND CIVICS BACK IN THE CLASSROOM

THURSDAY, APRIL 10, 2003

U.S. SENATE,

COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, EDUCATION, LABOR, AND PENSIONS,

Washington, DC.

The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:06 a.m., in room

SD–430, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Senator Alexander, presiding.

Present: Senators Alexander and Dodd.

OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR ALEXANDER

Senator ALEXANDER. We will call the hearing to order. I want to

note the presence of Dr. Billington, Bruce Cole, Diane Ravitch, and

others who will testify. I want to especially acknowledge the presence of Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia, who has been a leader in the Senate in encouraging the focus on the study of traditional American history and who in previous Congresses put into

the appropriations bill a significant appropriation which is now

being administered by the Department of Education for grants for

the teaching of American history across the country. I am delighted

that Senator Byrd has come today.

Senator, we hope you will have something to say before you

leave. When would you prefer to do that?

Senator BYRD. At some point when it is convenient after Mr.

McCullough speaks.

Senator ALEXANDER. All right.

Senator BYRD. I came here this morning especially to hear him.

Senator ALEXANDER. We are glad you are here, and after Mr.

McCullough finishes, I will invite you to come up and make a statement.

Senator BYRD. Thank you.

Senator ALEXANDER. We appreciate your coming.

I want to thank Senator Gregg for inviting me to Chair this

hearing this morning. We had a good visit with Senator Kennedy

prior to the hearing. The hearing today will address the intersection of two concerns which are extremely important to the future

of our country: the education of our children and the principles that

unite us as Americans. It is time to put the teaching of American

history and civics back in its rightful place in our schools so our

children can grow up learning what it means to be an American.

2

We are especially sensitive to this right now at a time when we

are asking our young men and women to fight to defend our country’s values. We are not doing a very good job of teaching just what

those values are. Too many of our children do not know exactly

what it means to be an American. National exams show that 4th,

8th, and 12th graders are not proficient in civics knowledge, and,

further, the students do not have basic knowledge. Children usually do not learn because they are not being taught, and so the

focus today is to put an increased focus on the teaching of American history and civics.

As I mentioned earlier, this is not the first effort of the United

States Congress to encourage this. In addition to Senator Byrd’s

initiative on the teaching of American history, there are 11 programs that the Federal Government funds, and as Mr. McCullough

will undoubtedly talk about, there are huge institutions that we

have that make the teaching of American history easier and more

exciting. Dr. Hickok from the Department of Education will be here

to talk about those as well.

This hearing is specifically on the subject of legislation which I

introduced with 19 cosponsors—including Senator Reid, the Democratic Whip; Senators Gregg and Kennedy from this committee;

Senator Frist, our Majority Leader—which would create summer

residential academies for teachers and students of American history and civics, 2 weeks for teachers, 4 weeks for students. And at

these academies, they would learn more about and be inspired

about the key events, ideas, and institutions that created our democracy.

We have in our State of Tennessee a number of Governor’s

Schools for teachers and for students which were enormously successful in a variety of subjects. And there have been such Governor’s Schools in 28 States. It is a way for teachers to come together in the summer for a couple of weeks and find different ways

to teach their subjects and to improve their learning of the content.

In addition, the legislation that we are reviewing would create a

National Alliance of Teachers of American History and Civics to

make it easier for them to use the Internet and other materials

and exhibits that exist in the content of their teaching.

President Bush has taken a major interest in the teaching of

American history and civics. With Mr. McCullough at his side, last

fall he launched a new initiative, which we will hear more about

today from Bruce Cole of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

So we have an interesting set of witnesses, a fascinating subject,

and our lead-off witness is a fascinating individual.

David McCullough has several distinctions. One is that none of

his books have ever been out of print. Very few authors can say

that. He has won two Pulitzer Prices. He was won the National

Book Award twice. He is one of America’s best-known authors. Mr.

McCullough, I think virtually every day of the letter you recount

in the John Adams book that Adams wrote to Jefferson when our

country was beginning. He said to Jefferson, ‘‘Aren’t we privileged

to serve our country in such serious times?’’ I think about that

every day in these serious times, and I am sure most of our colleagues do as well.

3

We welcome Mrs. McCullough here. Thank you both for coming,

and we look forward to your comments.

Before we begin I have a statement from Senator Murray.

[The prepared statements of Senators Alexander and Murray follow:]

PREPARED STATEMENT OF SENATOR ALEXANDER

The hearing today will address the intersection of two urgent

concerns that will determine our country’s future. These are also

the two topics I care about the most: the education of our children

and the principles that unite us as Americans.

It is time that we put the teaching of American history and civics

back in its rightful place in our schools so our children can grow

up learning what it means to be an American.

Especially when we are asking our young men and women to

tight to defend our values. We need to do a better job of teaching

just what those values are.

Yet, too many of our children do not know what makes America

exceptional. National exams show that three-quarters of the nation’s 4th, 8th and 12th graders are not proficient in civics knowledge and a third of students do not even have basic knowledge,

making, them ‘‘civic illiterates.’’ Christopher Hitchens, in a 1998 article in Harper’s, reported:

59 percent of 4th graders do not know why Pilgrims and Puritans first voyaged to America.

68 percent of 4th graders can’t name the first 13 colonies.

90 percent of 8th graders can’t recount anything about the debates of the constitutional convention.

Children are not learning about American history and civics because they are not being taught it. American history has been watered down, and civics is too often dropped from the curriculum entirely. Today, more than half the states don’t have a requirement

for students to take a course—even for one semester—in American

government.

Until the 1960s, civics education, which teaches the duties of citizenship, was a regular part of the high school curriculum, but today’s college graduates probably have less civics knowledge than

high school graduates of 50 dears ago. Reforms, so-called, in the

60s and 70s resulted in the widespread elimination of required

classes and curriculum in civics education.

To help put the teaching of American history and civics in its

rightful place, I introduced legislation last month when I made my

maiden speech. This legislation has nineteen co-sponsors including:

Senators Reid, Gregg, Kennedy, Frist, Dodd, DeWine, Stevens,

Santorum, Inhofe, Nickles, Cochran, Cornyn, Coleman, Enzi, Sessions, Warner, Murkowski, Miller, and Chambliss. We call it the

‘‘American History and Civics Act.’’ This act creates Presidential

Academies for Teachers of American History and Civics and Congressional Academies for Students of American History and Civics.

These residential academies would operate for two weeks (in the

case of teachers) and four weeks (for students) during the summer.

Their purpose would be to inspire better teaching and more

learning of the key events, persons and ideas that shape the institutions and democratic heritage of the United States.

4

I have had some experience with such residential summer academies, when I was Governor of Tennessee. In 1984, we began creating Governor’s schools for students and teachers. For example,

there was the Governor’s School for the Arts at Middle Tennessee

State University and the Governor’s School of International Studies

at the University of Memphis as well as the Governor’s School for

Teachers of Writing at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville,

which was especially successful. Eventually there were eight Governor’s Schools helping thousands of Tennessee teachers improve

their skills and inspiring outstanding students to learn more about

core curriculum subjects. When these teachers and students returned to their schools for the next school year, they brought with

them a new enthusiasm for teaching and learning that infected

their peers. Dollar for dollar, the Governor’s Schools were one of

the most effective and popular educational initiatives in our state’s

history.

States other than Tennessee have had similar success with summer residential academies. The first Governor’s school was started

in North Carolina in 1963 when Governor Terry Sanford established it at Salem College in Winston-Salem. Upon the establishment of the first school, several states, including Georgia, South

Carolina, Arkansas, Kentucky, and Tennessee established similar

schools.

For example, in 1973 Pennsylvania established Governor’s

Schools of Excellence, which has 14 different programs of study. As

in Tennessee, students participating in the Pennsylvania Governor’s School program attend academies at 8 different colleges to

study everything from international studies, to health care and

teaching. Also established in 1973, Virginia’s Governor’s School is

a summer residential program for 7500 of the Cormmonwealth’s

most gifted students. Mississippi established its Governors School

in 1981. The Mississippi University for Women hosts the program,

which is designed to give students academic, creative, and leadership experiences. Every year West Virginia brings 80 of its most

talented high school performing and visual arts students to West

Liberty State College for a three-week residential program.

These are just a few of the more than 100 Governors’ schools in

28 states—clearly the model is a good one. The legislation I propose

today applies that successful model to American history and civics

education at the national level by establishing Presidential and

Congressional academies for students and teachers of those subjects.

Additionally, this proposed legislation authorizes the creation of

a national alliance of American history and civics teachers who

would be connected by the interest. The alliance would facilitate

sharing of best practices in the teaching of American history and

civics. It is modeled after an alliance I helped the National Geographic Society begin during the 1980’s to put geography back into

the American school curriculum. Tennessee and the University of

Tennessee were among the first sponsors of the alliance.

This legislation creates a pilot program. Up to 12 Presidential

academies for teachers and 12 Congressional Academies for students would be sponsored by educational institutions. The National

Endowment for the Humanities would award 2-year renewable

5

grants to those institutions after a peer review process. Each grant

would be subject to rigorous review after three years to determine

whether the overall program should continue, expand or end. The

legislation authorizes $25 million annually for the four-year pilot

program.

There is a broad basis of renewed support for and interest in

American history and civics in our country.

David Gordon noted in a recent issue of the Harvard Education

Letter: ‘‘A 1998 survey by the nonpartisan research organization

Public Agenda shoved that 84 percent of parents with school-aged

children said they believe that the United States is a special country and they want schools to convey that belief to their children by

teaching about its heroes and traditions. Similar numbers identified the American ideal as including equal opportunity, individual

freedom, and tolerance and respect for others. Those findings were

consistent across racial and ethnic groups.’’ Our national leadership has responded to this renewed interest.

In 2000, at the initiative of Senator Byrd. Congress created grants

for schools that teach American history as a separate subject within school curricula. We appropriated $100 million for those grants

in the recent Omnibus appropriations bill, and rightfully so. They

encourage schools and teachers to focus on the teaching of traditional American history, and provide important financial support.

Last September, with historian David McCullough at his side.

President Bush announced a new initiative to encourage the teaching of American history and civics. He established the ‘‘We the People’’ program at the NEH, which will develop curricula and sponsor

lectures on American history and civics. He announced the ‘‘Our

Documents’’ project, run by the National Archives. This would take

one hundred of America’s most important documents from the National Archives to classrooms and communities across the country.

This year, he will convene a White House forum on American

history, civics, and service. There, we will discuss new policies to

improve the teaching of history and civics in elementary and secondary schools.

This proposed legislation takes the next step by training teachers

and encouraging outstanding students. We need to foster a love of

this subject and arm teachers with the skills to impart that love

to their students.

Mr. President, in 1988, at a meeting of educators in Rochester,

the President of Notre Dame University, Monk Malloy, asked this

question: ‘‘What is the rationale for the public school?’’ There was

an unexpected silence around the room until Al Shanker, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, answered in this

way: ‘‘The public school was created to teach immigrant children

the three R’s and what it means to be an American with the hope

that they would then go home and teach their parents.’’

From the founding of America, we have always understood how

important it is for citizens to understand the principles that unite

us as a country. Other countries are united by their ethnicity. If

you move to Japan for example, you can’t become Japanese. A few

things in which we believe, on the other hand, unite Americans. To

become an American citizen, you subscribe to those principles. If

there were no agreement on those principles, as Samuel HuntingVerDate 11-MAY-2000 09:27 Sep 26, 2003 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 S:\DOCS\86582 SLABOR3 PsN: SLABOR3
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ton has noted, we would be the United Nations instead of the

United States of America.

There has therefore been a continuous education process to remind Americans just what those principles are. Thomas Jefferson,

in his retirement at Monticello, would spend evenings explaining to

overnight guests what he had in mind when we helped create what

we call America. By the mid-19th century it was just assumed that

everybody knew what it meant to be an American. In his letter

from the Alamo, Col. William Barrett Travis pleaded for help simply ‘‘in the name of liberty, patriotism and everything dear to the

American character.’’ But the most important Americanizing institution, as Mr. Shanker reminded us in Rochester in 1988, was the new common school.

McGuffey’s Reader, which was used in many classrooms, sold more

than 120 million copies introducing a common culture of literature,

patriotic speeches and historical references.

In the 20th century it was war that made Americans stop and

think about what we were defending. President Roosevelt made

certain that those who charged the beaches of Normandy knew

they were defending for freedoms.

But after World War II, the emphasis on teaching and defining

the principles that unite us has waned. Unpleasant experiences

with McCarthyism in the 1950’s, discouragement after the Vietnam

War, and history books that left out or distorted the history of African-Americans made sonic skittish about discussing ‘‘Americanism.’’ The end of the Cold War removed a preoccupation with who

we were not, making it less important to consider who we are. The

Immigration law changes in 1965 brought to our shores many new

Americans and many cultural changes. As a result, the American

Way became much more often praised than defined.

Changes in community attitudes, as they always are, were reflected in our schools. According to historian Diane Ravitch, the

public school virtually abandoned its role as the chief Americanizing Institution. We have gone, she explains, from one extreme (simplistic patriotism and incomplete history) to the other—‘‘public

schools with an adversary culture that emphasize the nation’s

warts and diminish its genuine accomplislments. There is no literary canon. There are no common readings, no agreed upon lists

of books, poems and stories from which students and parents plight

be taught a common culture and be reminded of what it means to

be an American.’’

During this time many of our national leaders contributed to this

drift toward agnostic Americanism. These leaders celebrated

multiculturalism and bilingualism and diversity at a time when

there should have been more emphasis on a common culture and

learning English and unity.

America’s variety and diversity is a great strength, but it is not

our greatest strength, Jerusalem is diverse. The Balkans are diverse. America’s greatest accomplishment is not its variety and diversity but that we have found a way to take all that variety and

diversity and unite us as one country. E pluribus Unum: out of

many, one. These three Latin words that were the first motto of

our nation, E Pluribus Unum, are still in the right order—Out of

Many, One—even though some are trying mightily to turn them

7

around to say that we are ‘‘Many, Out of One.’’ In other words, in

the United States of America, I believe unity still trumps diversity.

That is what makes America truly exceptional.

Since 9/11 the national conversation about what it means to be

an American has been different. The terrorists focused their crosshairs on the creed that unites Americans as one country—forcing

us to remind ourselves of those principles, to examine and define

them, and to celebrate them. The President himself has been the

lead teacher. President Bush has literally taken us back to school

on what it means to be an American. The President called on us

to make those magnificent images of courage and charity and leadership and selflessness more permanent in our every day lives

through Freedom Corps. And with his optimism, lie warded off

doomsayers who tried to diminish the real gift of Americans to civilization, our cockeyed optimism that anything, is possible.

Just after 9/11, I proposed an idea I called ‘‘Pledge Plus Three.’’ Why not start each school day with the Pledge of Allegiance—as we

do here in the Senate—followed by a faculty member or student

sharing for three minutes ‘‘what it means to be an American.’’ The

Pledge embodies many of the ideals of our National Creed: ‘‘one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.’’ It

speaks to our unity, to our faith, to our value of freedom, and to

our belief in the fair treatment of all Americans.

In Dr. Ravitch’s words, instead of incomplete history and simplistic patriotism, we went to the other extreme—‘‘Public schools with

an adversary culture that emphasized the nations warts and diminished its genuine accomplishments.’’ So imagine the plight of teachers. Assaulted by simplistic patriotism on one side and multiculturalism on the other, teachers dove

for cover, textbooks became sanitized and boring, and we’ve seen

the embarrassing results.

Samuel Huntington has written that most of American politics

and government is about balancing conflicts between the principles

that unite us and dealing with the disappointments of not being

able to live up to our greatest dreams.

Mr. President, if most of our politics and government is about applying to our most urgent problems the principles and characteristics that make us the exceptional United States of America, then

we had better get about the teaching and learning of those principles and characteristics.

At a time when there are record numbers of new Americans, and

at a time when our values are under attack, at a time when we

are at war to defend those values, there can be no more urgent

task than putting the teaching of American history and civics back

in its rightful place in our schools so our children can grow tip

learning what it means to be an American.

A man from Nashville who was quoted in the Public Agendas recent report, ‘‘Knowing it By Heart’’ put it this way: ‘‘We have to

teach and remind our children about the people that sacrificed for

those freedoms, from the Revolutionary War to the different wars

we have. These freedoms didn’t come because we’re just a nice

bunch of people. A lot of people put their lives and careers on the

line several times through our history to get these freedoms, and

we do take them for granted.’’

8

I again want to thank Senator Gregg and Senator Kennedy, for

agreeing to have the committee hold this hearing today on this legislation so that we can determine how it might supplement and

work with already existing programs and the Presidents future initiatives.

I look forward to hearing from the witnesses.

PREPARED STATEMENT OF SENATOR MURRAY

Mr. Chairman, I want to thank you for holding this hearing and

I also thank all of today’s witnesses for taking some time to share

their insights and experiences with us. I particularly want to thank

Russell Berg for his thoughtful comments on the importance of

civic education in our schools, and Peter Sullivan for the important

work he does in educating young people about how our government

works.

That’s exactly what citizenship education is all about—teaching

young people how our unique democracy was created, affects our

lives and relies on the involvement of its citizens. Citizenship education also provides an opportunity for schools to help students understand the commonly-held values that have shaped our country.

The truth is that our democracy cannot function without an informed, engaged citizenry. It requires that all of us fulfill certain

civic responsibilities, whether that means volunteering time in our

communities, staying informed on important issues, holding elected

officials accountable or even running for office. Citizenship education passes on to the next generation respect and commitment to

this fundamental basis of our democracy. While not everyone needs

to be a constitutional law scholar, every American should possess

a basic understanding of our history and government if they are to

be active participants in self-governance. Unfortunately, citizenship

education in America today is not as pervasive or as strong as it

should be.

For this reason I am pleased to support the Alexander bill. Russell Berg offered us a glimpse into what strong civic education

looks like. The program in which he participates and described,

‘‘We the People,’’ is one I am familiar with. I have met with some

of the educators who are involved in ‘‘We the People,’’ and it is impressive in its breadth, depth, creativity and effectiveness. I think

it would be a tremendous step forward if this kind of education

were available to all America’s students, and I think Senator Alexander’s bill moves us in that direction.

Thank you.

STATEMENT OF DAVID McCULLOUGH, HISTORIAN AND

WRITER, WEST TISBURY, MA

Mr. MCCULLOUGH. Mr. Chairman, thank you for the honor of appearing today. I look upon this as a great step forward for American history and for our children and children to come. I am extremely grateful to you, to Senator Byrd, to President Bush, Senator Kennedy, and others who have participated so far in taking

what seems to me a very important step in improving the situation

in our schools.

History has served many purposes, and I think it is wonderful

that history now is providing you here in the Congress with someVerDate 11-MAY-2000 09:27 Sep 26, 2003 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00012 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 S:\DOCS\86582 SLABOR3 PsN: SLABOR3
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thing you can be bipartisan about. It should be that way. This is

a need that calls for all of our efforts. In my view, the key is the

teacher, but we cannot leave the entire responsibility to just the

teachers. It is something we all have to address as parents, grandparents, and citizens.

I have been fortunate to be invited to universities and colleges

to speak and lecture for years now, and I have been virtually in

every State, on campuses large and small. And a few years ago, one

morning I lectured at a major university in the Midwest. And a

young woman, a student, came up to me after my talk and said she

was very glad that she had come to hear me speak that morning

because until she heard my talk, she had never understood that

the original 13 colonies were all on the East Coast. And I was so

stunned by that. I felt so sad about it. I felt so angry about it. How

could she have gotten that far in our system of education to be a

student on one of the campuses of one of our really important universities and not have any idea of where we began and how we

began.

Very soon after that, I was taking part in a seminar, teaching

a seminar at one of our Ivy League colleges. And it was a beautiful

winter day and the snow was coming down outside, and I thought,

This is really—this is the best. I had 25 students who were all history majors and all seniors and all honor students. And I decided

that I would open the conversation by asking if anyone there knew

who George Marshall was. Not one knew who he was. Finally, one

student ventured to say, Did he have maybe something to do with

the Marshall Plan? And we then could begin talking about George

Marshall.

Once, in his advanced years, George Marshall said that he

thought that his education at Virginia Military Institute had been

quite inadequate. He felt he had been badly educated, and he was

asked why. He said, ‘‘Because we were taught no history.’’ So I felt something had come sort of full circle there. We are

doing a dreadful job of teaching history to our children. We are

raising a generation of young Americans who, to a very large degree, are historically illiterate. The Council of American Alumni

just did a survey a year or so ago and found that the students on

our top 50 campuses on a general knowledge of history test or survey scored about what they did in high school 20 years ago.

I will give you one example. Question 19: Who was the commanding officer at the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown? More than

half the students guessed that it was Ulysses S. Grant, more answered George Washington, and 6 percent said it was Douglas

MacArthur. They were guessing. They had no idea.

Now, what difference does it make if you do not know who the

commanding American general at Yorktown was? It means that

you do not have any idea that that was the last battle of the Revolutionary War. The Revolutionary War was the longest war in our

history except for Vietnam; that George Washington was the commanding general all through the war—you probably have no idea

of that—and that he had served 8 and a half years without ever

taking any time off and without pay; and that if it had not been

for George Washington, we would not have won the Revolutionary

War, certainly not when we did, or as we did. And if it were not

10

for George Washington, we probably would not have a Constitution

such as we have nor a Presidency such as we have.

Now, I was raised in the day when George Washington’s portrait

hung in every classroom along with Abraham Lincoln, when our geography courses began with the study of the Tigris and Euphrates

and the beginnings of history and civilization in present-day Iraq,

and we graduated from grade school, I am convinced, knowing

more basic American history and geography than many students on

university campuses know today.

I have been involved with something called the National Council

for History Education, and our program has been to bring teachers

to a campus once a year in the summertime, some 200 teachers,

and a number of people volunteer their time to go and work with

the teachers, try to get them involved with the processes of history,

to catch the excitement of history so that they will carry that back

to the classroom.

It has been a very effective program in what it does to help those

teachers, but it has been less than a drop in the bucket. And when

I think of the potential, when I think of what can be done, that is

what is so exciting. This can really make a huge difference.

There was a marvelous child psychologist, teacher, professor of

child psychology at the University of Pittsburgh years ago named

Margaret McFarland, and Margaret McFarland’s disciples are all

over the country, and thank goodness. And her most famous disciple was Fred Rogers, Mister Rogers, who reached more children,

taught more children, than anybody who has ever lived. And Fred

Rogers would say to anyone who was interested that all he was

doing was to carry on the principles and the ideals of Margaret

McFarland.

And Margaret McFarland’s thesis was very simple: that what

matters to a student and what matters in education is attitude;

and that attitudes are not taught, they are caught; and if the

teacher is enthusiastic about her material, if the teacher knows her

subject, if the teacher gets up in front of the class or calls you over

to the table and says, ‘‘Look in this microscope, this is really great,

you are going to like to see this,’’ that teacher is conveying an attitude that the students get right away.

Conversely, if the teacher is bored with the subject, if the teacher

does not know anything about the subject, and if the teacher has

no affection, love, enthusiasm for the subject, the student gets that.

My feeling, sir, is that the real effort, the real concentration

ought to be placed on grade school teachers. We have to reteach

our teachers. We have to revise how we are teaching our teachers.

We have great teachers in this country, many of them. But we have

too many teachers who are coming out of schools of education, majoring in education, with degrees in education, who are then told

that they are going to teach botany or history or physics, and they

do not know botany, history, or physics. They have not majored in

that subject. And it is not just that they do not have the knowledge; they do not have the affection, the love for the material to

want to share this world that they know.

Now, we cannot function as a society if we do not know who we

are and do not know where we came from and how we got to where

we are. Jefferson said it perfectly in one sentence. He said, ‘‘Any

11

Nation that expects to be ignorant and free expects what never was

and never will be.’’ The importance of history has been repeated again and again

and again, and often by some of our most prominent leaders. Harry

Truman said, ‘‘The only new thing in the world is the history you

do not know.’’ Daniel Boorstin, Dr. Billington’s predecessor and one

of our front-rank historians, said, ‘‘Anybody who tries to plan for

the future without a sense of the past, that is like trying to plant

cut flowers.’’ And we are raising cut flowers, and it is not their

faults. It is our faults. And it should not just make us sad. It

should make us a little angry and a little worried.

If a child grows up not knowing what a demagogue is, if a child

grows up thinking this is the darkest time we have ever been in,

they are not going to be able to cope as they should as a citizen,

as a participant in self-government.

We heard that after September 11th, people saying, We should

have known better, on television and in the press, this is the darkest, most dangerous time we have ever been through. Well, anybody who says that has no sense of history. We have been through

much worse times. We have been through more dangerous times.

We have been through times when the outcome was far less clear,

far less certain.

One of the most important things to convey in teaching history

is that history is about human beings, it is about people who did

not know everything and certainly did not know any more than we

do how it is going to come out. And it is joining that human experience of the past and the understanding of human nature, the understanding of cause and effect, the understanding that one individual can truly make a difference that is the real value of history.

Yes, it is very important that we understand, for example, why

we have an independent judiciary, let us say, or a three-part system of Government. That is extremely important. We ought to have

required courses in the Constitution in all our universities in this

country, in my view,and I wonder if you know how many universities or colleges require a course in the Constitution. Three. And

you know what those three are? The Air Force Academy, West

Point, and Annapolis.

Now, if an officer in the military ought to know the Constitution,

surely we as citizens ought to know the Constitution. And we do

not.

What we do not know is infinitely greater, what our oncoming

generation does not know about the past is infinitely greater than

even the worst of these studies reveal. You know, more than half

of the college student seniors in our best universities could not say

when Abraham Lincoln was President. When you have Ivy League

students saying they thought that Germany and Japan were our

allies in World War II, you know you have got a very serious problem. And it is curable. Teach the teachers. Involve the teachers in

the intellectual and emotional and human excitement of history.

If we can just convey that the people who created this country

were not gods, they were not icons, they were human beings, and

yet they could rise to the occasion and do what they did despite

their imperfections, their flaws, their grievous mistakes on some

occasions, we can, too. Again, Jefferson said it right in the very

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first line of the Declaration of Independence: ‘‘When in the course

of human events...’’ The key word is ‘‘human.’’ And they were not

perfect, and they knew that what they had done was not perfect,

that this is an ongoing experiment, an ongoing creative process and

we all have to take part in that spirit. And if a student comes out

of a course in American history knowing only that, that course will

be of infinite value.

In the midst of the darkest days of World War II, after Pearl

Harbor, when half of our fleet had been destroyed, when we had

no Air Force to speak of, when our recruits were drilling with

wooden rifles, and Hitler was almost at Moscow, and German submarines were sinking our ships off of the coast of Florida and New

Jersey at will, our oil tankers, Winston Churchill came across the

Atlantic and gave a very great speech in which he said, ‘‘We

haven’t journeyed this far because we are made of sugar candy.’’ And Winston Churchill, along with everything else, was a historian.

Thank you, sir.

Senator ALEXANDER. Thank you, Mr. McCullough.

Now, may I ask this question? We are talking about today about

the possibility of creating, let’s say, a 2-week summer residential

program for teachers of American history and civics. And let’s say

it is in Massachusetts, which is your home State, where you live.

And let’s say a major university would like to be the host; we have

dormitories that are not full in the summer, we have the facilities,

we want to be a part of this. And Bruce Cole and the National Endowment for the Humanities liked the application of this Massachusetts university and gave them some Federal money. They select, 200 Massachusetts teachers. And let’s say they are not just

teachers of Massachusetts history or American history; they are

first grade and second and third and fourth, fifth, sixth, they are

teachers all the way through K-12 on the theory that every teacher

ought to teach some American history as a part of a curriculum.

And let’s say they met for 2 weeks in June, and you found yourself in charge of those teachers for 10 days. They came there and

lived at that university. What would you do with them? How would

you help them become more effective teachers and to learn more

about the key events and persons and institutions that have created our Government?

Mr. MCCULLOUGH. Well, first of all, I think that would be marvelous, and I would try to take advantage as much as possible of

two great—three great Federal institutions already in place, all

ready to play a big part: the National Archives, the Library of Congress, and the National Park Service.

I am not affiliated with a university. I have no access to a university library except as a guest. I have done most of my work,

most of my career has been possible because of the National Archives, the Library of Congress, and the National Park Service,

where there are infinite resources and, importantly, marvelous

staff people.

I would first of all try to set up some program with the Library

of Congress and the National Archives whereby these teachers can

understand how you do research through electronic means, getting

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brary of Congress, not just so that they will have these items to

use in their classrooms but because they will catch the bacillus, the

bug of history in doing the research, the excitement of it, get them

involved in the detective casework of history. And it never fails.

Never fails.

And if it is Massachusetts, it would be ideal. I would have them

come to the Adams House as a guest of the Park Service for that

day, set up a tent, whatever you wish, and I would ask somebody— maybe me—to come and talk to them about John Adams. I would.

I would invite David McCullough to come and talk about John

Adams. [Laughter.]

And then we would tour the house, and we would use the house,

in effect, as kind of a lab for the day.

Senator ALEXANDER. This is in Cambridge?

Mr. MCCULLOUGH. No. It is in Quincy, MA.

Senator ALEXANDER. Quincy.

Mr. MCCULLOUGH. And I think we have to bring the lab technique to the teaching of the humanities far more than we have

done. I think that is the way people really learn, and instead of

being in a science laboratory looking at a model of a trilobite or

something, you are on the grounds of the Adams House, and you

are going through the Adams House with all its real possessions,

real items. The Adams House is like a geological cross-cut, not just

of a family history but of American history, two Presidents’ home

right there.

I would then take them to see—obviously I would go to the Minuteman National Park at Concord and Lexington. Then I would

take them to the Longfellow House, which is also a national park

site, which was Washington’s headquarters during the Revolution,

during the siege of Boston. And so in those three sites, they could

get a big banquet of American history focused on the Revolutionary

War era, such as you could not get anywhere else in the world—

free. It is all there. The park historians are there to talk, and the

park historians are superb. The site is there. And they are not only

affected by this, influenced by it, but then when they in turn can

bring their students to those sites, then their part in the school trip

becomes infinitely more exciting and meaningful for the children.

Everybody benefits.

We have all had the experience—I hope we have all had the experience of being taken as a child either on a school trip or by parents or friends of parents or whatever to one of our national historic sites—a battlefield, Presidential home—and there they are.

They are all there waiting to be used for just this kind of a purpose.

So I think if we could set something up like that in Massachusetts it would be ideal. And you would not even have to have them

stay in a university campus. I mean, the number of teachers in,

let’s say, a 40-mile radius of the Adams House or the Minuteman

National Park at Concord and Lexington, it would be enormous.

Senator ALEXANDER. Now, someone might say, well, that is great

for Massachusetts, but not every State has such a wealth of historical sites. What would you say to them?

Mr. MCCULLOUGH. I would say that almost every State in the

country has such a site. Thirty-four Presidents, Presidential sites,

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almost every President, battlefields, and not just political or military sites. Edison’s laboratory at Menlo Park is a national historic

site. Up and down the line. And if you cannot do that, then there

are other ways to do it, which is to take them to sites that are

State parks, State historical society sites, or take them to a repository of some exciting documentary material, primary source material.

One summer, for example, we ran a program in Ohio, and the

teachers who were taking part in this National Council for History

Education worked with original documents relating to the Underground Railroad. And they were so excited that when the 2 weeks

were up, they did not want to leave; they did not want to go home.

They had more work to do on their project.

There, again, Margaret McFarland’s thesis, they can bring that

back to the classroom, that excitement. She said, ‘‘Show them what

you love.’’ That is the way to teach: show them what you love.

Senator ALEXANDER. One of Tennessee’s most interesting teachers is John Rice Irwin, who created the Museum of Appalachia,

which celebrates the way mountain people lived many years ago.

But his thesis is what you just said. He will remind students in an

area who might think they have grown up in the mountains and

not have as much as someone who grows up in Massachusetts that

they, in fact, have a rich heritage. And he will take them to Roane

County, which is just 30 miles away, and say, ‘‘Sam Rayburn was

born here.’’ And he will drive 10 more miles and say, ‘‘Cordell Hull

and Albert Gore, Sr., were born here, and Hull was Gore’s teacher.’’

And then over here was Howard Baker and over here Mark

Twain’s father lived. And by bringing all of that to life, he helps

students and teachers in that area see that they do not have to go

very far to have a rich and interesting course in American history.

May I switch gears just a little bit. Here is a comment that a

panel participant made at a recent meeting of the National Council

of Social Studies. He said, ‘‘We need to de-exceptionalize the United

States. We are just another country and another group of people.’’

This came in response to a question from a teacher who wanted to

learn more about American history after 9/11.

We are talking about American history. Maybe we are jumping

over something. Maybe we ought to step back and say, Why American history? I mean, is America really exceptional? And if so, in

what way? Because there are some who answer that question, no,

it is not.

Mr. MCCULLOUGH. I would love to answer that question at

length but cannot this morning. Yes, we are exceptional. Yes, the

American story is exceptional, has been from the beginning. And

everyone, almost everyone who participated in it from the beginning sensed that or knew that or said that.

The American Revolution was the first successful revolution of a

colonial people breaking lose from the empire and establishing

their own Government ever in history, the first Government to succeed as a self-governing people. Our hope and promise that we

have given to the world, despite incongruities, inconsistencies, injustices, failures, disappointments, has continued from the beginning—as Lincoln said, the last best hope. And we have proven

15

again and again that we mean what we say and that we have been

willing to sacrifice in order to sustain the experiment, the dream.

And to just say, well, we are not exceptional is really to denigrate so much that has been done for us by our predecessors. We

are all the beneficiaries of those exceptional people who went before us, who had the ingenuity, who had the courage, who had the

selfless response to the possibilities of self-government. And we

must never take it for granted. We must never fail to not just

honor and respect but learn from them, because so much of what

they did was for our benefit. They wanted us—we have always

been a country that was trying to improve itself, to become better.

And we have been inclusive from the beginning.

You could go to France, Senator, tomorrow and live there for the

rest of your life, and you would never be a Frenchman. You could

have gone there when you were 15, and you would never be a

Frenchman, ever. If you were in France and you came here and

settled here and became a citizen, you are an American, because

it is open to all and it is opportunity for everyone as much as any

society that has ever existed in all of history.

Senator ALEXANDER. I have one last question, and then we will

allow you to get on with your schedule, and we will go to other witnesses. You lead me to it. We have talked about how, for a variety

of reasons, we have not focused on the teaching of American history. Perhaps one reason is because teachers have not learned it

or they have not caught the attitude that helps them impart this

attitude of teaching. I think there may be another reason that

teachers may not teach American history. I think many of them are

afraid to. They are reluctant to because, in their words, it has become controversial. We have, on the one hand, super patriots, and

we have, on the other hand, a politically correct crowd. And so, for

example, Thomas Jefferson owned slaves, that is a subject that a

teacher may be reluctant to discuss. Or many teachers are reluctant to discuss the religious nature of our country because they

hear that we cannot teach religion in schools. Many teachers may

be afraid to discuss a whole variety of issues because they are controversial or because they have conflicts. Some schools have even

gone so far as to take the names of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson off the school because they owned slaves.

What would you say to teachers who are afraid to wade into controversial territory in American history? What would your advice

to them be?

Mr. MCCULLOUGH. I would say read history and you will understand the controversy and differences of opinion, and various forms

of coercion have been part of the story from the beginning. There

is nothing new about this kind of difference of opinion, contradiction, conflict. It has always been there, from the beginning. And if

we have reached the State where we are afraid to teach our own

history, that is as sad a comment as I can imagine.

I think there are three great needs in the teaching of history.

The first is we have to revise how we are teaching our teachers.

The second is we have to do something about the textbooks,

which are, by and large, deadly. Some of them, they seem to have

been written almost as if for the purpose of killing anyone’s interest in history. If somebody said to you, ‘‘You have got to go home

16

and read this book tonight for 2 hours,’’ you would probably say

after you had read maybe for 15 minutes, ‘‘Why am I being punished this way?’’ We should have them reading what we would want to read, and

the argument that students, children today do not want to read has

been blown right out of the water by Harry Potter. When you see

an 8-year-old sit down a read a 700-page book for the pleasure of

reading, you know that there is nothing adverse about their attitude toward reading.

And the third thing is not to put all the burden of responsibility

on the teachers. We have to assume responsibility. We have to talk

about history in front of our children, with our children, our grandchildren. We have to take them to national parks and historic sites

and talk about the books that we have read, talk about the people

in history who have interested us, who have been our heroes. Make

it part of conversation in the family. Set the example at home.

Senator ALEXANDER. Well, David McCullough, thank you not just

for being here today, but helping a whole Nation catch an attitude

about American history. Your narrative of John Adams is the most

recent example of that and captured the imagination of Americans

who knew about John Adams but had no idea of all you told about

him—you told a wonderful story. I hope we can work together with

other members of the U.S. Senate and Congress and teachers to

find ways to inspire the teaching of American history. We appreciate your coming this morning.

Mr. MCCULLOUGH. Thank you, sir.

Senator ALEXANDER. Thank you very much. [Applause.]

Now, before our second panel—our second panel includes Bruce

Cole, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities;

Dr. Gene Hickok, the Under Secretary of Education; Dr. Jim

Billington, the Librarian of Congress. Before they come to the

table, I want to ask Senator Robert Byrd if he will—invite him to

make a statement.

While he is coming, it is customary for Senators to compliment

one another. I have learned that even in 3 months of being in the

Senate. But in this case, Senator Byrd actually deserves it. He is

a historian himself. He reads history. He writes history. He loves

history. He has caught the attitude of history. He speaks on it on

the Senate floor, and he, above all Senators, has through his work

in the Senate encouraged the teaching of traditional American history.

Senator Byrd, thank you for being here this morning.

STATEMENT OF ROBERT BYRD, A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE

STATE OF WEST VIRGINIA

Senator BYRD. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

It is a great honor and a privilege and a rare experience to be

able to start the day as this day has been started in this room, to

hear one of the greatest of American historians, David McCullough,

and to listen to him. He is not only a great historian, but he has

helped to change the course of history.

Back in 1977, when I became the Majority Leader of the U.S.

Senate and Howard Baker, a statesman, as well as a good politician, was the Minority Leader, the subject before the country was

17

the Panama Canal Treaty. And the country was very much opposed

to a new treaty, according to the polls. I was very much opposed

to a new treaty. The people of West Virginia were very much opposed. And I made speeches in West Virginia, made statements— they are in print, and I am confronted with them, have been in

every subsequent election—in which I said, no, we should not have

a new treaty.

I read David McCullough’s book, ‘‘The Path Between the Seas.’’ It is a fascinating book. The title is an excellent title, but somewhat misleading in that one does not feel what is in that book by

simply reading the title. But that book helped to change my position on the Panama Canal Treaty. I read the book. It was so fascinating I could hardly get away from reading it to eat some of my

wife’s good cooking. But there is a book that changed the course

of history.

Now, I changed my viewpoint, and Howard Baker, who was the

Minority Leader, as I said earlier, changed his viewpoint. And

Howard Baker, you should have his name on the reception room

in the U.S. Senate, where there are some great Senators, all-time

great Senators—perhaps not all-time but certainly all in the history of this Republic. And it took a statesman to do that. It took

a high-quality statesman. He looked and he read, and we both

went to Panama. We did not go on the same trip. We went separately to see for ourselves the canal.

But what I want to say here is here was a book that helped in

great measure to change the course of history, and we carried those

two treaties by not only the two-thirds vote that is required by the

Constitution, but two-thirds plus one vote in the case of each treaty. And we sailed upstream. We went against the grain. And I say

this to applaud the man who wrote that fascinating history. And

he came down to the Senate at that time and talked with me and

with other Senators. So he took an active part in changing history,

changing the course of this country for the better. And I want to

congratulate him once again. I have done it many times, and he is

a great American, and I have been greatly inspired by him on

many occasions.

I believe in teaching history. Social studies are fine in their

place, but I believe in history, teaching history and reading history.

I grew up at a time in American history when we read in the

7th and 8th grades, 9th grade, Muzzey’s history, and I have

Muzzey at my house. I remember the first sentence in Muzzey’s

book: ‘‘America is the child of Europe.’’ That is the first sentence.

Now, Muzzey might have been driven out of town in this day because that might not have been smart politics. But I will take

Muzzey any day over political correctness. America is the child of

Europe. So I studied American history. I often talk to the pages in

the Senate, and I say, ‘‘How many of you know about Nathan Hale?

Hold up your hands. How many of you know about Nathan Hale?’’

Sometimes there would be one hand; sometimes there would be

none. And, occasionally, I am pleased to see two or three hands go

up.

Well, who was Nathan Hale? He was that patriot who, on September 22, 1776, gave his life. He was arrested as a spy for volunteering—he volunteered when George Washington, the greatest

18

President who ever lived, and who ever will live probably, George

Washington asked for volunteers to go behind the British lines to

bring back drawings of fortifications, and he went. He gave his life.

And the night before he was to return to the American lines, he

was arrested, and the drawings were in his clothing.

The next morning he was hauled up before a gallows, a crude

gallows, and there before the gallows was a roughly hewn wood coffin. He knew that his body would soon lie in that coffin. And when

the British captain, whose name was Cunningham, asked Nathan

Hale, ‘‘Is there anything you would like to say?’’ Those immortal

words: ‘‘I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.’’ And the British captain said, ‘‘String the rebel up.’’ Well, Muzzey gave me my heroes. American history gave me my

heroes. My heroes are not among the rock musicians. Even my

good musicians are not among the rock musicians. I like the Grand

Ole Opry and bluegrass boys. I used to listen to the Grand Ole

Opry, my wife and I, Grand Ole Opry.

American history ought to be taught today. Muzzey, perhaps you

ought to go back to Muzzey. You did not find many pictures. There

were not many pictures in Muzzey’s history, just a few. It was full

of text. And I memorized my history at night by the light of an old

oil lamp on Wolf Creek Hollow in Mercer County, southern West

Virginia. I memorized my lessons because I had a great man who

raised me. His name was Titus Dalton Byrd, and he and his wonderful wife did not have much of a education, but they felt that

they ought to reward this boy that they had adopted. And they always looked at my report card, and one of the first things my

dad—I called him my dad; he was the only dad I ever knew. One

of the first things he looked for on that report card was designated

‘‘deportment.’’ And if that did not show up very well, which it always did in my case, of course, I knew what the razor strap would

be like.

I had a wonderful teacher in a two-room school. His name was

Archie Akers. And I lived in a house where there was no running

water, no electricity, and each morning Archie Akers would come

by my house and we would walk together to the school. And I

would talk with him about history, the history lesson. I loved it.

I memorized those history lessons.

Then when I moved to a coal-mining community, the principal of

that school learned that I knew a lot about American history and

that I memorized history. He took me up before the senior class.

I was just in the 5th grade. He took me up before the senior class

and had me repeat the words in American history that I had

memorized.

As I say, there is where many a young person in America received his education with respect to American history, and there is

where he found his heroes.

So I am honored today to come before your committee and especially honored by being able to listen to David McCullough. And we

have a great Librarian of Congress here, too, Dr. Billington. And

I have been privileged to visit with him over these years.

Well, I have taken about all the time that you expected me to

take. May I just read from—I will ask the committee if it will include my prepared statement.

19

Senator ALEXANDER. Of course, Senator Byrd.

Senator BYRD. Let me just read from a speech which I made a

few years back at West Virginia University. These are the closing

paragraphs. You would not want me to repeat the whole speech, or

we would be here quite a while. But it goes like this: ‘‘As a Nation, we are all guilty of abominably lax vigilance over

our responsibilities, Members of Congress who cower at the slightest criticism and who do not even both to study and understand the

document that they take a solemn oath to support and defend;

Presidents eager to grab power, to make their mark on history

larger; representatives of the media who would report significant

events without really understanding them because they do not understand history; talk-show demagogues who rail over the airways

while they generate ill-informed and destructive anger; and ordinary citizens who do not even bother to vote.’’ ‘‘Let us remember the words of John Philpot Curran, the Irish

orator and statesman who commented that, ‘The condition upon

which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance, which

condition if he breaks servitude is at once the consequence of his

crime and the punishment of his guilt.’’’ Now, I went on to say, ‘‘Those of us who teach, those of us educated in the discipline of law, those of us who purport to serve the

public in some capacity have a special responsibility to make others

sensitive to the importance of every citizen’s role in preserving our

freedoms. But we can all do more, and we must. We started this

day,’’ I said, ‘‘with a most disturbing poll. Let us close with the results of a study which may shed some useful light upon at least

one possible reason why such ignorance about our Constitution exists.’’

I refer to the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation’s first ever appraisal of State standards for history in 38 States, published in

February of 1998. This is a brand-new study which points out

something that I have believed for quite a while. Let me quote from

the foreword of the study on its general findings about how 38

States are doing in the effort to teach history to our grade school

and high school students, and I quote—this is from the Fordham

study. ‘‘The vast majority of young Americans are attending school

in States that do not consider the study of history to be especially

important. No doubt some children are learning lots of solid history

from excellent teachers in fine schools. Their good fortune, however, appears to be serendipitous. State standards rarely constitute

a ceiling on what can be taught and learned. But it is not unreasonable to view them as the floor below which no child or school

should fall. When it comes to history, most States have placed that

floor where the sub-basement ought to be. In only a few instances

in history itself, the focus of the State academic standards that pertain to it, in most jurisdictions history remains mired in a curricular swamp called social studies.’’

This is Robert Byrd talking again now. ‘‘We can correct this deplorable treatment of history in our schools and we must. For only

with a thorough knowledge of history can we ever expect our people to appreciate the gift of the Framers or the experience and the

struggles going back centuries which combine to make us free.

Only with a citizenry that understands its responsibilities in a reVerDate 11-MAY-2000 09:27 Sep 26, 2003 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00023 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 S:\DOCS\86582 SLABOR3 PsN: SLABOR3
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public, not a democracy, in a republic such as ours can we ever expect to elect office holders with the intelligence to represent the

people well, the honesty to deal with them truthfully, and the determination to effectively promote the people’s interest and preserve their liberties, no matter what the personal and political consequences. We can build upon the respect and reverence we still

hold for our Constitution, but we better start now before, through

ignorance and apathy, even that much slips away from us.’’

Now, Mr. Chairman, I close by thanking you and the members

of the subcommittee for conducting this hearing. I do not know of

any greater service we could render our Nation than that of promoting—and we are in positions to do it—the study of American

history. When I think about those 38 signers of the Constitution,

I think about what they taught and how they sacrificed, and the

dangers they put themselves in by what they did and giving us a

Declaration of Independence, considering those who wrote it and

signed it would have been declared treasonous and could have been

taken to England and hanged, and then the Constitution, the 38

signers.

I will close by saying that Cicero said to remain ignorant before

you were born is to remain always a child. And let me close by saying this: This Constitution, Mr. Chairman, if we could find some

way to begin teaching, the re-teaching, the review of American history to our colleagues, the Members of the U.S. Senate and the

Members of the House of Representatives, we would perform a

great service indeed. As I say this to you—now, this may offend

some, but it is the truth, in my judgment. When only 23 Senators

cast a vote against shifting the power to declare war to a Chief Executive of a Nation, something is wrong. Twenty-three Senators.

Study that Constitution which gives the Congress the power to declare war.

This may be a little like teaching history, American history, and

it may offend some. But the truth is there. The truth will always

stand.

I thank you for what you are doing.

Senator ALEXANDER. Thank you, Senator Byrd, very much for

joining our hearing. To have it begin with Mr. McCullough and

with you is the best possible way we could start. Thanks for your

leadership.

[The prepared statement of Senator Byrd may be found in additional material.]

Senator ALEXANDER. I will ask Dr. Cole and Dr. Hickok and Dr.

Billington if they will come to the table now, and we will hear from

them.

Senator BYRD. I apologize to those who are going to be witnesses

before the committee now that I will have to go. I have to attend

another committee hearing. Thank you very much for what you

gentlemen are doing.

Senator ALEXANDER. We have a third panel of witnesses, and

they may be setting their watches because I know they all have

schedules as well. We will finish this panel before 11 o’clock, and

that will give us a chance for Dr. Ravitch and others to testify and

answers questions in time to leave.

21

Our first witness is—and let me suggest in each case, we would

be glad to hear your statements, but you would be welcome to summarize them in any way you would like, and then we can have

questions and answers. This is an extremely distinguished panel

representing three agencies that have the most to do with providing resources to teachers and schools and others who want to learn

more about American history and civics. And our mission is to

shovel all this wonderful information out to the classroom and put

it in front of the students and put it in the hands of the teachers

so it can be used.

Our first witness is Bruce Cole, who is Chairman of the National

Endowment for the Humanities. He has a distinguished resume.

He himself is an author. He has written 14 different books. He has

new, important roles in helping with President Bush’s initiative on

American history and civics.

Dr. Cole, rather than give you a long introduction, I am going to

thank you for coming and let you take the time to tell us how the

National Endowment for Humanities might help.

STATEMENTS OF BRUCE COLE, CHAIRMAN, NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES; EUGENE W. HICKOK,

UNDER SECRETARY FOR EDUCATION, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF

EDUCATION; AND JAMES H. BILLINGTON, THE LIBRARIAN

OF CONGRESS, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

Mr. COLE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of this committee, for the opportunity to testify today.

This hearing helps raise awareness of an important issue—the

need to increase and enhance knowledge and understanding of

American history.

It is crucial that we understand the principles, events, and ideas

that have defined our past and that will shape our future. Democracy, unlike other forms of government, is not self-perpetuating. Its

ideas and principles must be taught and transmitted. Indeed, we

cannot defend what we do not understand. But even as our country

is at war, numerous studies indicate that many students lack even

a basic knowledge of their country’s past.

I will give you just a few examples:

A recent survey of students enrolled at 55 of our Nation’s most

elite colleges and universities found that 54 percent of our brightest young people thought Abraham Lincoln was President before

1860, before the Civil War. More than a third of these students

could not identify the Constitution as establishing our Government’s division of powers.

At the secondary school level, the National Assessment of Educational Progress test found that over half of all high school seniors

scored ‘‘below basic’’—that is, below the bare minimum level of proficiency in history. To illustrate what this means, 18 percent of seniors thought Germany was a U.S. ally in World War II; around

two-thirds could not identify who we fought with or against.

In speaking to various groups, I have called this loss of memory

and lack of understanding of our history ‘‘our American amnesia.’’

The consequences are serious. Citizens who do not know their

rights are less likely to protect them. And if young Americans cannot recall whom we fought, and whom we fought alongside, during

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World War II, there is no reason to expect that they will long remember what happened on September 11th.

As Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities,

one of my top priorities for the agency and its able staff is to address this challenge of American amnesia. We are aiming to do this

through a new initiative called ‘‘We the People.’’ On Constitution Day, 2002, in a special Rose Garden ceremony,

President Bush announced the launch of the ‘‘We the People’’ initiative to be spearheaded by the NEH. ‘‘We the People’’ is designed

to broaden and deepen Americans’ knowledge of their Nation’s history. We are honored that the President has chosen the Endowment to play a leadership role in the administration’s American

history and civics initiative, and we look forward to serving in this

capacity. This initiative is an important part of the President’s

USA Freedom Corps, which is working to promote a culture of active, engaged citizens who have a better understanding of their

democratic traditions and their duty to serve our communities and

country.

NEH’s ‘‘We the People’’ initiative aims to cultivate an enhanced

understanding of American history among students, teachers, and

the public at large. We will enlist the efforts of scholars, professors,

curators, librarians, filmmakers, and others engaged in a wide variety of projects, including the creation of model history curricula,

the digitization and dissemination of historical documents, the expansion of our acclaimed summer seminars for school teachers, and

new programs that bring history to our citizens.

Already, the Endowment has undertaken several exciting efforts

as part of this initiative. This year, we launched a nationwide solicitation of grant applications to address ‘‘We the People’’ themes and

topics. On May 1st, we will host the inaugural ‘‘Heroes of History’’ lecture, featuring acclaimed historian Robert Remini, who was authorized by the House of Representatives to write its official history. In addition, we recently held the first ‘‘Idea of America’’ essay

contest where more than 1,300 high school juniors submitted essays on key events in American history.

I should also mention that on May 15th, the NEH will present

the Thirty-Second Annual Jefferson Lecture, delivered by the distinguished historian David McCullough. As you may have gathered

from his remarks this morning, he is not only a first-rate scholar

but also a leading champion of American history.

Each of these NEH efforts aims at enhancing and increased

knowledge and understanding of American history among teachers,

students, and the general public.

This hearing is another important step. I want to express my appreciation to Senator Alexander for his work to address this issue,

both in his home State of Tennessee and from the Capitol. He has

been an effective and dedicated advocate for excellent in education,

and I look forward to working with him toward that shared goal.

The American History and Civics Education Act authorizes the

establishment of Presidential academies for teaching history content to teachers and congressional academies for teaching history

to gifted students. It would place the responsibility for selecting

those academies within the purview of the NEH and its highly respected merit review system.

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It is a truism of teaching that one cannot teach what one does

not know. As someone whose life was changed by the inspired

teaching of a professor, I can attest to the transformative power of

quality teaching. But studies also show that secondary school history teachers receive less instruction and training in their discipline than any other subject except physics. In fact, one recent

Department of Education study found that 58 percent of high

school history teachers neither majored nor minored in history.

There are many reasons for this ‘‘content gap’’ in history teaching. Many education schools focus more on the theory and methods

of teaching rather than on the key documents, events, and figures

of our history. The emphasis that Senator Alexander, Senator

Byrd, Under Secretary Hickok, James Billington, and others have

placed on teaching actual history, as opposed to pedagogy, is exactly right.

Our challenge is clear: We need to enhance and extend the teaching of history to teachers so they can pass it on to their students.

One way in which the NEH addresses this challenge is through

its widely respected summer seminars and institutes for school

teachers. Each seminar or institute is selected by the NEH’s rigorous merit review system and concentrates on teaching the teachers

history and humanities content. In the testimonials we have received, many teachers have claimed that the experience was extremely helpful and rewarding and that learning more about a subject naturally enabled them to teach it more effectively.

Mr. Chairman, the administration and the NEH share your concern with ensuring that our Nation’s history is well understood by

teachers, students, and all citizens. The ideas, ideals, and institutions that founded and form our Nation should be well and widely

taught. With nearly 40 years of experience as the Federal Government’s agency for advancing education, scholarship, public programs, and preservation in history and the humanities, NEH is

well positioned to contribute to this important effort.

Again, I want to express my appreciation for the willingness of

this committee to address the issue of American amnesia, for the

work and experience Senator Alexander has invested in this legislation, and for the opportunity to testify today. I would be glad to

answer any questions.

Senator ALEXANDER. Thank you, Dr. Cole. Am I correct that you

have until about 10:45? Is that right?

Mr. COLE. Right.

Senator ALEXANDER. Well, why don’t we go on to Dr. Hickok and

Dr. Billington and then we will bring this panel to a conclusion

about 10:45.

[The prepared statement of Mr. Cole may be found in additional

material.]

Senator ALEXANDER. Dr. Hickok, the Under Secretary of Education, also has a distinguished resume for his work as Pennsylvania’s Secretary of Education. We are delighted to have him with us

today. The Department of Education supervises a number of activities and programs that have to do with the encouraging of the

teaching of history, of American history and civics. Dr. Hickok?

Mr. HICKOK. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and good morning. Let

me first of all State it is somewhat humbling to sit at the same

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table where Senator Byrd just made his presentation and, before

that, the eminent historian David McCullough. It is one of the

great benefits of a job like this. You get a chance to hear some incredible words from incredible people. It is also very humbling to

share the table with these two gentlemen, who have long and distinguished careers of contributing through public service and private service to the next generation of America.

I on a personal note want to say how much what you are attempting to do and what we are talking about today means to me

because, long before I entered public service, I was a college professor and devoted my scholarship and my teaching to the importance

of American constitutionalism and American constitutional history.

I would point out that there is a statute of Nathan Hale outside

the Justice Department where I once worked. Most people probably

could not tell you that. I am hopeful now that most people now

know who Nathan Hale is, at least the people in this room.

I am also here to point out that the Department of Education has

a lot going on, in large measure because of the work of this body,

to promote informed teaching of American history. The Teaching

American History program, $100 million, is dedicated toward trying to make sure that America’s teachers understand the fundamentals and can teach the fundamentals of American history

using original documents, working with colleagues, working with

faculty from higher education and other institutions, community organizations. The goal of this is professional development in its truest sense, and it is urgently needed.

As my colleague Dr. Cole said, the majority of America’s history

teachers did not major or minor in history, and I think if the truth

be told, they were not hired to be history teachers. Most of them

were hired to teach other things or to be coaches. American history

has not been a high priority in America’s schools, and I think

America suffers because of that, especially at this time, this very,

very challenging and unique time in our history.

The Teaching American History program then is dedicated to the

proposition that we need to do something as a nation about that.

It is a long and difficult challenge, but the purpose of the program,

perhaps one teacher at a time, is to change the course of the way

we teach history so that lives in the future are better informed

about what this Nation is all about, has been all about, the idea

of America, and, more importantly, we will be better prepared to

make sure that idea continues long after all of us are gone.

In addition to the Teaching American History program, we do

civic education, every bit as important, certainly not unrelated to

the importance of understanding of American history. Under the

Civic Education program, we work with the ‘‘We the People’’ program that does The Citizen and the Constitution and Project Citizen.

The Citizen and the Constitution project is a competition in

many ways, high school and junior high school, middle school, the

goal of which is to get students engaged in understanding, and not

just in a superficial way but in a reasoned, articulate, in-depth

way, some of the most important issues in American civics and history. They grapple with these issues in competitions at the local

and State level, and their final competition is held here in DC. I

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have attended it. You would be, I am sure, stunned with the quality of the competition and the ability of some of these people to

make the arguments they make and be able to debate with such

insight and in many ways wisdom far beyond their years. The competition is truly impressive.

The disappointing thing about the competition is even though it

might be thousands of kids, there are millions of kids who need to

be a part of that competition. So whatever we can do as a nation

to instill in this country a sense of the importance of civic education through programs such as The Citizen and the Constitution,

we need to continue to do.

I want to close. I think it is more important we have conversation. I would mention two things. On a personal note, about 10

years ago I was lucky enough to visit the Baltic republics that were

struggling at the time to achieve their independence from the thenSoviet Union. I was there to talk with the emerging leaders about

their emerging constitutions. I mention that because I was fortunate to get a sense coming home of how important it is for a free

people to remember the source of their freedom.

I remember sitting with a gentleman who later became the Minister of Finance in Lithuania and how he sat across the table from

me and said, ‘‘How do you invent private property? How do you

find the invisible hand? How do you create a democracy among a

people who do not know how to govern themselves?’’ And it struck

me I had no answer for that, except I knew that we as a nation

had been able to do that because we have never lost touch with

how we created our system of economy, our Government, etc.

I fear that we as a nation need to address the teaching of history

and civics with a sense of urgency because I never want my children or my grandchildren to be asking the kind of question that

was asked of me almost a decade ago.

I would leave with this one thought, going back to something

that Senator Byrd referenced, the Declaration of Independence.

The last line of that document should ring in the hearts of every

citizen in a republic. That last line talks about how those who

signed the document pledge their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.

The future of this Nation will always rely upon individuals willing to do exactly that, and if we are not about the business of making sure that our young people, from elementary school through

college, and not just students but all of our citizens, if we are not

about the task of making sure they understand American history

and the obligations and opportunities of American citizenship, then

we will not be able to make sure the legacy that is established in

the Declaration continues. That is how urgent our task is, and I

thank the chairman for making sure that we are about that task.

Thank you.

Senator ALEXANDER. Thank you, Dr. Hickok.

[The prepared statement of Mr. Hickok may be found in additional material.]

Senator ALEXANDER. Thank you. All three of you have rearranged your schedules and are very busy with other responsibilities, and I am grateful to you for coming, Dr. Billington. I know

that you have—and I appreciate your arranging to be here.

26

Dr. James Billington is the 13th person, only the 13th person to

ever be the Librarian of Congress. He has been that since 1987. To

use Mr. McCullough’s words, he certainly has caught the attitude

of American history and has a treasure trove of information there

that we all can use.

Dr. Billington, we look forward to hearing from you.

Mr. BILLINGTON. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and it is

a privilege to be able to testify on this subject that is so important

to the future of America and on which you yourself have spoken

and acted so eloquently.

I am going to try to illustrate for you an actual program we have

which I think follows Mr. McCullough’s principles in terms of both

representing something which creates a chain of enthusiasm which

is so important for animating this history and also that helps humanize history by using the Internet, as he said, is of some importance.

During Alex Haley’s 12 years researching his groundbreaking

novel ‘‘Roots,’’ he traveled the globe to uncover his family’s story,

even crossed the Atlantic to get some feel for what his ancestors

went through on the Middle Passage. He also spend many hours

in the reading rooms of the Library of Congress, porting over

American Missionary Society files from our Manuscript Collection.

For the first 100 years of the Library’s existence, people could access our vast collections only by traveling here, working in the

beautiful reading rooms, as Mr. Haley did.

Now the primary materials in the Library of Congress, many of

them are already available free of charge online, and this has proven to be extraordinarily valuable in the teaching of civics and history, in supporting the teaching particularly in the classroom, and

I believe that this kind of program that we have been running for

a while now can be a key player in your program to establish Presidential academies for teachers and congressional academies for students, and also most particularly to create an online National Alliance for Teachers.

The technology revolution of the past decade has made it possible

for the Library to reach far beyond its buildings. We now deliver

8 million interesting and educational multimedia documents, maps,

and images of American history and culture free of charge to stimulate curiosity, to humanize the teaching of history. By exploiting

the power of the Internet and the incomparable resources of these

collections, the Library I think now can be considered the leading

provider of free, noncommercial educational content on the World

Wide Web.

The Library’s websites attracted last year more than 2.5 billion

hits, and they have won many prestigious awards by offering easy

electronic access to the key documents, events, ideas, and people of

American history. So the Library is uniquely positioned, I think, to

support the goals of educators everywhere, helping students in a

sense form their own questions so that finding the answers to them

will drive them back into reading.

American Memory, as it was called, was first established as a

pilot in 1990. It is one of the first large-scale efforts to use the

Internet to disseminate high-quality educational content.

27

Out of that grew the National Digital Library program, which

has created an online archive of more than 100 significant collections of important, rare, and unique items in all formats documenting American history and its cultural heritage. The materials were

selected from the Library of Congress as well as from 36 other

American institutions, making the National Digital Library truly

national.

Students themselves get to work directly with the primary materials, get to feel some of that enthusiasm, whether it is manuscripts, documents of which we have spoken, the original drafts.

You can see them inventing these things, maps which you can

zoom in on and view with greater clarity than you can see them

with the naked eye; prints and photographs of all kinds and varieties that themselves document the history of technology as well as

illustrate different stages of the Nation’s history, and music, which

I am sorry we cannot provide for you, the local technology, but I

assure you that online it illustrates all the different kinds of music

of which Senator Byrd was speaking.

The point is these are the actual stuff of history, not about history. These resources encourage critical thinking in students and

inspire learners to further exploration. The multimedia American

Memory Collections include the papers of United States Presidents

in their own handwriting—you get the feel and you see how good

their handwriting is, by the way—Mathew Brady’s Civil War photographs. This is the first photographed war and, of course, the

great development of American history recorded in a whole host of

moving photographs that have a great impact on children. Edward

Curtis’ images of Native Americans, and early films of Thomas Edison, the first films ever made, including the first steps on American

soil of people arriving at Ellis Island at the turn of the century. It

is very moving because he took—these are not the huddled masses

of which people tend to speak. They are people proud, taking their

first step on American soil. You can see how they dressed up in

their finest outfits, usually the only good outfit they had, but proud

to be taking that first step in the great entryway into America of

so many of our citizens. And historic speeches is another thing, to

hear the voices of our leaders, as well as the great sort of implements of American sports, the very first baseball cards. You cannot

quite see it, but the one on the left is the Brooklyn Atlantics, who

were champions of the world in 1865. And oral histories representing the diversity of our culture, recorded Federal projects of various

kinds going back to the 1890s.

The Learning Page website, introduced in 1996 as a companion

to the American Memory Collections, specifically was designed for

K-12 educators and their students. Here a wide range of content,

and the Library’s digital collections are presented within an educational context that includes lesson plans, actual lesson plans that

reflect the real-life experience. Those are just the sort of covering

images on top of actual experience lesson plans of students. Also,

‘‘how to’’ projects, for instance, this one illustrates the beginning

of—using maps to show how geography changed, the science of geography, and also to show how people view—there are all these little pictures. This is 1562, one of the earliest maps of the New

28

World, and it goes on to be—so they actually see these materials

and have a kind of ‘‘how to’’ study of history through geography.

The point is the educational experience makes a dynamic, stimulating, and interactive activity. You have to have a train of

thought. You have to be thinking critically to develop it. It is not

passive spectator experience like television.

Now, on this page, teachers can show with their lesson plans. At

the click of a mouse, they can search the collections. They can try

out lesson plans. They can engage in classroom activities. They can

connect with other teachers. They can ask a librarian for help, the

Library of Congress or their local library. They can view a lecture

or a poetry reading, or they can visit more than 40 exhibitions,

which are also online.

We have had American Memory Fellows Institutes at the Library

in summer. They can serve perhaps as a pilot for or in anticipation

of your program to establish a National Alliance of Teachers. The

institute has successfully trained a network of teachers across the

country who are teaching other educators in their local communities what they have learned at the Library using primary sources

in the classroom to stimulate and get that chain of enthusiasm.

Over a 5-year period, 300 master educators from nearly every State

have participated in a year-long, largely online, professional development program which is highlighted by a brief but intensive summer institute held at the Library.

Teams of educators worked directly with the Library staff and

with the original lesson plans and teaching guides based on the Library’s online materials. These teachers develop road-tested lesson

plans that are now available electronically to all teachers through

the Learning Page website.

So we already have a kind of alliance of teachers connected virtually through our Learning Page. But America needs to reach

teachers in all of the Nation’s 15,000 school districts, and also to

have, as these institutes do, they get—what Mr. McCullough

stressed so beautifully, they get firsthand exposure to the actual

documents, and there are documents, by the way, in local histories,

museums, libraries all over the country, so that is not just a perquisite of one community. They can have that experience of actually seeing the originals and then using the virtual materials, but

carrying on that enthusiasm.

Anyhow, we are already reaching children and their families directly through yet another new website called America’s Library,

which is specifically designed to get kids where they are, in the

audiovisual world of boom boxes and television, but seeing real

quality material. It is fun, but it is also educational, and it is currently attracting more than 22 million hits per month, combining

child-friendly graphics with the incomparable American collections

of the Library, which include more than 4,500 stories about our

Nation’s past. Interactive elements on the site teach searching as

a scavenger hunt. They offer a virtual tour around America. You

can send a picture postcard of the American past online through

e-mail and so forth.

The Library is also linking the world’s resources with America’s

schools through collaborative digitization projects with the national

libraries of Russia, Brazil, Spain, and the Netherlands. Joint binaVerDate 11-MAY-2000 09:27 Sep 26, 2003 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00032 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 S:\DOCS\86582 SLABOR3 PsN: SLABOR3
29

tional, bilingual collaborations of this kind, combined with the

power of the Internet, provide some marvelous material for global

education. And they provide links—we also provide links to other

vetted and reliable materials from and about more than 130 countries. When completed, this project—this is just one topical example, obviously, but when completed, this project will bring free to

America’s classrooms resource materials from all the nations of the

world.

Finally, we have a new monthly online magazine called The Wise

Guide, which offers articles that encourage newcomers to use our

website to explore the wealth of the Library’s online educational

programs.

So the Library is reaching students, their teachers, and all learners with the documents, sounds, films, maps, music, and other artifacts that tell the story of America. I think this can be an inspirational as well as an educational enhancement for the important

new initiatives that this committee is considering, and I, too, will

be happy to answer questions, Mr. Chairman.

[The prepared statement of Mr. Billington may be found in additional material.]

Senator ALEXANDER. Thank you, Dr. Billington. That is a fascinating presentation. Alex Haley was a close friend of mine, and

he told me many times of his—he described that 13 years of research he did, finally discovering his ancestor Kunta Kinte in Gambia.

While we have such talent here, let me go right to the chase in

a couple of ways. All of you have experience with summer institutes in one way or another in this subject. Dr. Cole does. Dr.

Billington, as you said, you have short summer institutes of one

kind. Dr. Hickok, you do as well.

And as we have heard today and know, there is a great story and

a great need, and there are about maybe 2 million teachers plus

out here of all kinds plus in K-12. So how do we connect all this

up with the teachers?

Some of the obstacles I have heard about today or heard about

other places include that teachers are not trained to teach history.

Almost every witness has said that. They are trained in other subjects. Textbooks are dull and watered down and boring, and as Mr.

McCullough said, if you were sentenced to 2 hours of reading the

textbooks, that would cure you forever of wanting to learn history.

I believe many teachers are afraid to teach a lot of the stuff of

history because they feel caught in so-called controversial subjects

and do not feel confident in dealing with them. And then, finally,

an obstacle, Dr. Billington, to what you have to offer is that a great

many teachers, while they have hardware, are not comfortable with

using the Internet. They will say they are and there are lots of

salesmen around who will tell you they are, but the fact of the matter is if you go into a great many schools, you do not see very many

teachers who are comfortable integrating material on the Internet

into their daily teaching program.

So my own thought is—and the reason I proposed this legislation

was that summer institutes of 2 weeks, say, for teachers or 4 weeks

for students at which there would be a lot of master teachers would

be a good way to solve many of these problems at once. If you have

30

200 teachers, for example, for 2 weeks—Mr. McCullough talked

about visiting historic sites. They can be presented with this information and shown how to use it. There can be a discussion of how

to teach controversial subjects and a reminder that most of American history is controversial subjects because it is a conflict of very

deeply held principles about which we mostly agree.

So my question for you would be: Based on the experience you

already have with institutes or what you can think about in the future, in each case, Dr. Cole, starting with you, if you think about

a 2-week institute for teachers, what would you do with the 2

weeks?

Mr. COLE. Well, first let me say that hearing you, Senator Alexander, and Senator Byrd and David McCullough and my colleagues

here gives me a lot of hope. I think this is inspiring, and I think

together we can really address this problem of American amnesia.

We have a long experience with summer seminars in the NEH,

and I like to think of these seminars as sort of an analogy of a pebble tossed into a pool that has a great rippling effect, because what

we do is we bring teachers together with experts in fields of various

disciplines and would now talk about American history. And we

give them a very content-rich experience. We expose them to the

raw materials of history, things that you can find in American

Memory, for example.

Then these teachers take that knowledge back. They have a

chance in these seminars, by the way, to reflect and to discuss

among themselves. They take this content back and then teach

generations and generations of students.

Senator ALEXANDER. Where would such a seminar be? Here in

Washington? Or do you have them all over?

Mr. COLE. We have them all over the country.

Senator ALEXANDER. And how long are they? How many days?

Mr. COLE. They vary. They vary.

Senator ALEXANDER. And how many teachers will come to a typical seminar, or does that vary as well?

Mr. COLE. Fifteen to 30. But what we plan in our ‘‘We the People’’ initiative is to expand this to include many more hundreds of

teachers. We find that this gives teachers something that they do

not have, that is, very content-rich education.

Senator ALEXANDER. Dr. Hickok, I wonder if in thinking about

the teaching program that you are administering whether you now

have such—whether any of the school districts now have such institutes or whether you are thinking about such institutes for the future.

Mr. HICKOK. Some do. I think the better ones have partnerships

with institutions of higher education. I do not think many of them

locate the 2- or 3-week institute at a historic location, which I

think is an excellent idea. You know, history is everywhere. You do

not have to go to famous historic sites to be in a historic location.

I do think that most need to do a better job of incorporating technology. One of the real benefits from these kinds of experiences I

have seen—and I have been lucky enough to participate in quite

a few over the years as a faculty member—is not just the experience of those 2 or 3 weeks where a chemistry develops among the

participants and an energy and a willingness to sort of get engaged

31

in the discussions and debates, sort of give them the kind of intellectual support that they might feel they need. It is what takes

place afterwards, especially with the technology. This community

does not disband after 3 weeks. They tend to keep in touch through

the Internet, through technology. They tend to share lesson plans.

It is kind of the ripple effect you are talking about.

The beauty of that is gradually that intellectual community of

history teachers, if you will, finds others to get engaged at their location, so it does grow. It is very important that it not be seen as

sort of a 3-week experience, have a good time, get a certificate, and

go back to work. It has got to be in many ways a transformative

experience, intellectually, pedagogically, and professionally. And

the best of them can do that. And when that takes place, it really

grows pretty quickly.

Senator ALEXANDER. Dr. Billington, what has been your experience? And as you look ahead, what could you foresee for such summer institutes for teachers?

Mr. BILLINGTON. Well, our summer institutes are very short,

very intensive. They are just a week long. I think the 2 weeks and

the longer period you propose is an excellent idea.

We have tried—a couple of things from our experience that are

worth noting. First of all, the exposure to primary materials,

whether they are handling them directly in the Library or in some

other archive or repository or dealing with them online, can be very

effective right down to the 3rd grade, 2nd grade. I mean, it is surprising because the main point is it gets people to form questions.

When they themselves form the question, they are motivated to

find answers. That is important not only for history but for learning in general. And because kids are on the Internet very early, if

you do not get some good quality material to them on the Internet,

they are going to identify with, you know, the culture of violent

video games and all the destructive things and the chat rooms

which are destroying the basic unity of human thought, which was

the sentence, because it just runs on with the only punctuation

being ‘‘like’’ and ‘‘you know.’’

If you do not get good things on there very early and get the

teachers—the training of the teachers is absolutely central, I think.

And we have found also that the people who are trained in this can

train other people. We try to make it a condition. It is competitive

access to our summer institutes that they offer some promise or

some program for teaching others. Because you are absolutely

right, one of the biggest obstacles is that the kids very often tend

to be ahead of the teachers with the new technology.

But I would say that getting people comfortable with the new

technology is not nearly as big or as demanding a problem as it is

getting the competence and the knowledge of history and the enthusiasm of it from the teachers themselves. If they have gone

through a lot of education themselves and not picked this up, that

is in a way the bigger problem.

So it seems to me a slightly longer period, but focusing on teachers at an early stage, because a lot of scholarship shows that if

they have not gotten turned on by the 4th grade, they are not going

to get turned on at all. And this has the capacity, because, I mean,

this is like the experience—I mean, my model was going up in the

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attic of my grandparents when I was very young and discovering

old letters and old pictures. And I started asking my grandmother

a whole lot of questions. And that was in a way the way most kids

get an interest in history.

Another point that I would like to stress that Mr. McCullough

stressed is the importance of getting the family involved. Our new

website, this America’s Library website, has been adopted by the

Advertising Council. It is the first library program they have ever

adopted, precisely because they think it has the capacity to get

intergenerational learning going, story telling across generational

lines. And the value of the Internet is it goes into the home as well

as the schools.

So I think that the institutes that you are proposing are very important. I do not think the business of getting people to feel comfortable, teachers, with the Internet is that difficult. It just has to

be done, and it has to be done professionally. So I would say that

an important aspect of this should be using people who are already

well trained. We have a network—there are others, there are plenty of others—to train the trainers, so to speak. But you need to get

a multiplier effect because all these programs, including ours, are

just very small drops in a very big ocean. And I think having some

obligation for the participants to assume some responsibility for energizing, training teachers in their own community would be a good

thing to add in so that you can really ramp this thing up and not

let the peer group chat room world take over the Internet, because

the Internet is not—no new technology is automatic delivery.

The last thing I would say is that we have found the combination

of the new technology and old materials, primary materials that reflect old values, that widen the horizons of kids, is old material, old

values, and new technology. That is a very American combination,

and I think we need to not only teach it but to exemplify it, that

the country that produced all this new technology can use it to restore its memory and not simply to create the idea of innovation

for innovation’s sake.

Senator ALEXANDER. I have one more question of this panel, and

then we will move on to the next one. I will start with Dr. Hickok

on this and see if Dr. Cole and Dr. Billington have anything to add.

The Leave No Child Behind Act, as you mentioned in your testimony, requires that teachers in core academic subjects be highly

qualified, quote-quote, by the year 2005, 2006. Several of the witnesses today have remarked that in no subject do teachers have

less instruction than in history other than physics.

Now, that is a problem to cure for the future, but we have got

more than 2 million teachers out there teaching today, and we

have lots of students out there today. And so it occurs to me that

these summer academies for teachers as well as the summer

schools for students, but especially the academies for teachers,

might be a way that a State could help its teachers become highly

qualified in history.

What do you think of that?

Mr. HICKOK. I think you are absolutely right, Senator. Two

points. The highly qualified language of the law does say if you are

teaching a core academic discipline such as history you need to

have subject matter mastery in history. In far too many places, the

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certificate is a social studies certificate, and that is not to be critical of social studies, but that is often not much history, maybe no

history.

So the first challenge for existing teachers is to get the kind of

background they need to meet the highly qualified provisions, and

one way to do that would be to participate at institutes such as the

ones that you are proposing.

The other issue to remember is that new teachers need to be

highly qualified as well, so there is a challenge now for those who

want to go into teaching, perhaps those who are just entering college and teacher preparation programs now, they need to start

thinking, we need to start thinking about a new way to prepare

teachers, all teachers, but certainly history teachers. They need to

be taking courses in experiencing history in the departments and

not just in the college education programs.

Senator ALEXANDER. I have an idea we will hear something

about that from Dr. Ravitch when she gets to the table.

Mr. HICKOK. I think so.

Senator ALEXANDER. Dr. Cole, do you have any thought on that?

Mr. COLE. I agree. I think it will better prepare them, and I

think it is right, there is a systemic problem here in the way teachers are trained that needs to be addressed.

Senator ALEXANDER. Dr. Billington?

Mr. BILLINGTON. I agree. I think that part of the problem of the

way history is taught, I think much greater pressure should be put

on the university system, which is not—the major universities that

train historians train them mostly to talk to other historians, not

to teach effectively in the schools. So I think that there needs to

be some pressure put. The universities have an obligation, which

they have not really properly assumed, to teach history to teachers

of history. I think the summer schools should be developed there.

I think the summer institutes that the Humanities Endowment has

done—I have had exposure to a couple of them—are excellent. But

they need to be multiplied, and the whole burden should not be on

the Federal Government. The universities should be cajoled and

made to see that it is part of their responsibility not just to deal

with the graduate students there but to deal with teaching crisis

in their particular discipline.

One of the problems, it is not only ideological, as you mentioned,

but it is methodological. There has been so much emphasis on impersonal forces and on various methodological fads in the study of

history that people no longer write good English. So it affects expression. That is one reason David McCullough—everybody reads

David McCullough because he is such a beautiful writer. The

teaching of history is the telling of stories, making them literate.

There is nothing wrong with making them a little more fun. And

if there were more emphasis in the universities on the writing and

on the presentation for a general audience the way history should

be, I think we would have a much better trained corps. But as it

is, people tend to write more and more at rarefied levels for less

and less readers rather than addressing themselves to what you

have well identified as a national problem that the universities

should be playing a much more active role.

Mr. COLE. I second and third that.

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Mr. HICKOK. I fourth it.

Senator ALEXANDER. Our most successful summer Governor’s

School for teachers in Tennessee was a Governor’s academy for

teachers of writing, taught by Richard Marius, who was at Harvard, whose job was teaching Harvard freshmen how to write as

they went in. And he would divide them up in groups and get local

writers to come and actually work with them, and Marius, who was

a Tennessean originally, came down, worked with about 200 teachers for a 2-week period in the summer, and literally inspired them.

I mean, their feet did not hit the ground for 10 years after they

spent 2 weeks with him. And it was 200 teachers every summer

for 10 years, and it had a dramatic effect in the classrooms across

our State on the teaching of writing.

I hope that this will be the beginning of an alliance working together. I have a list of 11 Federal programs related to the teaching

and/or the study of American history and civics, and they are all

supervised by the three of you. And so if Senator Kennedy and

Senator Byrd and I can work with you over a period of time to look

for ways to coordinate those activities—we do not want to run

them. We just want to encourage you, put the spotlight on them,

have additional hearings, provide the funds. Perhaps over a period

of time perhaps we can put the teaching of American history and

civics back in its rightful place in our schools.

Thank you for coming.

Mr. HICKOK. Thank you.

Mr. BILLINGTON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. COLE. Thank you.

Senator ALEXANDER. I would like to invite the members of the

third panel, Dr. Diane Ravitch and Blanche Deaderick and Russell

Berg, to please come.

Welcome. Thank you for being patient as we heard from, I

thought, some very interesting people. Senator Dodd is coming in

a few minutes, Russell, to introduce you, and I am going to let him

have the honor of doing that. He is the ranking member of this

committee. And, Blanche, welcome to you and to Kate Gooch. Both

are here from Memphis. Kate started the Governor’s School for

International Studies at the University of Memphis and was in

charge of it, for a number of years, and Blanche ran it. So we will

get to you next.

Dr. Ravitch has come from New York. She has a class to teach

there, and she has to go back there after a while. So if the others

of you will permit that, I would like to introduce Dr. Ravitch and

let her say what she has to say and ask her a few questions, and

then that will make sure that her students are not cheated out of

her class this afternoon.

Diane Ravitch—there is no American historian of education superior to Diane Ravitch. There is also no one who writes about education who is a better writer than Diane Ravitch. She has a clear

view where our schools came from and a strong view about what

they ought to be doing. When I was appointed by the first President Bush as Education Secretary, my first act was to recruit

David Kearns, the CEO of Xerox, to become the Deputy Secretary

of Education, and then he and I, never having met Diane Ravitch

but having read her books and works for a long time, invited her

35

to lunch and asked her to join us, which she did, as Assistant Secretary of Education. So she is still writing and still teaching, especially on this subject.

So, Diane, thank you very much for being here today.

STATEMENT OF DIANE RAVITCH, RESEARCH PROFESSOR OF

EDUCATION, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY, BROOKLYN, NEW

YORK, AND SENIOR FELLOW, THE BROOKINGS INSTITUTION

Ms. RAVITCH. Well, thank you, Senator Alexander. I am very

honored to be here and to be in such distinguished company and

to hear from the gentlemen who have preceded us.

Since everything I was going to point out that was brand new

has been said this morning, I am going to say some things that are

not in my written testimony that were evoked by the previous

speakers.

This hearing is wonderful for me because I started pushing the

subject of history education and the need to revive it. As I realized

sitting here, I started it 20 years ago. It was at that time that the

State of New York was proposing to drop chronology from the social studies curriculum and to teach history and social studies all

mixed up together so that events came completely out of chronological order and in relation to grand themes and there would be

no sense of cause and effect. And I wrote my first article on the

topic. Al Shanker gave me his guest column in the New York

Times to decry this mish-mash, and the State backed off and restored chronological history.

I followed that up with an article in the New York Times Magazine in 1985 called ‘‘The Decline and Fall of the Teaching of History,’’ and then got on to the subject of how history had been

dropped out of the elementary grades and retitled that ‘‘Tot Sociology.’’

Subsequent to that, I wrote the California history standards K12 with a committee created by the State of California. That curriculum has been around since 1987, which is quite remarkable.

But I have been at this subject of the dire State of history education for a long time, and I salute you for making this an important cause. I think for all the reasons that have been said this

morning, it is very important to our future as a Nation.

I am particularly pleased that your legislation incorporates not

just history but civics, because that is what is so often missing.

And I think that is what we find missing, for instance, in higher

education where history is taught completely divorced from any

sense of the importance of democratic principles.

There has been, as you pointed out earlier, a feeling on the part

of the National Council of Social Studies and many in that field

that the U.S. is not exceptional. In fact, several years ago, the

NCSS put out a proposed framework for the teaching of social studies where they said that U.S. and world history should be merged

into a single study, which would demonstrate that the U.S. was not

in any way exceptional, it was no different from any other country

and should not get any more time or attention.

The teachers of America, despite their lack of a strong history

background, realized that that was a very bad idea, and I do not

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know of any State in the country that has actually followed that

recommendation.

On campus, I think one of the reasons that—you know, I have

very mixed feelings about where and how teachers should be educated—is that on campus history has become so specialized, as Mr.

Cole and Mr. Billington said earlier, that we are certainly not getting in higher education the approach to American history that

David McCullough described, a sense of the inspirational quality of

American history, a sense of the specialness of the Founding Fathers.

What we get instead is, whereas American history used to be

taught as everything that happened was good, there tends to be

now a sense that everything that happened was bad. And students

who come through American history courses come through a long

exposure to the deep defects of American society, the deep defects

of American history. They do not encounter heroes. They only encounter victims. And there is an adversarial approach to teaching

about America that I think turns a lot of young people off to history other than to continue seeking for flaws that have not yet been

uncovered. So that creates a very bad taste in the mouth in terms

of teaching history to children.

Now, as was said earlier, we have amongst people who are teaching history a teacher corps, and it is 3 million, by the way, not 2

million. But amongst people who teach social studies and history,

the majority of them have neither a major nor a minor in history,

and they are coming from other fields. And most of their education,

unfortunately, has been a pedagogy, which does not prepare them

for any particular academic subject.

I think in terms of the problem that you are attempting to deal

with, I certainly support this legislation. I think symbolically it is

very important. I think in terms of what it will accomplish, it is

important. But it does not get to the structural problem, which is

that our States need to establish requirements for history teachers

where they are expected to take, for example, not only courses in

U.S. history and world history, but also courses in the U.S. Constitution. And I think that point was made very well this morning.

Until the States begin establishing reasonable requirements for

history teachers, we are not going to see any serious change.

I have just finished writing a book, which is actually being published next week, and part of the book was a review of textbooks.

So I forced myself all last summer to——

Senator ALEXANDER. ‘‘The Language Police’’ by Diane Ravitch. I

have it right here.

Ms. RAVITCH. Well, I forced myself last summer to read the history textbooks that our children read in high school and junior high

school, and, believe me, it was truly forcing myself. This is an exercise in ‘‘my eyes glaze over.’’ It is a punishment to children to expect them to read these books. Most of them run to 1,000 pages.

At least half the material in them is graphics. The textbooks attempt to look like Web pages, but since they are static, they really

cannot compete with Web pages. And the language in them, as

David McCullough said, is really very dull, and everything is compressed so small that you do not get a sense of narrative.

37

Now, since Senator Byrd mentioned how he had been inspired by

David Saville Muzzey’s textbook, I realized that I had the introduction—a quote from his introduction from Muzzey’s textbook in my

new book, and I want to tell you why David Muzzey said that high

school students should learn history, and this was his advice to his

readers of his high school history text. This was in 1940. He said,

‘‘You are growing up in this age of opportunity and responsibility.

In a few years, we of the older generation shall have passed on,

leaving to you the duty of carrying on the American tradition of a

free democracy, of preserving our ideals and remedying our faults.

This is your America. Whatever business or profession you may

choose to follow, you are all first and foremost American citizens.

Each of you should think of himself or herself as a person who has

inherited a beautiful country estate and should be proud to keep

up that estate and to make such modern improvements as will increase its beauty and comforts. You would be ungrateful heirs indeed if you did not care to know who had bequeathed the estate

to you, who had planned and built the house, who had labored to

keep it in repair for your occupancy, who had extended and beautified its grounds, who had been alert to defend it from marauders

and burglars. If you agree with me, you have already answered the

question why you should be eager to study American history.’’

Well, I looked at all of the textbooks that our kids get today, all

of them published between 1997 and 2001, and not one of them has

an introduction explaining why kids should want to study history

or connecting history to the extension and protection of our democracy. In fact, there is almost an embarrassment about the idea that

we have something that we want to be proud of.

What I found in my review of these textbooks is, first of all, there

is no narrative. They just give event after event and fact after fact.

There is certainly no celebration of American democracy and its

growth and development and improvement over time. There are no

paeans to freedom and democracy because that is considered embarrassing in the world of higher education. There are no heroes.

There is no idealism.

What we do find is a plethora of pointing out hypocrisy, finding

victims, pointing to exploitation. And it is not a very inspiring

story, and it is intended not to be inspiring. And so it is dull.

What I think that you can do with these 2-week seminars that

would be important—you cannot take the place of a college education. You cannot take the place of a year-long study of American

history. You cannot do that in 2 weeks. What you can help to do

is to begin with presenting people who participate in these seminars with a synthesis, having a distinguished advisory panel of historians and excellent history teachers, through the auspices of the

NEH develop the synthesis of what teachers will learn and what

they will teach and what a year-long course in American history

must include as essentials. Then working from this synthesis,

spend at least a week out of this 2-week period describing the synthesis, criticizing it, talking about it, understanding it so that

teachers can begin to integrate, because if they have taken history

courses, the chances are they have bits and pieces of American history.

38

They will have a very difficult time utilizing either of the methods that David McCullough described, going to John Adams’ House,

which is very specific. First of all, you have to know who John

Adams is and how he fits into the Revolutionary generation and

how that fits into the broader picture. So teachers need to have

synthesis. They will not be able to use the kinds of material that

the Library of Congress has available unless they have the big picture. And I think you can work on the big picture during this first

week. You can in the second week work with teachers in developing

the skills of using primary sources, of using technology, of introducing multimedia approaches to the teaching of history, of using experiential approaches where you go to sites and where you go to

local landmarks and where you fit it in, of using—instead of or in

addition to textbooks, using biographies, using real histories and

real narratives so that the teachers themselves can see what they

have been missing in not having these materials.

But I think that without that larger picture, they are going to

still be at sea and have just lots and lots of little pieces, very detailed and specific.

I just wanted to close, first of all, by thanking you for your interest in what is obviously a very important and timely subject, but

also to remember something that occurred to me, and this was in

1989. I had been invited by the American Federation of Teachers

to travel to Warsaw, and at the time I was invited, Solidarity was

the underground movement, and that was in the spring of 1989.

But by the time I got there, the underground dissident who had invited me was the Minister of Education. And that was in the fall

of 1989. So I arrived and I was told that I was to lecture on the

meaning of democracy. And I was lecturing in the Great Hall of the

Ministry of Education.

I gave my lecture and was told that this building had been the

headquarters of the Nazi Party before it had become the Communist Ministry of Education. And one of my Polish hosts said to

me, ‘‘We always use words like ‘democracy.’ We always use words

like ‘debate.’ But they did not mean what you said they mean. They

always meant no debate and no democracy. They meant the opposite of your description.’’ And I had this eerie feeling, in fact, goose

bumps all over, thinking that I was the first person in that building in 60 years who talked about debate and democracy and actually meant it.

And I wonder whether our children will know the meaning of

freedom and democracy unless they understand much more about

the history of this country and much more about what it means not

to have freedom, not to have democracy in countries like Iraq and

Poland and the other countries that have gone through the terrible

things that have happened in our world. If all they have is what

they get instantaneously, it is not enough.

And so I thank you for addressing this vital issue and will be

happy to answer any questions, and if you have no questions, I will

be happy to extend any help that you ask for in the future.

Senator ALEXANDER. Thank you, Dr. Ravitch.

First of all, I would like to welcome Senator Dodd of Connecticut,

who is here and in a moment will introduce Mr. Berg. But he may

want to join me in asking you some questions.

39

Ms. Deaderick, is your schedule such that I can go to Mr. Berg

next and then we will come back to you?

Ms. DEADERICK. Yes.

Senator ALEXANDER. All right.

Dr. Ravitch, first, thank you for your very specific suggestions

about what we might accomplish in a 2-week institute for teachers

of American history and civics. That was a big help. And maybe as

time goes along we will ask you to write the whole synthesis—that

would be terrific—or some enterprising applicant for one of these

schools. The idea would be that there will be a dozen places around

the country in this pilot program where someone will want to do

this and want to apply to the National Endowment for the Humanities and set up such a school in the summer. I would invite you

to take an interest in that because the first institutes will obviously

be models for others, and it will be a way to put a fresh direction

to the way we approach the teaching of American history and

civics.

You mentioned Al Shanker, I believe, and I have great respect

for Al Shanker, the former president of the American Federation

of Teachers. And I remember being in a meeting with him in 1988

in Rochester, and the president of Notre Dame, Monk Malloy,

asked a roomful of educators this question. He said, ‘‘What is the

rationale for a public school?’’ And there was this embarrassing silence among all these educators, until Al Shanker spoke up and

said, ‘‘The rationale for a public school was, when it was created,

to teach immigrant children the three R’s and what it means to be

an American, with the hope that they would then go home and

teach their parents.’’ Is that an accurate memory of how and why the school was created in this country? And if so, whatever happened to the idea that

the common school or the public school had as its principal rationale teaching about the principles that unite us as a country?

Ms. RAVITCH. That was the original rationale, and the great leaders, Henry Barnard of Connecticut and Horace Mann of Massachusetts, understood that citizenship and sustaining and building this

republic was the most important thing that the public school could

do. It was not about dividing us up and teaching us how we differ,

but teaching us what we have in common so that we could, in fact,

be citizens and be part of a common enterprise and pull together.

Robert Hutchins, who was the president of the University of Chicago, once said that the purpose of the public school is to sustain

the res publica, the public thing, and it is about maintaining and

sustaining our governmental institutions.

Senator ALEXANDER. In my, as we call it in the Senate, so-called

maiden address, I spoke on this subject, and I said I thought we

had spent over the last 30 or 40 years too much time, relatively,

on diversity, multiculturalism, and bilingualism and too little time

on a common culture, on a common language, and on unity. And

I nearly had my head taken off by a few people who thought that

was heretical.

I still think I am right. I think our diversity and variety is one

of the greatest strengths that we have as a country, but Jerusalem

and the Balkans and Iraq are all diverse. Diversity is not that

great an accomplishment. It is a source of strength, but it is not

40

an accomplishment. The accomplishment is that we have taken all

that variety and diversity and turned it into one country, and we

do not talk about that. We do not teach our children about the

principles that unite us as Americans. And, therefore, it seems to

me they do not—that is where the idea comes that there is no difference between the history of the world and the history of America

because they are the same thing. They are not the same thing, in

my opinion.

Ms. RAVITCH. Well, our national slogan is E Pluribus Unum—out

of many, one. And it does not deny them any. In fact, I live in the

most diverse city probably in the entire world, and diversity is a

magnificent thing. But in order to maintain a nation and to make

it work, you have to have a sense that you have something in common with your fellow citizens. And that is why we have public

schools. If we did not care about teaching a sense of community,

then we would not need public education at all.

And, by the way, Senator Dodd, I wanted to tell you that in my

review of the work of the States in developing things like history

and literature, Connecticut is way up there. It has just done a magnificent job. As you know from the NAEP scores, Connecticut always leaves almost everyone else in the dust.

Senator ALEXANDER. Well, that is a nice transition to Senator

Dodd.

Senator Dodd, would you like to ask Dr. Ravitch some questions?

OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR DODD

Senator DODD. Well, first of all, I apologize for arriving a bit late.

We have had a hectic morning. We had all five Presidents of the

Central American countries here this morning, and as a former

Peace Corps volunteer in Latin America, I worked closely with the

Central American countries.

But I want to begin by commending you, Mr. Chairman, on

your—and I am proud to be a cosponsor—first bill. It is a bill dealing very specifically with the teaching of American history and

civics, and it should come as no surprise that you chose this subject

matter, given your own background in history. This is a wonderful

contribution to the public debate to be able to have a subject matter like this as the subject of discussion in the U.S. Senate.

I appreciate your very kind comments, Ms. Ravitch, about Connecticut, and you are going to hear in a minute an example of why

we are so proud of Connecticut.

And I am hopeful that we are going to do some things to begin

to address some of these issues. First of all, I think the legislation

by the chairman is going to be a good start. If it does nothing else

it will to get us talking about history and civics education around

here. We don’t do enough of that.

I get teased a little bit by my staff. I walk around every single

day of my life with a copy of the Constitution in my pocket. Every

single day. And I read it almost every day—not all of it, but I read

a good part of it every day, go through it. And the Declaration of

Independence is in this as well. This was given to me by Senator

Byrd years ago. It is a ratty old copy. It is all falling apart.

Senator ALEXANDER. He came earlier, and he waved his copy just

as well.

41

Senator DODD. We are going to build a Visitor Center here at the

Capitol. We are in the process of doing it, as you can see by the

incredible amount of construction going on here. Beyond being a

public works project, what we are trying to do with the Visitors

Center is create an introduction to the Capitol. One of the things

that has always been disturbing to me is that people come here,

we walk them into the halls without any preparation of what they

are about to see, what these buildings represent, what went on

here, and what goes on here.

It is a civics project. The Center will have theaters in which people will be introduced to the history of Congress. So that before you

walk in the building, you understand what you are about to see.

This is a living institution, based on that which came before.

I have spoken at every single public high school in my State in

the last 15 years, and I try to do it almost every week. I have not

been very faithful to that in the last number of weeks. I have a

new child, an 18-month-old daughter that is taking a little of my

time, so I am missing some of these things. But I have been to

every high school, and one of the reasons I do this is because I

want students in my State, and particularly in my inner cities, to

see a United States Senator answer questions, listen to their ideas,

and talk about the notion of civics so that it is living. It is not just

a question of who we Senators are but what a Senator is and what

we do.

I know Senators’ schedules are busy, but we all ought to make

an effort, when high schools and elementary or middle schools

come down here for those photographs on the steps and so forth,

to be with them. The Presidential Classroom and Close Up programs are wonderful institutions. We ought to promote promote

these types of programs particularly Close Up, which reaches out

to a wide-range of students so you end up with a mix of students

who otherwise would not be able to afford to come to DC. There

are also internships. In fact, there are so many things that we can

do in our daily conduct as Senators to become part of a living civics

lessons, if you will, if we utilize our offices and our time appropriately. I cannot think of anything more important that we can do.

Having said all of that, I come from a family of teachers. My father’s three sisters taught for 40 years apiece in the Connecticut

public school system. My sister has taught for almost 35 years in

the inner city of Hartford. My brother, Tom, taught history for 30

years at Georgetown University. So I get lobbied rather heavily,

Mr. Chairman, on teachers and the importance of it.

One of the things I would like to bring up is how stunned I was

to discover how few States today require any State history. There

used to be a time when it was almost mandatory that there at least

be a year of State history. The reason I bring that up is because

I think it is important that there be a progression. I think children

first learn from their immediate environs and then from an expanding circle. I am learning this with my first child, my 18-

month-old daughter. When we move her from our house here in

Washington and we go up to Connecticut, it is like going to a different country for her. In fact, going from one room to the next is

almost like going to a different country. At least it was initially.

See if you begin by understanding your neighborhood, your commuVerDate 11-MAY-2000 09:27 Sep 26, 2003 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00045 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 S:\DOCS\86582 SLABOR3 PsN: SLABOR3
42

nity and where you are from, getting you to understand the Nation

in which you live and the world which you inhabit becomes a lot

easier.

And so I wonder if you might comment on what has happened

here. I guess a lot of it has to due with budgets and so forth, but

why isn’t there more of an effort to begin civics and history at a

very young age. Why do we only talk about history in high school?

I do not think you can begin early enough talking about the notion

of civics. There is only one textbook on Connecticut history. Unfortunately, the gentleman who wrote it has passed away. It is very

hard to get a copy of his books. But I use it as a reference all the

time because it has wonderful facts and information about the 169

cities and towns that Mr. Berg and Mr. Sullivan and I live in in

the State. But when this gentleman died, that is where it ends.

There is a gap now of about 30 years. In fact, if anyone is listening

to me, it would be a nice project to pick up the next 30 years to

add on to that wonderful history of Connecticut that is already in

textbook form.

I wonder if you might just comment on the notion of beginning

earlier with the notion of civics and what has happened to States

that so many have dropped the notion of learning about the State

in which one lives as a beginner to understanding the larger civics

questions.

Ms. RAVITCH. Yes, Senator Dodd, in most States, State history

became conventional in the 4th grade, and it just was always

taught in 4th grade. When I was growing up in Texas, it was always taught in 7th grade. But most States do teach State history

at some point. And I think that if the State of Connecticut required

State history, you would find someone who would quickly prepare

at least one textbook, if not more, to meet that requirement.

When you talk about kids learning in terms of expanding their

environments, there has actually been over the past, I do not know,

50 years this idea that little kids cannot really deal with any history. And so they spend 1st grade learning about myself, and 2nd

grade is my neighborhood and community, and 3rd grade is my

town. And so by the time they get to 4th grade, they can learn

about my State.

This is actually a very bad idea. It is right for your 18-monthold, but for little kids, especially in the 2nd and 3rd and 4th grade,

they are very capable of learning about biography. They love great

stories of heroes. And it used to be that all over the country, in

America, kids learned about Nathan Hale; they learned about

George Washington; they learned about, you know, the great men

and women of our republic and even of other cultures. And all that

got tossed out for my neighborhood and the community helpers,

which turned out to be such a dreary thing that surveys showed

that kids were not doing any social studies at all in the early

grades because the teachers thought it was boring. And you would

get a textbook telling you about somebody else’s community and

someone else having a birthday party and somebody else going grocery shopping. Well, kids don’t need to read in a textbook about

grocery shopping when they could be reading about Nathan Hale.

43

So I think that some States have been trying to turn that around

and realize that you can actually introduce little kids to heroes.

They like it a lot.

Senator DODD. How many States do that? How many States really require it today?

Ms. RAVITCH. Well, about half the States now have history standards, and that is a big change. Ten years ago, there were only four

States that had history standards, and it was Virginia, Connecticut, Texas, and Massachusetts, literally the only four in the country. The rest all had social studies standards. Now, including Connecticut, today it is about half the States actually have history

standards, but most of them still have this antiquated idea that little kids cannot deal with anything like history or civics. But, in

fact, the thing about little kids—and it is really up until the time

kids are teenagers. Kids have this tremendous sense of fairness.

And you will hear them say, when your 18-month-old starts to talk,

‘‘That’s not fair.’’ They know what is—— Senator DODD. She is talking.

Ms. RAVITCH. Then she is already beginning to know what is fair.

Kids know about fairness, and that is the basis for teaching them

civic education, what is fair.

Senator DODD. Well, good. That is very helpful. I live, by the

way—you mentioned Nathan Hale. I live in the town of East

Haddam, CT, where he taught. In fact, down the street from me

is the Nathan Hale Schoolhouse. In fact, when that schoolhouse,

that one-room schoolhouse became to small in about 1854, they

built a little two-room schoolhouse down the street, which was the

schoolhouse in that part of town because there were seven districts.

Obviously, in a small town, there are not a lot of schools. It was

the schoolhouse from 1854 until 1948. And that schoolhouse is my

home today. I have lived in it for 22 years, converted it into a

home, and it is just the wonderful vibrations of being in the successor schoolhouse to Nathan Hale’s.

Ms. RAVITCH. Well, I might not normally have mentioned Nathan

Hale but for the fact that Senator Byrd spoke about Nathan Hale

this morning in some detail, and it was very interesting.

Senator ALEXANDER. I hope you don’t come to the same end he

did.

Senator DODD. Well, if I could on behalf of my country, it would

be a wonderful ending. [Laughter.]

Senator ALEXANDER. Senator, do you have any other——

Senator DODD. No. Just when we finish here, I will introduce Mr.

Berg. I do not know how you want to proceed, Mr. Chairman.

Senator ALEXANDER. Well, let me thank Dr. Ravitch for coming

because she is going back to New York to teach a class.

Ms. RAVITCH. In history.

Senator ALEXANDER. In history.

Ms. RAVITCH. Thank you.

Senator ALEXANDER. So thank you very much for making a special trip for this. We appreciate it very much.

[The prepared statement of Ms. Ravitch may be found in additional material.]

Senator ALEXANDER. Senator Dodd, would you introduce Mr.

Berg?

44

Senator DODD. Just very quickly, Mr. Chairman, you have been

very gracious again. Russell Berg is a student at Trumbull High

School, and we welcome you here, Russell. It is good to have you

come down.

He is a member of Trumbull’s civics education team, which for

the fourth straight year, Mr. Chairman, will be competing in the

national finals of the ‘‘We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution’’ program here in Washington. With that kind of a record,

I might say that Trumbull High School is to civics education in

Connecticut what the women’s basketball team at Uconn—with all

due respect—look at the sad face now on the Tennessean over here

is to basketball in Connecticut. I had to bring that up. I apologize.

We are very proud obviously of the women’s basketball team, but

we don’t give enough recognition, with all due respect to champions

in education. And so we want this to be a moment, Russell, while

you may not be getting the attention that Diana Taurasi is right

now, to think of yourself as sort of in the same league, considering

how well you have done and how well Trumbull High School has

done over the years in this ‘‘We the People: The Citizen and Constitution’’ issue. He has been named, by the way, Mr. Chairman,

as an AP scholar with honors, a National Merit Scholarship finalist, and a Presidential Scholar semifinalist.

Peter Sullivan, who is with him, is Russell’s civics teacher and

last year’s Trumbull High School Teacher of the Year. Russell’s testimony speaks very highly of Mr. Sullivan, and I am sure that he

deserves all of the praise and more that he will be getting as someone who has worked so hard on this program that Trumbull High

has competed in.

So we are honored that you are here, Russell, and, Mr. Sullivan,

we thank you for coming down, and I thank you, Mr. Chairman,

for inviting them to be a part of this.

Senator ALEXANDER. Russell, Mr. Sullivan, thank you very much

for coming. We look forward to your comments.

STATEMENTS OF RUSSELL BERG, STUDENT, TRUMBULL HIGH

SCHOOL, TRUMBULL, CT; ACCOMPANIED BY PETER SULLIVAN, HISTORY TEACHER, TRUMBULL HIGH SCHOOL, TRUMBULL CT; AND BLANCHE DEADERICK, HISTORY TEACHER,

MEMPHIS, TN

Mr. BERG. Thank you. Good morning. I would first like to say

what an honor, what a humbling experience it is to be on the same

panel with such distinguished historians, doctors, experts in the

field of civic education. It really is a pleasure to be here.

Mr. Chairman, it is an honor to testify before this committee on

this most important issue of civic education. By promoting civic

education in schools, you and the cosponsors of this legislation, including our Senator Christopher Dodd, have proven that education

is not something to be sidelined in the face of pressing current

issues. Your actions have shown us that education is a pressing

current issue.

Unfortunately, to many Americans, our Government may seem

intimidating and difficult to understand. Civic education is the key

to comprehending, appreciating, and eventually participating in our

democratic process. The ‘‘We the People: The Citizen and the ConVerDate 11-MAY-2000 09:27 Sep 26, 2003 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00048 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 S:\DOCS\86582 SLABOR3 PsN: SLABOR3
45

stitution’’ program, which is administered by the Center for Civic

Education and funded by the United States Department of Education by an act of Congress, takes the logical approach to understanding our American Government, by tracing its manifestations

to their source, the Constitution.

Our Constitution provides Government with powers and limitations, to ensure congruence with the Founders’ greatest hopes of a

benevolent government ruling under popular consent. To many

Americans, the Constitution is a revered document, written on

browned parchment with faded ink. But to my class, the Constitution is a living gold mine of philosophical, political, and social history.

Our State champion Trumbull, CT, ‘‘We the People’’ class is led

by the knowledgeable and charismatic Mr. Peter Sullivan. The

most incredible achievement that our class has made, and that Mr.

Sullivan has in no small part facilitated, is the critical mass of constitutional knowledge we have learned. My favorite moments in

education occur when concepts and new information can be integrated into an overall framework of the issue at hand. A beautiful

symphony of debate and exchange miraculously manifests every

morning in our class. Mr. Sullivan might bring up an issue currently in the U.S. Supreme Court docket, or ask the class for any

news they might have heard the night before. An opinion is expressed by a student, a rebuttal by another. A particularly progressive member of the class might apply the issue to its broader social

ramifications. A more critical member of the class would then appeal to our logic and the realistic implications of the Court’s decisions.

Here, in a brew of free, creative thought, coupled with the solid

foundation of constitutional knowledge on which to anchor our arguments, lies true learning. Not learning without any application

to ourselves, but knowledge that sheds light and understanding

upon a Government that is involved in so many issues concerning

our daily lives.

‘‘We the People’’ was a class I signed up for at the end of my junior year, with great expectations in mind. I had heard from many

older students that the class was more than a class. It was hard

work, to be sure, but the rewards extended beyond grades and test

scores.

In 2 weeks, our team will be competing in the National Finals

for the ‘‘We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution’’ program.

Throughout the year, a common goal has driven our class together,

and together forward. I have seen miraculous things this past year.

I have seen quiet, reserved students emerge, citing complex Court

cases with confidence and vigor in our daily debates. Students who

many dreaded would succumb to the great demands of the program

have only flourished to become our leaders and exemplars. Simply

put, well-designed programs in civics, such as ‘‘We the People,’’

taught by teachers like Mr. Sullivan, make a difference in the

classroom.

Surely, such changes in our young people can only be for the better. A civic education, as buttressed by the ‘‘We the People’’ program, does not merely press rote facts into receptive minds. It challenges us to use this information as support for our own arguments

46

and opinions. Undoubtedly, everyone in our class has learned more

than they bargained for about the United States Government and

her Constitution. But the benefits of this civic education extend beyond learning. This program has allowed us to become involved in

the Government that we spend so much time studying.

The Constitution is associated with words which reflect the importance of the American citizen, such as ‘‘popular sovereignty,’’

‘‘consensus,’’ and ‘‘majority.’’ It is clear who was intended to captain

the ship of America: her people. Our Nation is designed to be accessible, to its citizens and to incoming immigrants, to anyone who

has ambition and a dream. For me, this lesson has only been confirmed by my experiences this year. ‘‘We the People’’ is not merely

a mental exercise or a contest of effort and knowledge. By learning

about the Government, one automatically becomes involved in it. I

am here today, in front of the Nation’s leaders, speaking with a

message I hope to convey. I have learned in class that we are

blessed with a participatory Government. Today it has been proven

to me.

The importance of developing these fundamental principles and

values among my generation and future generations was noted by

Judge Learned Hand in an article on liberty, published in the Yale

Alumni Magazine on June 6, 1941. He said, ‘‘I often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon constitutions, upon

laws, and upon courts. These are false hopes; believe me, these are

false hopes. Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women, when it

dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it; no constitution, no court, no law can even do much to help it. While it

lies there it needs no constitution, no law, no court to save it...’’

Mr. Chairman, I thank the committee for giving me this opportunity to testify today.

Senator ALEXANDER. Thank you, Russell, and thank you, Mr.

Sullivan.

[The prepared statement of Mr. Berg may be found in additional

material.]

Senator ALEXANDER. I wonder, Senator Dodd, if we could go now,

having heard from the student, if we go to the teacher, and then

ask both of them questions if we have time.

Senator DODD. Sure, absolutely.

Senator ALEXANDER. Blanche Deaderick is from Memphis, TN.

She teaches at Germantown High School in Memphis. She is a history teacher, and the reason that I invited her today is because

since 1987 she has been the academic director of the Governor’s

School for International Studies at the University of Memphis.

That was one of Tennessee’s Governor’s Schools that began in 1984

which would attract several hundred high school students to spend

a month on one of our university campuses in a particular core academic subject. At the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, it was the

sciences. At Middle Tennessee State University, it was the arts. It

was humanities at UT-Martin. And it was international studies in

Memphis.

We have had a lot of talk today about the need for a congressional academy for students of American history and civics, an opportunity for students in the summer to go for a month, perhaps,

47

to some educational institution and be inspired by the ideas and

the events and the persons who formed our democracy.

Blanche, what I would like to talk with you especially about

today is the practicality of making that happen. How useful has a

Governor’s School been, even though this is in a different subject?

How much did it cost to make it work? Where was it held? How

was it put together? Those kind of practical things, so as the National Endowment for the Humanities goes about taking applications for these schools in American history and civics, well, they

will know more about it.

And may I say, while we have Mr. Sullivan here and Ms.

Deaderick here, the competition is wide open. There will be, if this

legislation is approved this year—which I think it will be—an opportunity in 12 places in the country to have a Presidential academy for teachers of American history and civics and a congressional

academy for students of American history and civics. So it would

not hurt my feelings and I doubt if it would hurt Senator Dodd’s

feelings if the first two were in Connecticut and Tennessee.

So, Blanche Deaderick, welcome. And may I also, as I did earlier,

welcome Kate Gooch from Memphis, who was really the pioneer

who started the Governor’s School for International Studies at the

University of Memphis and the director of it for many years.

Ms. DEADERICK. Thank you, Senator Alexander, Senator Dodd. I

am so glad to be here today supporting your legislation. I think enhancing instruction in these areas is critical right now. We have to

provide remedies for all the problems that have been addressed

today, and we have to provide them not only for people who have

lived here and their families here for generations, but also for the

students or people who have come here, having made conscious

choices to come to this country and be here so that obviously they

want to know what are the factors that really unify us.

I know what you want me to do is explain how the International

Studies Governor’s School can be a model for these academies, and

I just wanted to thank you for establishing the Governor’s Schools,

and particularly the International Studies School, because it has

been a transforming experience for me in my own life.

Like what is proposed in this legislation, we have a director and

core faculty chosen for their subject expertise and for their teaching

skills, and because international studies is such a broad field, what

we do is divide our students into teams focusing on different areas,

and then the expectation is that they will interact and share the

knowledge. This sounds a little problematic in light of what Dr.

Ravitch said about how things need to be chronological and what

we do is not chronological, but I think it works very well.

This year, we are going to be studying—in the four teams, we are

going to study Latin America, and they will study the Portuguese

language. Our goal is to study nontraditional languages or at least

languages that are not routinely taught in the schools. We have a

team studying Sub-Saharan Africa and Hausa language; East Asia

and Chinese language, and Eastern Europe and Russia along with

the Russian language.

Additionally, every day all students address issues of major significance in the world, and so, you know, they spend 2 hours in

classes studying language and area studies, and then they come toVerDate 11-MAY-2000 09:27 Sep 26, 2003 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00051 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 S:\DOCS\86582 SLABOR3 PsN: SLABOR3
48

gether, all—this summer we are going to have slightly under 100.

The school was designed originally for 150, but with the money the

way it is, we have the same budget that we had in 1986, and so

what we do is cut the number of students yearly. And so I hope

that nobody tries to cut your budget. I worked on your figures, and

I decided it may be just possible.

But, anyway, this summer we are going to have a strong focus

on the Middle East, on environmental issues, on human rights, just

to name a few of the major subjects that people will deal with. And

then the students go to an issue analysis class where they examine

things like foreign policy decision making or democracy and the

conditions necessary for its survival. Yesterday morning, I was

watching C-SPAN and I saw Senator DeWine on the Senate floor

talking about his clean diamond bill. And I do not know if you all

had an opportunity to hear that, but it was so interesting and it

is just that kind of issue that we try to deal with at Governor’s

School, and I thought, well, that is a perfect example of something

that is the kind of dilemma that we could look at in a case study,

and it would pull together issues of human rights and foreign policy and international economics, looking at something that students would find fascinating, the ideas of the kinds of terrorism

and terrorist activities that are financed by that blood diamond

trade that the people in Sierra Leone, the revolutionary forces in

Sierra Leone have. That is an example of the kind of thing that we

deal with.

We also make a very strong effort to infuse the arts into our curriculum because we see that as a powerful statement of what culture is like.

As far as computers—I have added some stuff to this in addressing what other people have said—we do use some computer technology in the Governor’s School, and one of the ways that we did

that the last time—I don’t know if you—I guess you do know that

the Governor’s School didn’t—we didn’t have Governor’s Schools

last summer because they were cut for budget reasons. We will

have them again this summer. But we dealt with one issue on hormone-treated beef and another on coffee production where students

had to go into the Web and find out everything there was to find—

well, not everything, but much of what there was to find out about

those issues, and then develop projects and PowerPoint things that

tied into the Web. So that is a powerful way to do that. And in our

school, we have that kind of facility as well.

This is obviously a very, very intense program, and there is not

very much free time. When there is, the students will talk to each

other and sometimes get a little chance to sleep, not very much,

but you have to be so careful, I think, to select students who really

care about what they are doing, so the admissions process is an important thing to consider.

The student academies in American history I thought could be

developed along these same lines. There are so many ways to individualize instruction. I mean, students might concentrate on specific periods of history, but they also might look at something like

the development of immigration law or civil rights growth. You

spoke of the principles of American citizenship like liberty and the

rule of law, individualism, separation of church and State. And

49

those could be issues, the different groups in the American history

schools and civics school concentrated on. Each could be an area of

study.

I am just suggesting, and I think it would be very, very stimulating to design one of these schools. But what we have to do is make

sure that the instruction is unique, individualized, and unpredictable.

At the Tennessee Governor’s School, our goal has been to provide

experiences that would not ordinarily be found in schools. And to

that end, we encourage the faculty to live in the dorms with the

students and interact with them as much as possible. There is

never a day when the students aren’t around asking questions, engaging in debates among themselves and with faculty. Then they

go back to their schools exhilarated, ready to share all the newfound knowledge.

The same scenario applies to the teachers’ academies, and I

heard all the obstacles that have been raised about this issue, but

the obstacle that I personally think is the most powerful one is how

much teachers have to do in a day. You know, when you are involved in mastering all the newest computer programs for attendance or teaching your subject—in addition to teaching your subject,

but guiding the students, teaching manners and ethics, all your paperwork, lesson line, curriculum maps, there are all these things

that have to be done so that there is not really very much time left.

And the thing that suffers is preparation in the subject. Teachers

don’t have any time to read and keep up to date, and so that what

I see these academies doing is providing them with the time to be

involved in scholarly pursuits, developing lessons that are rich in

content and depth, and then these lessons are going to be ready to

teach. You know, when they go back to school, this will even help

with the textbook problems, because, you know, they will go back

with lessons that are just there that they can then use to train

other teachers with. You know, I can’t imagine anything better

than spending these weeks in this kind of environment. I think it

would be wonderful, and all the teachers will come home with, you

know, knowledge, they will be rested, they will be ready to inspire

the students and the rest of the faculty.

As for Governor’s School, again and again I encounter students

who have attended Governor’s School in the past, and I hear how

their lives have been transformed by the experiences in our classrooms and in their late-night discussions. And, you know, when we

see where those students are now—they are in the Foreign Service,

they are in State Government, they are in teaching, they are in all

kinds of leadership positions. And I know probably a lot of them

are in your offices or will be soon. And many, many say that Governor’s School was the single shaping event in their lives. And

what you can do with this legislation is make the same kind of lifechanging experiences for more teachers and more students.

Thank you.

[The prepared statement of Ms. Deaderick may be found in additional material.]

Senator ALEXANDER. Thank you, Ms. Deaderick. We will bring

the hearing to a close in just a moment, but I have got a short

50

question of each of the witnesses, and Senator Dodd may have a

question or two himself.

What is the optimum number of students and what is the optimum number of weeks for such a school? If money weren’t a problem what would—— Ms. DEADERICK. If money weren’t a problem, for students I think

the 4-week model that we have is really ideal. What seems to happen is that when it starts, the first 2 or 3 days seem to go on for

a long time. And then all of a sudden, you know, you are at the

end of the 4 weeks, and the students say, ‘‘Oh, please don’t make

me go home. I just want to stay here for the rest of my life.’’ And,

of course, they don’t. But, you know, that is the way they feel at

that time. I think if we kept them longer, it might not work that

well.

I think the optimum number of students is—we were funded

originally for 150, and I do not think that is an optimum number.

I think maybe 125 at least within the facility that we have would

be a better number. But the thing that is particularly important is

how much faculty do you have to deal with them, and I think your

optimum number has to do with faculty-student ratio. We try to

have three faculty for 20 to 25 students.

Senator ALEXANDER. I think the Governor’s School in Knoxville

in sciences may have had 400 students.

Ms. DEADERICK. Yes, they did, and I did not have that opportunity, and I am only responding to what our system was like.

Senator ALEXANDER. But if you had enough faculty, you could design a larger school.

Ms. DEADERICK. Yes.

Senator ALEXANDER. And would you think that for a teacher 2

weeks is about right, that more than that would not likely fit into

a teacher’s——

Ms. DEADERICK. Yes. Yes, I think——

Senator ALEXANDER. Four weeks would be hard for a teacher,

wouldn’t it?

Ms. DEADERICK. Yes, it would.

Senator ALEXANDER. Given other responsibilities. And what is

the budget for your school? Do you know?

Ms. DEADERICK. Ours is around $240,000, and I did some figures

that I—— Senator ALEXANDER. Does that count what the university contributes?

Ms. DEADERICK. No, it does not.

Senator ALEXANDER. So this is cash from the State.

Ms. DEADERICK. This is cash from the State, and what the university contributes is classroom space and utility bills, you know,

the machines that we have to use, all those kinds of things. They

give us the dormitory—no, well, we pay for it. The biggest portion

of our budget goes for food and lodging. Every year that goes up,

and I think we have about $2,500 per student to spend this year,

and looking at your figures, it looked like $3,800 per student. I

don’t know if I did my math correctly or not, but that would be

good. That would maybe be equivalent to what we had when we

started. When we started the school, we could do a whole lot more

than we are able to do now. We have had to cut our faculty.

51

Senator ALEXANDER. And how many applications did you have

the year before last for your spots?

Ms. DEADERICK. For the student spots?

Senator ALEXANDER. Yes.

Ms. DEADERICK. I think that we had—the year before last, I

think we had about 400-plus applications, and this year we had

325 for what has come to be about 92 spots.

Senator ALEXANDER. Mr. Berg, if there were in Connecticut a 4-

week congressional academy for outstanding students of American

history and civics, would you be interested in going? And if you

were, what would your advice be to the managers of the school

about what you would like to find there?

Mr. BERG. Of course, I would be interested. That would be an incredible opportunity if such a school opened up in Connecticut, or

even regionally; it would still be accessible to a lot of motivated

students with the support of their schools.

I think some issues that would need to be worked our probably

on a school-by-school basis to make these Governor’s Schools work

would be to accommodate students’ other interests, maybe scheduling conflicts with other classes they have. I do not know if high

school students have 4 months of their year to devote——

Senator ALEXANDER. It would be 4 weeks.

Mr. BERG. Four weeks.

Senator ALEXANDER. It would be a summertime—— Mr. BERG. Excuse me.

Senator ALEXANDER. No, that is all right.

Mr. BERG. Then summertime would be—that would be perfect.

That would be great.

What I would like to see there, if it were to be held on a university campus, I think that would include most of the facilities that

students would appreciate, access to computers. With our ‘‘We the

People’’ program, computers and the Internet are our greatest resource, along with guidance from expert faculty, etc.

I think it would be an excellent and positive addition to the education of any student in their career.

Senator ALEXANDER. Senator Dodd?

Senator DODD. Well, again, thank you all for your testimony.

And we thank you, Mr. Sullivan, for being here as well. You were

at Georgetown. Were you in the college or the Foreign Service

School?

Mr. Sullivan. College.

Senator DODD. So you did not have my brother as a professor.

Mr. Sullivan. I did not.

Senator DODD. You know, I am listening to you talking about

this, and obviously it is a wonderful concept. Just sharing

anecdotally with you, as I mentioned earlier, having gone to visit

my schools in Connecticut and talking to students, there is a clear

distinction, obviously, when I go to some schools in more affluent

communities and so forth in my State in terms of the dialogue, the

questions, the interchange. And when I go to some of the areas in

my State, particularly in the urban areas—you go to Bridgeport,

which is very near Trumbull. What does it take, about 15 minutes

maybe, to go from Trumbull High to Bassick or Central High

School?

52

Mr. Sullivan. If that.

Senator DODD. If that. Maybe 10 minutes away. And, Mr. Chairman, the disparity and difference between these two schools that

are 10 minutes apart from each other in the most affluent State

in the country on a per capita income basis, in the most affluent

Nation on the face of the earth, is startling. Like many urban

schools, because of a lack of resources—the last time I was at

Bassick or Central, I think there were maybe five or six computers

in the entire school. I think there are police officers on every floor.

The buildings are in tough shape, to put it mildly. There is not

much of an athletic complex or facilities and so forth. You meet

some remarkable students and remarkable teachers there, but students growing up 10 minutes apart from each other, through no

fault of their own, are getting a very different educational opportunity. As many as 38 percent of the teachers at Bassick or Central

are not certified to teach the course they are teaching. I suspect at

Trumbull High School it is probably, what, 1 percent or 2 percent

may be not certified to teach the courses they are teaching.

I want to make sure that we do this while we are talking about

students that have the wonderful advantages to promote these

ideas, that we make a real effort somehow as well to reach out to

those students in schools that may have an appetite and desire but

for a variety of other reasons, maybe resources, don’t have available to them the same kind of a program that exists at Trumbull

as a result of Mr. Sullivan’s incredible work, the taxpayers of

Trumbull who care about it, to their great credit, who have decided

this is a priority for them. And I don’t want to in any way suggest

that because what Trumbull has done that somehow they ought to

feel in any way guilty because the next town over, for all the reasons that I have mentioned, and many, many more, are incapable

of it.

But I would like to see us be able to do more, and my question

really to you goes beyond this particular proposal, which I think is

an excellent one and I am a cosponsor of it. What can we do, Ms.

Deaderick, in your mind or, Mr. Sullivan, in your mind, as teachers? I have a harder time in urban settings when I start talking

about what I do as a Senator. And sometimes the only way I can

get it going is to get very provocative. I will say something absolutely outrageous, if nothing else except to try and at least promote

some debate, someone to start up and just disagree with me. And

I do it intentionally, and then things can get going. But it is much

harder for me, I find, than it is at a Trumbull or a Ridgefield High

or West Hartford at Hall or Connard, other schools where kids

come prepared, fired up with questions. Some of the best questions

I ever get—I was at a middle school, at Pulaski Middle School last

week in New Britain, CT. Mr. Chairman, 60 students in the class,

25 or 30 of them came from different countries as immigrant children, and about three or four or five of them came from Muslim

countries, were dressed in the clothing of Muslims. My State is so

diverse in its population and interest. But the questions were fabulous. I mean, I don’t think I have had as many good questions,

most of all on the Persian Gulf and Iraq, than I have received from,

with all due respect to my colleagues who cover me here, our

friends from the media. They were wonderful questions. And yet I

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know if I go into another area, I am lucky to get any questions at

all. I really have to fight hard.

Why are we not doing as well in promoting civics and an appreciation of American history in these areas? And what would you

recommend, could be done at a State or local level? I don’t suggest

that all the answers reside here at all, but we can be educators in

the sense by providing a forum for you to share your thoughts. So

what ideas do you have about how we could do a better job of promoting education, educational interest in these subject matters in

some of our harder-hit schools—schools that are suffering more

from some of the items that I have just mentioned like a lack of

resources? Any ideas, Ms. Deaderick, on that?

Ms. DEADERICK. Well, I think that, you know, what was said earlier about the teachers being excited about what they are teaching—if teachers seem really to care about what they are teaching,

then the students embrace that and are really ready to learn so

much more. And I think that one way that these academies that

we are talking about right here could help with that is by making

sure to reach into the areas that you are describing where people

have more problems with resources.

One of the things that we have done in Tennessee is made certain that we select people from as many counties as possible

through the State as we can. And, you know, some of our counties

are affluent and some of them are very poor. And so that tends to

then spread the wealth of the information around. And you could

do the same thing with the selection of the teachers to these programs, and the students to the programs as well. But if you make

sure to select teachers who come from the disadvantaged areas,

then that will be a help. And, of course, if there were money to put

teachers into these programs, so many of which have been described today, some of them are free, but many of them are ones

that teachers have to pay for. And if there were money to pay the

fees for those schools, then that would help as well.

I think that requiring people to be certified in the area they are

teaching, I think that, you know, if I am teaching history, I think

I need to have a degree in history. And I think if we can do that,

that would make a tremendous difference.

Senator DODD. I guess you know this, Mr. Chairman, in our bill

we have the academy for students. Do we have a commensurate

academy for teachers?

Ms. DEADERICK. Yes.

Senator DODD. Mr. Sullivan?

Mr. Sullivan. Ours is a participatory Government, and I think

that our civics education must be participatory as well. And I think

that is one of the greatest strengths of programs like the ‘‘We the

People’’ program. Russell has been preparing all year for a competition which takes the form of a mock congressional committee hearing and has familiarized himself with that format, never realizing

that he would have this opportunity today to do the real thing. But

the fact is, you know, he came to me as a student at the beginning

of the year probably who had a curiosity about Government, but

being exposed to it in a unique way, it has become a great love of

his. So if there is a way make civics education more participatory,

then it should be pursued.

54

‘‘We the People’’ in my own State, I would love it if more schools

did it on the one hand. That would make for more competition

every year at our State finals. But, you know, the larger goal is

more important.

There are other similar programs offered at our school such as

a mock trial program, which, again, allows students to learn, you

know, the process of a trial and actually learn by doing. So whether

it be through clearly established programs like a mock trial or ‘‘We

the People,’’ that is one thing. Or certainly in the classroom, teachers should be trained in, you know, calling upon other means to do

the same thing, even if it is not sponsored as part of an official program. So that would be my strongest recommendation.

Senator DODD. Those are good ideas and suggestions. I don’t

know if I mentioned to you, visiting schools, Mr. Chairman, is

something that I have found—I used to do town hall meetings, but

I found out that at those sometimes I ended up being a referee.

Senator ALEXANDER. That is right. [Laughter.]

Senator DODD. I had one guy one time—the last one was about

15 years ago, and some guy showed up dressed as Abraham Lincoln, and another guy showed up—not dressed up, but he was a

member of the World Federalist. And they got into a fist fight, and

I ended up breaking it up. And that was the picture on the front

page of the paper the next day, not what I had to say or anybody

else. I decided that was enough.

So I started doing schools as a way of getting out and listening

to people, and I found particularly high schools, juniors and seniors, middle schools—and we tried to mix it up a little bit. But the

value I think it has is—I don’t come unannounced, and so the

schools are going to get ready because the Senator is going to come.

And so there is some discussion about what students ought to ask.

I suspect that some of the students go home and tell their parents

the Senator is going to come, what do you think I ought to ask?

And I think that may generate a little conversation at home about

what a Senator is and what I do.

Then while you are there, it has a value, and I think after you

leave, there is usually discussion about what I had to say. So it has

this kind of ripple effect beyond just this site visit. It has its own,

I think, value. That is why I encourage my colleagues to do more

of it so that people can hear us answer questions or say we don’t

know, we will have to find the answer out for you. There is a value

in that as well.

But I would encourage anything that could be done to really

reach into these communities as well, Mr. Sullivan. I don’t know

how you could—you have done so well at this. We ought to think

back home on how we might get you around to go maybe visit some

of these schools and talk about the program and how it works and

how people can participate so that we can see greater participation

in this civics exercise. Maybe you and I ought to talk about that

and how we could maybe achieve that. Maybe I will take you with

me to some of these urban schools and get you a chance to get up

and talk to people about participating next year or the year after

in the program.

55

Mr. Sullivan. I would welcome that opportunity. I am a firm believer in this program and would love to share its merits with other

schools.

Senator ALEXANDER. Well, I have a suggestion, Senator Dodd.

Mr. Sullivan could—we can get this bill passed. Mr. Sullivan can

work with Russell and his other students and his fellow teachers,

and he can put in an application to the National Endowment for

the Humanities, and he can create a Presidential academy for

teachers or a congressional academy for students and be the director of it. And in that way, he might invite teachers from those

schools. I mean, it could be aimed at schools that have fewer resources and a greater need. That is certainly a rationale for a

school. I mean, we are looking for many different ideas, and as I

mentioned earlier, I hope that—I see no reason why the University

of Memphis with its years of experience in operating a successful

Governor’s School couldn’t be a potential applicant for a Presidential academy or a congressional academy for American history.

Ms. DEADERICK. We want you to come down to the Governor’s

School this summer and, you know, be a representative and show

them that you are the person who made this Governor’s School

happen.

Senator ALEXANDER. I am likely to do it, Blanche.

I thank you. We have gotten to noon, and I think unless the Senator has other questions, let me thank you, Ms. Deaderick, Russell,

Mr. Sullivan, let me thank you for coming. You have really helped

us a great deal. We have had quite a—Senator Dodd, we started

with David McCullough at 9:00 a.m., and we had the heads of the

National Endowment for Humanities, the Library of Congress, and

the Under Secretary of Education. We had Diane Ravitch, a distinguished historian of American history, and we have had a teacher,

an outstanding teacher, and an outstanding student. So we are off

to a good start. We have 19 cosponsors, including the Democratic

Whip, Senator Reid, who asked me to incorporate his statement

into the record, which I will do.

[The prepared statement of Senator Reid follows:]

PREPARED STATEMENT OF SENATOR REID

The education of America’s children must be one. of our top priorities. These children are our future, and we need to give them

the tools to be Great leaders of that future. Our schools have several important responsibilities to achieve that end, including providing students with the foundation to pursue higher education,

helping them develop their individual potential and preparing them

for successful careers.

America has been a nation of immigrants for hundreds of rears.

And our schools have helped instill in our diverse population a

sense of what it means to be an American and have prepared our

youth for the responsibilities of citizenship. We need to reaffirm the

importance of learning American history and maintaining civic understanding.

As I work to make sure that all schoolchildren, and especially

those in Nevada, are connected to the Internet and to the future,

I also want them to be connected to America’s past and to know

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the common values and history that bind together all who live in

our great nation.

Senator ALEXANDER. The bill is introduced in the House of Representatives by Roger Wicker and others, exactly the same bill, and

so we hope it is enacted and we hope we can play a role in taking

all the various programs, nearly a dozen of them throughout the

Federal Government that focus on putting the teaching of American history and civics back in its rightful place in our curriculum

so our children can grow up learning what it means to be an American.

I would like to also place into the record the testimony of the National Conference on Citizenship, Philip Duncan, the executive director.

[The prepared statement of Mr. Duncan may be found in additional material.]

Senator ALEXANDER. I would like to add my maiden speech on

the subject, which I made a few weeks ago when I introduced the

bill.

[The prepared speech follows:]

PREPARED REMARKS OF SENATOR ALEXANDER ON THE INTRODUCTION OF HIS BILL:

THE AMERICAN HISTORY AND CIVICS EDUCATION ACT—MARCH 4, 2003

Mr. President, from the Senate’s earliest days, new members have observed a ritual of remaining, silent during floor debates for a period of time that ranged from

several weeks to two years. By waiting a respectful amount of time before giving

their so-called ‘‘maiden speeches,’’ freshman senators hoped their senior colleagues

would respect them for their humility.

This information comes from the Senate historian, Richard Baker, who told me

that in 1906, the former Governor of Wisconsin, Robert LaFollette arrived here

‘‘anything but humble.’’ He waited just three months, a brief period by the standards of those days, before launching his first major address. He spoke for eight

hours over three days: his remarks in the Congressional Record consumed 148

pages. As he began to speak, most of the senators present in the chamber pointedly

rose from their desks and departed. LaFollette’s wife, observing from the gallery,

wrote, ‘‘There was no mistaking that this was a polite form of hazing.’’

From our first day here, the new members of this 108th Congress have been encouraged to speak up, and most of us have. But, with the encouragement of the majority leader, several of its intend also to revive the tradition of the maiden address

by making a signature speech on an issue that is important both to the country and

to each of us. I Want to thank my colleagues who are here and assure them that

I will not speak for three days—as former Governor LaFollette did.

Mr. President, I rise to address the intersection of two urgent concerns that will

determine our country’s future. These are also the two topics about which I care the

most: the education of our children and the principles that unite us as Americans.

It is time that we put the teaching of American history and civics back in its

rightful place in our schools so our children can grow up learning what it means

to be an American.

Especially during such serious times when our values and way of life are being

attacked, we must understand clearly just what those values are.

In this, most Americans would agree. For example, in Thanksgiving remarks in

2001, President Bush praised our nation’s response to September 11. ‘‘I call it,’’ he

said, ‘‘the American character.’’ Speaking at Harvard at about the same time, former

Vice-President Al Gore said, ‘‘We should [fight] for the values that bind us together

as a country.’’

Both men were invoking a creed of ideas and values in which most Americans believe. ‘‘It has been our fate as a nation,’’ the historian Richard Hofstadter wrote,

‘‘not to have ideologies but to be one.’’ This value based identity has inspired both

patriotism and division at home, both emulation and hatred abroad. For terrorists,

as well as for those who admire America, at issue is the United States itself—not

what we do, but who we are.

Yet our children do not know what makes America exceptional. National exams

show that three-quarters of the nation’s 4th, 8th and 12th graders are not proficient

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in civics knowledge and one-third does not even have basic knowledge, making them

‘‘civic illiterates.’’

Children are not learning about American history and civics because they are not

being taught it. American history has been watered down and civics is too often

dropped from the curriculum entirely.

Until the 1960s, civics education, which teaches the duties of citizenship, was a

regular part of the high school curriculum. Today’s college graduates probably have

less civics knowledge than high school graduates of 50 years ago. Reforms in the

’60s and ’70s resulted in the widespread elimination of required classes and curriculum in civics education. Today, more than half the states have no requirement for

students to take a course—even for one semester—in American government.

To help put the teaching of American history and civics in its rightful place. I introduce legislation today to create Presidential Academies for Teachers of American

History and Civics and Congressional Academies for Students of American History—and Civics. These residential academies would operate for two weeks (in the

case of teachers) and four weeks (for students) during the summer.

Their purpose would be to inspire better teaching and more learning of the key

events, persons and ideas that shape the institutions and democratic heritage of the

United States.

I have had some experience with such residential summer academies, when I

served as Governor of Tennessee. In 1984, Tennessee began creating Governor’s

schools for students and teachers. For example, there was the Governor’s School for

the Arts at Middle Tennessee State University and the Governor’s School of International Studies at the University of Memphis as well as the Governor’s School for

Teachers of writing at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. Eventually there

were eight Governor’s Schools helping thousands of Tennessee teachers improve

their skills and inspiring outstanding students to learn more about core curriculum

subjects. When these teachers and students returned to their schools for the next

school year, they brought with them a new enthusiasm for teaching and learning

that infected their peers. Dollar for dollar, the Governor’s Schools were one of the

most effective and popular educational initiatives in our state’s history.

States other than Tennessee have had similar success with summer residential

academies. The first Governor’s school was started in North Carolina in 1963 when

Governor Terry Sanford established it at Salem College in Winston-Salem. Upon the

establishment of the first school, several states, including Georgia, South Carolina,

Arkansas, Kentucky, and Tennessee established similar schools.

For example, in 1973 Pennsylvania established Governor’s Schools of Excellence,

which has 14 different programs of study. As in Tennessee, students participating

in the Pennsylvania Governor’s School program attend academies at 8 different colleges to study everything from international studies, to health care and teaching.

Also established in 1973, Virginia’s Governor’s School is a summer residential program for 7500 of the Commonwealth’s most gifted students. Mississippi established

its Governor’s School in 1981. The Mississippi University for Women hosts the program, which is designed to give students academic, creative, and leadership experiences. Every year West Virginia brings 80 of its most talented high school performing and visual arts students to West Liberty State College for a three-week residential program.

These are just a few of the approximately 100 Governors’ schools in 28 states—

clearly the model is a good one. The legislation I propose today applies that successful model to American history and civics education at the national level by establishing Presidential and Congressional academies for American history and civics.

Additionally, this proposed legislation authorizes the creation of a national alliance of American history and civics teachers who would be connected by the Internet. The alliance would facilitate sharing of best practices in the teaching of American history and civics. It is modeled after an alliance I helped the National Geographic Society begin during the 1980’s to put geography back into the American

school curriculum. Tennessee and the University of Tennessee were among the first

sponsors of the alliance.

My legislation creates a pilot program. Up to 12 Presidential academies for teachers and 12 Congressional Academies for students would be sponsored by educational

institutions. The National Endowment for the Humanities would award 2-year renewable grants to those institutions after applications are subjected to a peer review

process. Each grant would be subject to rigorous review after three years to determine whether the overall program should continue or expand. The legislation authorizes $25 million annually for the four year pilot program.

There is a broad basis of renewed support for and interest in American history

and civics in our country.

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As David Gordon notes in a recent issue of the Harvard Education Letter: ‘‘A 1995

surrey by the nonpartisan research organization Public Agenda showed that 84 percent of parents with school aged children said they believe that the United States

is a special country and they want schools to convey that belief to their children

by teaching about its heroes and traditions. Similar numbers identified the American ideal as including equal opportunity, individual freedom, and tolerance and respect for others. Those findings were consistent across racial and ethnic groups.’’ Our national leadership has responded to this renewed interest. In 2000, at the

initiative of my distinguished colleague Senator Byrd, Congress created grants for

schools that teach American history as a separate subject within school curricula.

We appropriated $100 Million for the Byrd Grants in the recent Omnibus appropriations bill, and rightfully so. They encourage schools and teachers to focus on the

teaching of traditional American history, and provide important financial support.

Last September, with historian David McCullough at his side, President Bush announced a new initiative to encourage better teaching of American history and

civics. He established the ‘‘We the People’’ program at the NEH, which will develop

curricula and sponsor lectures on American history and civics. He announced the

‘‘Our Documents’ project, run by the National Archives. ‘‘Our Documents’’ brings one

hundred of America’s most important documents from the National Archives to

classrooms and communities across the country. This year, he will convene a White

House forum on American history, civics, and service. There, we will discuss new

policies to improve the teaching of history and civics in elementary and secondary

schools.

My proposed legislation takes the next step by training teachers and encouraging

outstanding students. We need to foster a love of this subject and arm teachers with

the skills to impart that love to their students.

I am pleased that today one of the leading members of the House of Representatives, Roger Wicker of—Mississippi, along with a number of his colleagues, are introducing the same legislation in that House.

I want to thank Senator Gregg, Chairman of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, who has agreed that the committee will hold hearings

promptly on this legislation so that eye can determine how it might supplement and

work with recently enacted legislation and the President’s own initiative.

Mr. President, in 1988, at a meeting of educators in Rochester, the President of

Notre Dame University asked this question: ‘‘What is the rationale for the public

school?’’ There was an unexpected silence around the room until Al Shanker, the

president of the American Federation of Teachers, answered in this way: ‘‘The public school was created to teach immigrant children the three R’s and what it means

to be an American with the hope that they would then go home and teach their parents.’’ From the founding of America, we have always understood how important it is

for citizens to understand the principles that unite us as a country. Other countries

are united by, their ethnicity. If you move to Japan, you can’t become Japanese.

Americans, on the other hand, are united by a few principles in which we believe.

To become an American citizen, you subscribe to those principles. If there were no

agreement on those principles, Samuel Huntington has noted, we would be the

United Nations instead of the United States of America.

There has therefore been a continuous education process to remind Americans

just what those principles are. In his retirement at Monticello, Thomas Jefferson

would spend evenings explaining to overnight guests what he had in mind when he

helped create what we call America. By the mid-19th century it was just assumed

that most Americans knew what it meant to be an American. In his letter from the

Alamo, Col. William Barrett Travis pleaded for help simply ‘‘in the name of liberty,

patriotism and everything dear to the American character.’’

New waves of immigration in the late 19th century brought to our country a

record number of new people from other lands whose view of what it means to be

an American was indistinct—and Americans responded by teaching them. In Wisconsin, for example, the Kohler Company housed German immigrants together so

that they might be Americanized during non-working hours.

But the most important Americanizing institution, as Mr. Shanker reminded us

in Rochester in 1988, was the new common school. McGuffey’s Reader, which was

used in many classrooms, sold more than 120 million copies introducing a common

culture of literature, patriotic speeches and historical references.

The wars of the 20th century made Americans stop and think about what we were

defending. President Roosevelt made certain that those who charged the beaches of

Normandy knew they were defending for freedoms.

But after World War II, the emphasis on teaching and defining the principles that

unite its waned. Unpleasant experiences with McCarthyism in the 1950’s, discourVerDate 11-MAY-2000 09:27 Sep 26, 2003 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00062 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 S:\DOCS\86582 SLABOR3 PsN: SLABOR3
59

agement after the Vietnam War, and history books that left out or distorted the history of African-Americans made some skittish about discussing ‘‘Americanism.’’ The

end of the Cold War removed a preoccupation with who we were not, making it less

important to consider who we are. The Immigration law changes in 1965 brought

to our shores many new Americans and many cultural changes. As a result, the

American Way became much more often praised than defined.

Changes in community attitudes, as they always are, were reflected in our

schools. According to historian Diane Ravitch, the public school virtually abandoned

its role as the chief Americanizing Institution. We have gone, she explains, from one

extreme (simplistic patriotism and incomplete history) to the other—‘‘public schools

with an adversary culture that emphasize the nation’s warts and diminish its genuine accomplishments. There is no literary canon. No common reading, no agreed

upon lists of books, poems and stories from which students and parents might be

taught a common culture and be reminded of what it means to be an American.’’ During, this time many of our national leaders contributed to this drift toward

agnostic Americanism. These leaders celebrated multiculturalism and bilingualism

and diversity at a time when there should have been more emphasis on a common

culture and learning English and unity.

America’s variety and diversity is a great strength, but it is not our greatest

strength. Jerusalem is diverse. The Balkans are diverse. America’s greatest accomplishment is not its variety and diversity but that we have found a way to take all

that variety and diversity and unite as one country. E pluribus unum: out of many,

one. That is what makes America truly exceptional.

Since 9/11 things have been different. The terrorists focused their cross-hairs on

the creed that unites Americans as one country forcing us to remind ourselves of

those principles, to examine and define them and to celebrate them. The President

has been the lead teacher. President Bush has literally taken us back to school on

what it means to be an American. When he took the country to church on television

after the attacks he reminded us that no country is more religious than we are.

When he walked across the street to the mosque he reminded the world that we

separate church and state and that there is freedom here to believe in whatever one

wants to believe. When he attacked and defeated the Taliban, he honored life. When

we put planes back in the air and opened financial markets and began going to football games again we honored liberty. The President called on us to make those magnificent images of courage and charity and leadership and selflessness after 9/11

more permanent in our every day lives. And with his optimism, he warded off doomsayers who tried to diminish the real gift of Americans to civilization, our cockeyed

optimism that anything is possible.

Just after 9/11, I proposed an idea I called ‘‘Pledge Plus Three.’’ Why not start

each school day with the Pledge of Allegiance—as we did this morning here in the

Senate—followed by a faculty member or student sharing for three minutes ‘‘what

it means to be an American.’’ The Pledge embodies many of the ideals of our National Creed: ‘‘one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.’’

It speaks to our unity, to our faith, to our value of freedom, and to our belief in

the fair treatment of all Americans. If more future federal judges took more classes

in American history and civics and learned about those values, we might have fewer

mind-boggling decisions like the one issued by the Ninth Circuit.

Before I was elected to the Senate, I taught some of our future judges and legislators a course at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government entitled ‘‘The

American Character and America’s Government.’’ The purpose of the course was to

help policy makers, civil servants and journalists analyze the American creed and

character and apply it in the solving of public policy problems. We tried to figure

out, if you will, what would be ‘‘the American way’’ to solve a given problem.

The students and I did not have much trouble deciding that America is truly exceptional (not always better, but truly exceptional) or in identifying the major principles of an American Creed or the distinct characteristics of our country. Such principles as: liberty, equal opportunity, rule of law, individualism, e pluribus unum, the

separation of church and state.

But what we also found was that applying those principles to today’s issues was

hard work. This was because the principles of the creed often conflicted. For example, when discussing President Bush’s faith-based charity legislation, we knew that

‘‘In God We Trust’’ but we also knew that we didn’t trust government with God.

When considering whether the federal government should pay for scholarships

which middle and low income families might use at any accredited school—public,

private or religious—we found that the principle of equal opportunity conflicted with

the separation of church and state.

And we found there are great disappointments when we try to live up to our

greatest dreams, for example—President Kennedy’s pledge that we will ‘‘Pay any

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price or bear any burden’’ to defend freedom, or Thomas Jefferson’s assertion that

‘‘all men are created equal,’’ or the American dream that for anyone who works

hard, tomorrow will always be better than today.

We learned that, as Samuel Huntington has written, balancing these conflicts and

disappointments is what most of American politics and government is about.

Mr. President, if most of our politics and government is about applying to our

most urgent problems the principles and characteristics that make the United

States of America an exceptional country—then we had better yet about the teaching and learning of those principles and characteristics.

The legislation I propose today will help our schools do what they were established to do in the first place. At a time when there are record numbers of new

Americans, and at a time when our values are under attack, at a time when we

are considering going to war to defend those values, there can be no more urgent

task than putting the teaching of American history and civics back in its rightful

place in our schools so our children can grow up learning what it means to be an

American.

Senator ALEXANDER. Also, I am going to put in the record, Senator Dodd, without objection, I hope, the syllabus that I used the

last two semesters at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government,

where I taught a course called ‘‘The American Character and

America’s Government.’’

[The prepared syllabus follows:]

PAL 223—THE AMERICAN CHARACTER AND AMERICA’S GOVERNMENT: USING THE

AMERICAN CREED TO MAKE DECISIONS

Professor: Lamar Alexander, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard

University

Spring 2002, Tuesdays, 4:10 p.m.—6:00 p.m., Classroom: L382/Kahn

Course Credit: 1, Limited Enrollment, First class: 2’5

OBJECTIVE OF THE COURSE

To help future decision-makers use the principles of the American Creed to solve

difficult, contemporary public policy problems. Students will first explore America’s

‘‘exceptionalism’’: how an idea-based national ideology makes the United States different from other countries-including other Western democracies. Then, each session

will analyze one value of the ‘‘American Creed’’—and how it conflicts with other values and/or creates unrealized expectations—in the solving of a specific problem. Students will simulate realistic policymaking situations and produce professional products as assignments: concise memos, outlines and briefings.

RATIONALE FOR THE COURSE

In Thanksgiving remarks President Bush praised the nation’s response to September 11. ‘‘I call it.’’ he said. ‘‘the American Character’’. At KSG Al Gore said. ‘‘We

should [fight] for the values that bind us together as a country’’. Both men were

invoking a creed of ideas and values in which most Americans believe. ‘‘It has been

our fate as a nation,’’ Richard Hofstader wrote, ‘‘not to have ideologies but to be

one.’’ This value-based national identity has inspired both patriotism and division

at home, both emulation and hatred abroad. For terrorists as well as for those who

admire America, at issue is the United States itself—not what we do, but who we

are.

Yet Americans who unite on principle divide and suffer disappointment when

using their creed to solve policy problems. This is because the values of the creed

conflict (e.g., liberty vs. equality, individualism vs. community and because American dreams are loftier than American reality (e.g., ‘‘all men cue created equal’’, ‘‘tomorrow will be better than today’’). Samuel Huntington has said that balancing

these conflicts and disappointments is what most of American politics and government is about. That is also what this course is about.

AUDIENCE

The Course is designed for future police makers—civil servants, and journalists.

A general knowledge of American politics is helpful but not required. It should be

useful for both U.S. and international students seeking to learn more about the

American system of government and how it differs from that of other countries.

61

INSTRUCTOR

Lamar Alexander, The Roy M. and Barbara Goodman Family Visiting Professor

of Practice in Public Service, has been Governor of Tennessee. President of the University of Tennessee, and U.S. Education Secretary. He co-founded Bright Horizons

Family Solutions, Inc., now the nations largest provider of worksite day care. His

seven books include Six Months Off, the story of his family’s trip to Australia after

eight years in the Governors residence. In 1996 and 2000 he was a candidate for

the Republican nomination for President of the United States.

Office: Littauer 101, Telephone: (617) 384-7354.

Office hours will generally be on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. A sign up sheet will

be posted outside Professor Alexander’s door.

COURSE ASSISTANT

Matt Sonnesyn will be course assistant for PAL 223.

EXPECTATIONS

This is a graduate level professional course and will have the corresponding

standards and assignments: attendance at all scheduled classes, assignments completed on time, and evaluation according to students’ preparation of professional

products—crisp and realistic decision memos, memo outlines, and policy briefings.

All briefings are conducted in class and all decision memos and weekly outlines are

due at the beginning of the corresponding class session. There is no final exam, but

there will be a final paper.

GRADING

Briefings (2): team exercise 20%

Two times during the course each student will participate in a team briefing on

that Week’s subject.

Memos (2): team exercise 20%

Two other times during the course each student will participate in a team preparing a three-page decision memo on that week’s subject. The student may select these

from among the class topics.

Weekly Outlines (6): 20%

Six other times during the course each student will prepare a one-page analysis

of the week’s problem. (This will be during those weeks when the student is not involved in preparing a team briefing or team memo.)

As a result, for ten of the twelve class sessions. each student will have an assignment to (other than reading) that requires preparation outside of class—either a

team briefing, a team memo, or an individual weekly metro outline.

Class participation and attendance: 15%

Final Paper: 25%

Final grades will be determined by students’ overall position in the class as measured by performance on each of the assignments and will conform to the Kennedy

School of Government’s recommended range of grading distribution.

MATERIALS

The course relies primarily on course packets to be made available for sale at the

Course Materials Office. There will be 125-150 pages of reading each week. There

are three required textbooks:

(1) Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, translated and edited by Harvey

C. Mansfield and Delba Winthrop. The University of Chicago Press, 2000.

(2) Seymour Martin Lipset, American Exceptionalism, W.W., Norton & Co.,

1997(paperback);

(3) Samuel P. Huntington. ‘‘American Politics: The Promise of Disharmony’’, The

Belknap Press of Harvard University 1981.

All three books are available for purchase at the Harvard Coop. Copies of all three

books are on reserve in the KSG library.

Note: Readings from the three required textbooks or readings which are readily

available online are not included in the course packet. (Hypertext links to the online

readings may be found within the syllabus that is posted on the KSG website.)

ENROLLMENT

The course has a limited enrollment. Auditors are permitted with permission of

the instructor.

62

COURSE OUTLINE AND REQUIRED READINGS

2/5—My ‘‘ism’’ is Americanism, American Exceptionalism

One hundred and one ways Americans are different. So what?

Alexis de Toqueville, Democracy in America, edited by Harvey C. Mansfield and

Delba Winthrop, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2000, pp. 2-15, 90, 585-587,

225-226.

G.K. Chesterson. What I Saw in America, Dodd, Mead & Co., 1922. pp. 6-12.

Daniel J. Boorstin. ‘‘Why a Theory Seems Needless’’, The Genius of American Politics. 1953, The University of Chicago Press. p. 8-35.

Samuel P. Huntington, ‘‘The American Creed and National Identity,’’ American

Politics: The Promise of Disharmony, 1981. pp. 13-30.

Albert Hourani, A History of the Arab Peoples, 1991. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, pp. 46-58.

Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations, Simon and Schuster, 1996, pp.

40-55, 68-78, 301-308.

Seymour Martin Lipset, American Exceptionalism, pp. 17-34

2/12—‘‘. . .) where at least I know I’m free . . . Liberty

Should Congress repeal President Bush’s executive order allowing non-citizens

suspected of international terrorism to be detained and tried in special military tribunals’’

Alexis de Toqueville, ibid, pp. 239-242, 246-249. 301, 639-640.

U.S. Constitution and amendments, 1787

John Stuart Mill, ‘‘The Authority of Society and the Individual’’, On Liberty, 1859,

Hackett Publishing Co. edition, 1978, pp. 73-91.

Carl Brent Swisher, American Constitutional Development, Greenwood Press,

Connecticut, 1954, pp. 276-292, 1017-1025.

Samuel P. Huntington, ‘‘The American Creed vs. Political Authority,’’ American

Politics: The Promise of Disharmony, 1981, pp. 31-60.

Richard E. Neustadt and Ernest R. May, Thinking in Time, The Free Press, pp.

232-246, 1988.

An Executive Order of President George W. Bush, ‘‘Detention Treatment and Trail

of Certain Non-Citizens in the War against Terrorism’’, November 13, 2001.

Jeffrey Rosen, ‘‘Testing the Resilience of American Values’’, The New York Times

Week in Review, Sunday, Nov. 18, 2001, pp. 1 and 4.

Laurence H. Tribe, Statement before U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, December

4, 2001.

‘‘American Attitudes Toward Civil Liberties’’, public Opinion survey, by Kasier

Foundation, National Public Radio and Kennedy School of Government, December

2001.

2/19—In God We Trust... but we don’t trust government with God Christianity, pluralism and the state

Should Congress enact President Bush’s faith-based charity legislation?

Alexis de Toqueville, ibid, pp. 278-288.

John Locke, ‘‘A Letter Concerning Toleration’’, Diane Ravitch and Abigail

Thernstrom, The Democracy Reader, NY: HarperCollins, 1992, ibid., pp. 31-37.

Thomas Jefferson, ‘‘Notes on the State of Virginia’’, Ravitch and Thernstrom, ibid.,

pp, 108-109.

James Madison, ‘‘Memorial and Remonstrance against Religious Assessments’’,

1785, The Writings of James Madison, NY: Putnam, 1908.

‘‘Separation of Church and State in American Brought about by the Scotch-Irish

of Virginia’’, Charles. A. Hanna, The Scotch Irish, Vol. II, 1985, Genealogical Publishing Co., Baltimore, pp. 157-162.

Philip Schaff, America: A Sketch of its Political, Social and Religious Character,

1961, The Belknap Press of Harvard University, pp. 72-83.

Engel vs. Vitale, 370. U.S. 421 (1962)

Marvin Olasky. ‘‘The Early American Model of Compassion’’, The Tragedy of

American Compassion, Regnery, Publishing, Washington, D.C., 1992, pp. 6-23.

Lamar Alexander, ‘‘Homeless, not hopeless’’, We Know What to Do, William Morrow, New York, 1995, pp. 35-51.

Two Executive Orders of President George W. Bush. ‘‘Establishment of White

House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives’’ and ‘‘Agency Responsibilities with respect to Faith-based Community Initiatives’’. January 29, 2001.

2/19—‘‘Leave no child behind’’ Equal Opportunity

Should the federal government pay for scholarships that middle and low-income

families may use at any accredited school—public, private or religious?

Alexis de Toqueville, ibid, pp. 41-42.

63

Horace Mann, ‘‘Report of the Massachusetts Board of Education, 1848’’ in Daniel

J. Boorstin, An American Primer, Meridian, 1995, pp. 361-375.

Charles Leslie Glenn, Jr. The Myth of the Common School, The University of

Massachusetts Press, 1988, pp. 146-158.

Lamar Alexander, ‘‘The GI Bill for Kids’’, The John Ashbrook Lecture, presented

at Ashland (O.) University, 9/12/92.

Thomas J. Kane, ‘‘Lessons from the Largest School Voucher Program’’, Who

Chooses? Who Loses?, edited by Bruce Fuller and Richard F. Elmore, Teachers College Press, 1996, pp. 173-183.

Michael W. McConnell. ‘‘Legal and Constitutional Issues of Vouchers’’, Vouchers

and the Provision of Public Schools, The Brookings Institution, 2000, pp. 368-391.

Eliot M. Minceberg and Judith E. Schaeffer,—Grades K-12: The Legal Problems

with Public Funding of Religious Schools’, Vouchers and the Provision of Public

Schools, pp. 394—403.

Diane Ravitch, ‘‘American Traditions of Education’’, Terry M. Moe, A Primer on

America’s Schools, Hoover Institution Press, 2001, pp. 1-14.

Paul Peterson, ‘‘Choice in American Education’’, A Primer on America’s Schools,

pp. 249-283.

Diane Ravitch, ‘‘Ex Uno Plures’’, Education Next, Fall 2001, pp. 27-29

3/5—Equal at the starting line... but what about those with shackles? Individualism

Should the federal government pay for race-based college scholarships?

Alexis de Toqueville, ibid., pp. 326-334, 347-348; 482-488.

The Declaration of Independence, 1776

Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address (1856)

Frederick Douglass, ‘‘What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?’’

Martin Luther King, Jr., address at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.,

August 28. 1963.

Excerpts from University of California Regents vs. Bakke, 438 U.S. 265 (1978)

Testimony of Lamar Alexander, U.S. Education Secretary, Hearings before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations, House of Representatives, 102nd

Congress, 2nd session, Feb. 20, 1992, pp. 39-46, 82-89, 99-102.

Seymour Martin Lipset. ‘‘Two Americas’’, American Exceptionalism, pp. 113-150.

Abigail Thernstrom and Stephen Thernstrom, America in Black and White, New

York, Simon & Schuster, 1997, pp. 530-545.

Cornel West. ‘‘Malcolm X and Black Rage’’, Race Matters, Random House, Vintage

Books, New York, 2001, pp. 135-151.

3/12—A nation of immigrants... but all Americans E Pluribus Unam

Should illegal aliens have Illinois driver’s licenses? discounted tuition at state colleges? free medical care? should their children attend public schools?

Alexis de Toqueville, Ibid., pp. 29-30, 32, 34-37, 268.

J. Hector St. John de Crevecouer, ‘‘What is an American’’, Letters from an American Farmer, 1782. Penguin Books edition 1986, pp. 67-90.

Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., The Disuniting of America, W.W., Norton, New York,

1991, pp. 9-43.

Carlos E. Cortes, ‘‘Limits to pluribus, limits to unum’’, National Forum, Baton

Rouge, Winter, 1992. pp. 6-10.

Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations, Simon and Schuster, 1996. pp.

198-206.

J. Harvie Wilkinson, ‘‘The Medley of America’’, One Nation Indivisible, Addison

Wesley, 1997, pp. 3-21.

Griffin Bell, ‘‘The Changing Role of Migrants in the United States’’. Address to

the International Leadership Issues Conference of State Legislative Leaders Foundation, Budapest, October 4, 2001.

David Cohen, Chasing the Red, White and Blue. New York, 2001, St. Martin’s

Press, pp. 218-286, 250-260

Morris P. Fiorina and Paul E. Peterson, The New American Democracy, Longman,

2002. pp. 99-108.

3/19—Suspending the constitution in order to save it. Rule of Law.

Should the governor-elect seize office three days early to prevent the incumbent

governor from selling pardons for cash?

Alexis de Tocqueville, ibid., pp. 229-231.

US Constitution, 25th Amendment

Tennessee Constitution Article 3, Section 12

Tennessee Acts Section 8-1-107

Lou Fuller, ‘‘The Morality that Makes Law Possible’’, The Morality of Law, Yale

Law School Press, 1964, pp. 33-44.

64

John D. Feerick. The Twenty-Fifth Amendment: Its Complete History and Earliest Applications, Fordham University Press, 1976. pp. 3-23, 193-206.

Bush vs. Gore, 2000

Al Gore, address to the nation, December 13, 2000.

Paul F. Boller, Jr., ‘‘Picking the Day’’, Presidential Inaugurations, Harcourt, Inc.,

2001.

James W. Torke. ‘‘What Is This Thing Called the Rule of Law?’’ Indiana Law Review, Volume 34, 2001, pp. 1445-56.

Dotty Lynch, ‘‘Back to Abnormal’’, Sept. 28, 2001, from CBS News Site,

Tim McGirk, ‘‘Wahid’s In, Megawati’s Out’’, Dec, 8, 2001, from Time Asia

Gordon Silverstein, ‘‘Globalization and the Rule of Law’’, mimeo, The University

of Minnesota, 2001.

3/26—Harvard break

4/2—‘‘Ask not what your country can do for you... Community

Should all high school graduates perform one mandatory year of community service?

Alexis de Toqueville, ibid, pp. 56-58. 577-78, 489-92.

Robert L. Bellah, et al, Habits of the Heart, University of California Press, 1985,

pp. vii-xxxv, 275-296.

Daniel Boorstin. ‘‘From Charity to Philanthropy’’, Hidden History. Vintage, New

York, 1989, pp. 193-209.

-209J.

Barry Alan Shain, The Myth of American Individualism, Princeton University

Press, 1994, pp. xii-xix.

Lamar Alexander, ‘‘What’s Wrong With American Giving and How to Fix It,’’ Philanthropy, Summer 1997.

Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone, Simon & Schuster, 2000, pp. 15-28, 45-64, 116-

133.

4/9—Why Americans don’t trust Washington, D.C. A government of, by and for

the people

Should the U.S. create a citizen congress: cut their pay and send them home six

months a year, adopt term limits and two-year federal budgets?

Alexis de Toqueville, ibid. pp. 53-55

Aristotle, ‘‘Politics’’, from Ravitch and Thernstrom, pp. 9-12.

Edmund Burke, ‘‘On Election to Parliament’’, Ravitch and Thernstrom, ibid. pp.

50-51.

Samuel P. Huntington, ‘‘The American Creed and National Identity.’’ American

Politics: the Promise of Disharmony, 1981, pp. 36-41.

E.J. Dionne, ‘‘The Politics of the Restive Majority’’, Why Americans Hate Politics,

Touchstone, New York, 1991, pp. 329-355.

Lamar Alexander, ‘‘Cut Their Pay and Send Them Home.’’ 1994, address to The

Heritage Foundation.

Seymour Martin Lipset, American Exceptionalism, pp. 35-46.

Joseph S. Nye, et al, Why People Don’t Trust Government, Harvard University

Press, 1997, pp. 253-281.

Mark Kim, David King, Richard Zechhauser. ‘‘Why State Governments Succeed’’,

mimeo, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, 2001.

4/16—‘‘Work! For the night is coming... ’’ Laissez Faire

Should the federal government pay all working Americans a living wage’’?

Alexis de Toqueville, ibid. pp. 506-08, 555-557, 606-608.

Herbert Croly, The Promise of American Life, 1909, Northeastern University

Press, pp. 1-26.

Kevin Phillips, ‘‘The Triumph of Upper America’’, The Politics of Rich and Poor,

Harper, 1991, pp. xvii-xxiii.

C. Vann Woodward, ‘‘The Pursuit of Happiness’’, The Old World’s New World, Oxford University Press, 1991, pp. 40-62.

Seeymour—Martin Lipset, ‘‘Economy, Religion and Welfare’’, American

Exceptionalism, pp. 53-76.

David Neumark and William Washer, ‘‘Using the EITC to Help Poor Families:

New Evidence and a Comparison with the Minimum Wage’’, NBER Working Paper

#7599 March 2000, pp. 1-4. 24-27.

Charles Handy, ‘‘DeToqueville Revisited: The Meaning of American Prosperity’’,

Harvard Business Journal, January 2001, pp. 5-11.

David Neumark, ‘‘Living Wages: Protection For or Protection From Low-Wage

Workers’’, NBER Working Paper #8393, July 2001, pp. 1-7, 25-27.

David Cohen, Chasing, the Red, White and Blue, New York, 2001, St. Martin’s

Press, pp. 52-80.

Harvard Living Wage Statements

65

4/23—‘‘Pay any price, bear any burden... Exporting American Values.

Putin shuts down last remaining independent Russian TV station (owned 25% by

Ted Turner), expels 100 foreign journalists for ‘‘inaccurate reporting’’ including all

Fox News personnel. What does U.S. do?

Alexis de Toqueville, ibid., pp. 217-220.

George Washington’s Farewell Address, 1795.

John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address. 1961.

Samuel P. Huntington, American Politics: the Promise of Disharmony, pp. 240-

262.

Graham T. Allison. Jr. and Robert P. Beschel, Jr.. ‘‘Can the United States Promote Democracy’’, Political Science Quarterly, Volume 107, No. 1, 1992, pp. 81-89.

Henry Kissinger, ‘‘The Hinge: Theodore Roosevelt or Woodrow Wilson’’, Diplomacy, New York Simon & Schuster, 1994, pp. 29-55.

Lamar Alexander, ‘‘In War and Peace’’, We Know What to Do. pp. 95-107.

Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations, pp. 309-321.

Samantha Power, ‘‘Bystanders to Genocide’’, The Atlantic Monthly, September

2000, pp. 84-108.

Walter Russell Mead, Special Providence: American Foreign Policy and How it

Changed the World, Alfred A Knopf, New York 2001, pp. xv, xviii, 3-29.

4/30—Anything is possible. Ubridled optimism

Should there be a $1000 limit on individual federal campaign contributions?

Alexis de Toqueville, ibid., pp. 187-189.

Larry J. Sabato, ‘‘PACS and Parties’’ Money, Elections and Democracy: Reforming

Congressional Campaign Finance, 1990, Boulder, Colorado, Westview Press.

Todd Eardensohn, A Review of the Alexander for President Campaign Budge

(1995-1996).

Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations, Simon and Schuster, 1996, pp.

308-321.

Seymour Martin Lipset, American Exceptionalism, pp. 51-52, 267-292.

Lamar Alexander, ‘‘Should Tom Paine Have Filed with the FEC’’, January 21,

1998, address to The Cato Institute.

Andrew Del Banco, The Real American Dream, 1999, Harvard University Press,

pp. 103-118.

Lamar Alexander, ‘‘Put More Money Into Polities’’, August 27, 1999, The Wall

Street Journal.

Alexander, ‘‘Keeping the Dream Alive’’, We know What to Do, ibid, pp. 165-180.

Senator ALEXANDER. And most of the classes were spent doing

the kind of thing that you suggested, Ms. Deaderick. We would

take an issue, we would take a principle that unites us as a country, like freedom, and a contemporary issue before the U.S. Senate,

like did President Bush go too far with the first military tribunal,

and we would divide up into teams and we would debate that. And

the next week we would take a question like should the Federal

Government pay for scholarships based solely on race, and we

would debate that.

But the way we would debate it is to try to identify the principle

that was at stake, and what we normally found was, say, in that

latter case, we had the principle of equal opportunity on the one

side and the principle of individualism on the other side, and they

are both principles that we all agree with, but when we apply them

to our current issues, we get conflict. So most of our politics and

most of our Government is about conflicts of principles about which

we agree and about disappointments we have when we don’t reach

our dreams, like pay any price, bear any burden to defend freedom.

We don’t always do that. All men are created equal. They always

weren’t in this country.

So those are the conflicts and those are the disappointments that

most of our history is about and which create wonderful stories like

David McCullough’s book on John Adams. And what we hope

through this is not to—we want to leave the teaching right where

it ought to be, in the local classroom in the local schools. We want

66

to leave the curriculum setting where it ought to be, with the State

and local governments. But maybe through these summer residential academies we can put a spotlight on and encourage and inspire

the teaching and learning of American history and civics.

I want to thank Senator Dodd for his leadership and for being

a part of this and for inviting Mr. Berg, and thank you, Blanche.

The hearing is adjourned.

[Additional material follows:]

67

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL

PREPARED STATEMENT OF SENATOR BYRD

Harry Truman once said, ‘‘The only thing new in the world is the history you

don’t know.’’ Given the woeful state of history education in this country, Americans

must believe that plenty of things are new.

A September 2002 report by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni reveals

a troubling lack of historical literacy among college students. That report was based

on a survey of seniors from fifty of Americas top colleges and universities. Those

seniors were given high-school level questions. According to the report, nearly 81

percent of the college seniors who participated would have received a grade of D or

F. Among the hardest questions for students to answer correctly were those concerning earl, American history. For example, when students were asked to name the

‘‘Father of the Constitution,’’ only twenty-three percent correctly chose James Madison. And this is at the college level!

The situation is not any better at the elementary and secondary level. The National Assessment of Educational Progress conducted in 2001 reported that only two

out of ten students in grades four through eight, and one out of ten students in

grade twelve were deemed ‘‘proficient’’ in U.S. history.

History is not only the common memory that we all share, but it is also in excellent teacher. Too many schools today lump history together with other subjects and

package there as courses broadly titled ‘‘social studies.’’ This conglomeration certainly does not provide the kind of focused study that history deserves and requires.

Moreover, it shortchanges our young people who will some day be the leaders of this

nation of a grounding in the basic philosophies and values that served to form the

foundation of America.

The importance of learning from history is heightened when we are at war. It is

critical that our current military leaders have studied the great battles of history

and will not repeat mistakes that doomed battles in the past. Imagine if these generals and admirals had not thoroughly examined the lessons of past wars, and instead took a composite course called ‘‘Aggressive Studies.’’

I am a lifelong student of history. Even though this subject is so important and

such a rich treasure of information, I regret that today’s young people do not have

a strong appreciation for it. If they are to have any hope of being prepared to lead

in the future. America’s students need a deeper understanding of this nation’s past.

To help address this problem, three years ago I created the Teaching American

History Grant Program. This program has Infused $250 million—$50 million in Fiscal Year 2001, $100 million in Fiscal Year 2002, and $100 million again in this fiscal year—in the nation’s classrooms to encourage more schools to develop, implement, and strengthen classes in American history. By helping teachers to develop

a better understanding and appreciation of American history as a separate subject

matter within the core curriculum, this program seeks to improve instruction and

raise student achievement.

Mr. Chairman [Senator Lamar Alexander], in your maiden speech before the U.S.

Senate, you sought to emphasize the importance of restoring the teaching of American history and civics to its rightful place in our schools so that students can grow

up learning what it means to be an American. I commend you for this, and I appreciate your kind remarks about my Teaching American History Grant Program.

At that time, you introduced S. 504, the American History and Civics Act, which

would establish Presidential Academies for teachers of American history and civics,

and Congressional Academies for students of American history and civics. I understand that your legislation would also create a National Alliance of Teachers of

American History and Civics to allow the sharing of ideas and best practices among

American history and civics teachers.

I hope that your efforts will complement the Teaching American History Grant

Program that is already in place, and I would be pleased if you would add my name

as a cosponsor to your legislation.

No remarks on the subject of history would be complete without a quote from the

Roman orator and statesman Cicero. I close with his observation that, ‘‘History is

the witness that testifies to the passing of time: it illumines reality, vitalizes memoir, provides guidance in daily life and bring’s us tidings of antiquity.’’

Cicero’s words from two millennia ago still ring true today. I hope that our efforts

can help to provide students with this guidance.

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PREPARED STATEMENT OF SENATOR CORNYN

Thank you, Mr. Chairman for allowing me to make a brief statement on the

American History and Civics Education Act (S. 504). First, I would like to say thank

you to my good friend and colleague, Senator Lamar Alexander from Tennessee, for

introducing S. 504 to show the country’s commitment to educating our children

about the history and principles of American government. Young Americans deserve

to learn about the Constitution, Bill of Rights, our Founding Fathers, Federalism,

and the stories of Americans who lost their lives so we would be able to live in freedom.

I am particularly pleased to support and co-sponsor this legislation because it reminds me of how public schools back in Texas teach students about Texas history.

While growing up in San Antonio, I learned about a great Texan from Tennessee,

named Sam Houston and how he influenced the Republic of Texas and the United

States. Now, I have the honor to serve in the Senate in the seat once held by Sam

Houston. American history and civics were crucial for my education. Today’s children should have the same opportunity as I did to learn about the influential people

who shaped this nation.

This legislation creates a four-year pilot program for schools to receive grant

money from the National Endowment of the Humanities. Each year the program

will receive $25 million in grant money. Although $25 million is a small amount in

the beginning, I hope the program will thrive and grow in the future. Under the

proposal, grant money will fund a two week seminar on American history and civics

for teachers. Also, students can attend a four week academy in the summer to learn

American history and civics.

Mr. Chairman, how can American children know the true meaning of being an

American without understanding the key influences and principles in which this

great nation was built? Children need to learn about their inalienable rights found

within the Bill of Rights and why these are so important to each American. They

need to learn why the colonies demanded independence from the British. American

students need to understand how slavery impacted the country and how many

Americans fought for their freedom and equality for generations. Every American

needs to know their rights and how their government works in order to insure their

God-given rights are never infringed.

After the September 11th attacks, now more than ever, we need to teach our

young people what it truly means to be an American and a freedom-loving person.

I believe the American History and Civics Education Act will ensure young people

have a solid background on which to build a life long interest in our nation’s history.

I am a proud co-sponsor of S. 504. I thank the Senator from Tennessee for introducing this legislation and chairing this important hearing.

PREPARED STATEMENT OF SENATOR THAD COCHRAN

Mr. Chairman, I appreciate very much your invitation to participate in this hearing.

I congratulate the Senator from Tennessee (Mr. Alexander) for his leadership on

the issue of teaching history and civics. As the Committee considers the American

History and Civics Education Act, I hope it will be sure to carefully examine a program currently authorized and funded through the Department of Education called,

‘‘We the People... The Citizen and the Constitution.’’ This program is the result

of the work of the Commission on the Bicentennial of the Constitution, chaired by

Chief Justice Warren Burger during the years 1985 to 1992. The Honorable Lynne

V. Cheney was a member, as were Senators, Members of Congress and other prominent Americans. There was also a National Advisory Committee for the development of the program we know today as ‘‘We the People...’’ Some of its members

were Senators and Members of Congress, both Republicans and Democrats.

The dual purposes of the Commission and the Committee included developing a

recommended text and accompanying curriculum for teaching the American Constitution. The result is a set of texts that is nationally known as one of the best,

if not the best, for teaching our Constitution to young people. ‘‘We the People...’’ also includes a comprehensive teacher training curriculum and a National competitive program for students.

One classroom set with teacher materials is provided free of charge to every Congressional district. Additional sets are available at a modest cost. The texts have

also been adapted and translated for use in former soviet countries.

It is important to bring attention to this program because it has proven its effectiveness. ‘‘We the People...’’ has been administered by the Center for Civic Education since its start in 1987. Studies over the last ten years conducted by the Center for Civic Education and independent institutions have shown dramatic effects.

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I’ll include that information at the end of my statement. But first, I want to share

with the Committee a poignant electronic mail message sent to a ‘‘We the

People...’’ teacher just a few months ago.

Dear Mr. Alcox,

About a year ago I was in your constitutional law class. I really loved your class.

I ended up dropping out of school and joined the United States Army. I held on to

your books because they were my life. I continued studying after I got out of basic

training, and thought about going to college for law, because I enjoyed your class

so much.

One day a sergeant of mine borrowed my book and we went to the field. When

I got back after a month he and my book were gone. He went to Germany and I

tried finding him so I could get my book back, but I just kept hitting dead ends.

The reason I am writing to you is because I was wondering if it would be possible

to get another copy of the book. I will pay anything in the world to have them. The

only problem I face right now is that I am deploying overseas to fight. I leave at

the end of this month and it takes 7 days for packages to reach me from New

Hampshire. I will have my dad deliver a check or something. If something could be

worked out please write back to me and let me know what I would have to do, and

if not I understand completely. I’m still working on the essay of what the American

flag means to me. I’m up to 8 pages and it needs more work.

Thank you for inspiring me!

Sincerely,

PFC Andrea Welch

By the way, I’m told Private Welch received her books. This young woman*s message to her teacher is a compelling testimony about what he taught and how he

taught. It is one of the best pieces of evidence we have that teaching American history and civics will encourage young people and help them develop their minds to

better serve our nation.

Again, I thank the Chairman for inviting me to participate in this hearing. I am

pleased to cosponsor the American History and Civics Education Act. I commend the

distinguished Senator from Tennessee for his leadership on this issue, and I am

pleased to join the effort to have this legislation considered by the Senate.

The following is a summary of research findings provided at my request by the

Center for Civic Education.

Center for Civic Education

5146 Douglas Fir Road

Calabasas, California 91302

(818) 591-9321

Increases in knowledge. We the People . . students have greater political knowledge than their peers, political science majors, and adults. For example, We the

People... students:

Scored 23% higher on political knowledge test items that were a part of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)

Outperformed college freshmen political science majors in political knowledge

Outperformed adults on a knowledge index

Increases in interest and commitment. We the People... students report higher

levels of interest in political life and higher commitment to staying well. For example, in comparison with their peers, We the People... students showed:

Increased interest in the Constitution and Bill of Rights and commitment to their

values and principles

Greater interest in keeping up with public affairs, during their high school years

and after graduation

Greater attention to public affairs, as evidenced by regular reading of newspapers

at higher rates than peers

Improvement in political attitudes. We the People... students showed greater

improvement than their peers and adults in political attitudes. For example, We the

People... students and were found to be:

More politically tolerant than the average American

More politically tolerant than high school students using other curricula

More self-confident and perceived fewer limits on their own political freedom

Less cynical about government

Increased participation. We the People... students showed greater participation in all aspects of the political process than their peers. For example, We the

People... students and were found to be:

More likely to participate in the political process, even in high school

Voting in higher numbers than their peers. A study of alumni found that 82%

voted in November 2000, in contrast to 48% of their peers

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More likely to work for a political campaign, to contribute to a campaign, or to

take part in a protest

More likely to discuss politics

Serving the public as public officials (one alum is mayor of Nogales, Arizona),

staffing political offices in the Capitol and in state legislatures, clerking for justices,

serving in the armed forces, teaching in classrooms, and mentoring high school students in the We the People program.

PREPARED STATEMENT OF BRUCE COLE

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and the members of this Committee, for the opportunity to testify today.

This hearing helps raise awareness of an important issue—the need to increase

and enhance knowledge and understanding of American history.

It is crucial that we understand the principles, events, and ideas that have defined our past and that will shape our future. Democracy, unlike other forms of government, is not self-perpetuating. Its ideas and principles must be taught and transmitted. Indeed, we cannot defend what we do not understand. But even as our country is at war, numerous studies indicate that many students lack even a basic

knowledge of their country’s past.

I’ll give you just a few examples:

A recent survey of students enrolled at the 55 of our nation’s most elite colleges

and universities found that 40 percent of our brightest young people cannot place

the Civil War in the correct half-century. More than a third of these students could

not identify the Constitution as establishing our government’s division of powers.

At the secondary school level, the National Assessment of Educational Progress

(NAEP) test found that over half of all high school seniors scored ‘‘below basic’’—

that is, below the bare minimum level of proficiency in history. To illustrate what

that means: 18 percent of seniors thought Germany was a U.S. ally in World War

II. Less than half correctly identified the Soviet Union as an ally.

In speaking to various groups, I have called this loss of memory and lack of understanding of our history our American amnesia. The consequences are serious.

Citizens who do not know their rights are less likely to protect them. And if young

Americans cannot recall whom we fought, and whom we fought alongside, during

World War II, there is no reason to expect that they will long remember what happened on September 11.

As Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, one of my top priorities for the agency and its able staff is to address this challenge of American amnesia. We are aiming to do this through a new initiative called We the People.

On Constitution Day, September 17, 2002, in a special Rose Garden ceremony,

President Bush announced the launch of the We the People initiative, to be spearheaded by the NEH. We the People is designed to broaden and deepen Americans’

knowledge of their nation’s history. We are honored that the President has chosen

the Endowment to play a leadership role in the Administration’s American history

and civics initiative, and we look forward to serving in this capacity. This initiative

is an important part of the President’s USA Freedom Corps, which is working to

promote a culture of active, engaged citizens who have a better understanding of

their democratic traditions and their duties to serve our communities and country.

We the People aims to cultivate an enhanced understanding of American history

among students, teachers, and the public at large. We the People will enlist the efforts of scholars, professors, curators, librarians, filmmakers and others engage in

a wide variety of projects, including the creation of model history curricula, the

digitization and dissemination of historical documents, the expansion of our acclaimed summer seminars for school teachers, and new programs that bring history

to our citizens.

Already, the endowment has undertaken several exciting efforts as part of this

initiative. This year we launched a nationwide solicitation of grant applications to

address We the People themes and topics throughout the NEH’s divisions. On May

1, we will host the Inaugural ‘‘Heroes of History’’ lecture, featuring acclaimed historian Robert Remini, who was authorized by the House of Representatives to write

its official history. In addition, we recently held the first ‘‘Idea of America’’ essay

contest, where more than 1,300 high school juniors submitted essays on key events

in America’s history.

I should also mention that on May 15th the NEH will present the Thirty-Second

Annual Jefferson Lecture, delivered by distinguished historian David McCullough.

He is a first-rate scholar and a leading champion of American history.

Each of these NEH efforts aims at enhancing and increasing knowledge and understanding of American history among teachers, students, and the general public.

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This hearing is another important step. I want to express my appreciation to Senator Alexander for his work to address this issue, both in his home state of Tennessee, and from the Capitol. He has been an effective and dedicated advocate for

excellence in education, and I look forward to working with him toward that shared

goal.

The American History and Civics Education Act authorizes the establishment of

Presidential academies for teaching history content to teachers, and Congressional

academies for teaching history to gifted students. It would place the responsibility

for selecting those academies within the purview of the NEH, and its highly respected merit review system.

It is a truism of teaching that one cannot teach what one does not know. As someone whose life was changed by the inspired teaching of a college professor, I can

attest to the transformative power of quality teaching. But studies also show that

secondary school history teachers receive less instruction and training in their discipline than teachers of any other subject, except the natural sciences. In fact, one

recent Department of Education study found that 58 percent of high school history

teachers neither majored nor minored in history.

There are many reasons for the ‘‘content gap’’ in history teaching. Many education

schools focus more on the theory and methods of teaching, rather than what is being

taught. The emphasis that Undersecretary Hickok, Senator Alexander and others

have placed on teaching history content, as opposed to pedagogy, is exactly right.

Teacher certification requires that teachers take a variety of courses on pedagogy—

in other words, teaching how to teach. But all too often, this emphasis shortchanges

instruction in content itself.

But regardless of the reasons, the challenge is clear: we need to enhance and extend the teaching of history to teachers, so that they can pass it on to their students.

One way in which the NEH addresses this challenge is through its widely-respected summer seminars and institutes for school teachers. Each summer, the

NEH sponsors numerous summer seminars and institutes on a variety of humanities topics. Each seminar or institute sponsored is selected by the NEH’s rigorous

merit review system, and each concentrate on teaching the teachers history and humanities content. In the testimonials we’ve received, many teachers have claimed

that the experience was extremely helpful and rewarding, and that learning more

about a subject naturally enabled them to teach it more effectively.

Mr. Chairman, the Administration and the NEH share your concern with ensuring that our nation’s history is well understood by teachers, students, and all citizens. The ideas, ideals and institutions that comprised our founding and form our

nation should be well and widely taught. With nearly forty years of experience as

the federal government’s agency for advancing education, scholarship, public programs, and preservation in history and the humanities, NEH is well positioned to

contribute to this important effort.

Again, I want to express my appreciation for the willingness of this committee to

address the issue of American amnesia, the work and experience Senator Alexander

has invested in this legislation, and the opportunity to testify today. I would be glad

to answer any questions.

PREPARED STATEMENT OF EUGENE W. HICKOK

Mr. Chairman: Thank you for the opportunity to join this distinguished panel

today to discuss the teaching and learning of American history and civics. The subject of this hearing is not only an important education policy issue, but one that has

been at the heart of my own efforts as a scholar and teacher over the past 30 years.

In particular, I was pleased to note that the definition of ‘‘key documents’’ in S.

504, the proposed American History and Civics Education Act, includes not only the

Constitution and the Bill of Rights, but also the Federalist Papers. Much of my own

research and writing has focused on the proper interpretation and relationship of

these documents. In addition, it was my privilege to apply my research as a member

of a Justice Department task force during the Reagan Administration that sought

to restore the essential role of Federalism to American political thought and governance.

One of the key benefits of Federalism, by the way, is that by reserving key decisions to officials and citizens at the State and local levels, Federalism promotes better and more involved citizenship.

Mr. Chairman, President Bush and Secretary Paige share your emphasis on the

growing importance of history and civics education at a time when our Nation is

at war in defense of our most deeply held beliefs and ideals. The Department curVerDate 11-MAY-2000 09:27 Sep 26, 2003 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00075 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 S:\DOCS\86582 SLABOR3 PsN: SLABOR3
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rently funds two programs that help reinforce our shared values, and both are priorities in the President’s 2004 budget request.

TEACHING AMERICAN HISTORY

The first is the two-year-old Teaching American History program, which in fiscal year 2003 will provide nearly $100 million to promote the teaching of traditional

American history as a separate academic subject in our elementary and secondary

schools. This program makes competitive awards to local school districts that establish partnerships with postsecondary institutions, nonprofit history or humanities

organizations, libraries, or museums. These partnerships support professional development for teachers of American history.

Mr. Chairman, I know you have used the phrase ‘‘civic illiterates’’ to describe the

woeful ignorance of civics demonstrated by American students on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). I’m afraid there is perhaps even greater

cause to apply that description to student knowledge of history, because only 10 percent of high school seniors scored at the proficient level on the 2001 NAEP history

test.

Much of this poor performance arises from the fact that too much of the history

taught in our schools is compressed and diluted within broader social studies curricula. I say this not to denigrate social studies or social studies teachers, but to recognize that it is impossible for even the best trained teacher to do justice to the full

sweep of America’s history in a curriculum that also covers such topics as geography, the environment, conflict resolution, and world cultures.

For example, one published social studies curriculum for elementary school students includes a ‘‘mini lesson on American history’’ as just one of 50 lesson plans.

I think all of us would agree that American history deserves more than a ‘‘mini lesson’’ in any elementary school curricula worthy of the name. This is why the Teaching American History program emphasizes comprehensive, research-based professional development focused on teaching traditional American history as a separate

subject. We want all 50 of those lesson plans to be on American history—at least

two or three times during the 12 years that students spend in our elementary, middle, and secondary schools.

The problem of diluted curricula is compounded when, as is too often the case,

history teachers are teaching out-of-field or, even if fully certified in social studies,

were not required to demonstrate knowledge of U.S. history as part of their certification. The Teaching American History program, which currently supports 174

projects in 47 States, is intended to help address this lack of content training.

One exemplary project is in West Morris, New Jersey, where Superintendent

Henry Kiernan has created a new program that is helping improve the knowledge

and teaching skills of over 70 history teachers. Participating teachers meet with

eminent historians to discuss the craft of teaching history. They also use an interactive web site to conduct history research, distribute their research for review by

fellow educators, and use the final product in their own classrooms.

The West Morris program includes summer seminars that meet for four days in

historically significant locations. Last summer, the focus of the seminar was on the

American Revolution and was located at Princeton. The seminar featured Dr. Gordon Wood of Brown University and master teachers from the National Council for

History Education. This summer the focus is on immigration and the seminar will

be located in New York City, under the direction of Dr. Kenneth Jackson of Columbia University and the New York State Historical Society.

One final note about West Morris: Superintendent Kiernan has renamed the Social Studies Department the History and Social Sciences Department, to reflect the

stronger emphasis on history he is trying to foster in his district.

CIVIC EDUCATION

The second major activity supported by the Department in this area is the Civic

Education program, which provides a $16.9 million grant to the nonprofit Center for

Civic Education in Calabasas, California. The Center operates the We the People

program, which consists of two projects: The Citizen and the Constitution and

Project Citizen. Let me try to avoid any confusion here by clarifying that the Center

for Civic Education’s We the People program is entirely separate from the new initiative by the same name at the National Endowment for the Humanities. The NEH

initiative, working in partnership with the USA Freedom Corps, is part of a concerted effort by President Bush to encourage the teaching of history and civics and

emphasize the role of citizenship in our democracy.

The Citizen and the Constitution project provides teacher training and curricular

materials that serve elementary, middle, and high school students. The materials

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are intended to promote civics understanding and responsibility among students, including support for the constitutional rights and civil liberties of dissenting individuals and groups. The project also involves simulated Congressional hearings that

give students the opportunity to learn about and demonstrate their understanding

of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. At the secondary school level, these hearings culminate in a national competition here in Washington, DC. If you haven’t

met some of these students yet, Mr. Chairman, you probably will in the near future,

because the winning class from each State and their teachers make it a point to

visit Members of Congress. In addition, you might be invited to serve, along with

other public officials, as a judge in the competition.

Project Citizen encourages middle school students to focus on the role of State and

local governments in developing and implementing solutions to social problems. Participating students select a problem, evaluate alternative policies to address the

problem, and develop an action plan, which they present to school and community

leaders in a simulated legislative hearing. Project Citizen also offers an intensive,

weeklong institute to participating teachers.

The two We the People projects collectively serve about half the States, some 1.3

million students, and almost 22,000 teachers annually. The Civic Education program also provides $11.9 million to the Cooperative Education Exchange program, which supports education exchange activities in civics

and economics between the United States and eligible countries in Central and

Eastern Europe, the Commonwealth of Independent States, former republics of the

Soviet Union, the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, and developing democracies.

Grant recipients under the Cooperative Education Exchange program provide educators from eligible countries with exemplary curricula and teacher training programs in civics and economics. They also create and implement programs for U.S.

students on the culture, governance, history, and experiences of their exchange partners. I think this is especially important, because I believe there are few Americans

who have spent time overseas or time studying other countries who have not come

away with a deeper understanding and appreciation for our own democratic system.

I would add that my own experience bears this out. A little over a decade ago,

I was fortunate enough to serve as a consultant on constitutional, political, and economic reform to the governments of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.

The Civic Education program is a clear Administration priority, and has been recognized by the USA Freedom Corps as a critical part of the Administration’s efforts

to foster a national culture of citizenship and responsibility.

BROADER SUPPORT THROUGH NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND

In addition to these two programs focused specifically on American history and

civic education, the No Child Left Behind Act—President Bush’s signature education

reform legislation which last year reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA)—provides significant support for improved teaching and

learning of both American history and civics and government.

For example, the legislation defines both history and civics and government as

core academic subjects. This is important because the new law requires all teachers

of core academic subjects to be highly qualified by the end of the 2005–2006 school

year, and the definition of ‘‘highly qualified’’ includes demonstrated subject area

competence in each of the academic subjects in which the teacher teaches.

The reauthorized ESEA also permits States to use State Assessment formula

grant funds to pay for standards and assessments in history and civics and government, once they have developed the reading and math assessments required by the

new law. Other State formula grant programs provide considerable resources to help

States and school districts ensure that all teachers are highly qualified. These programs include $11.7 billion in Title I Grants to Local Educational Agencies, $2.9 billion for Improving Teacher Quality State Grants, and $385 million in State Grants

for Innovative Programs.

CONCLUSION

The Teaching American History program and the Civic Education program reflect

the strong emphasis the Department of Education places on restoring these two disciplines to their rightful place in the education of every American child. Together

with the broader support provided through the No Child Left Behind Act that may

be used to improve teaching and learning in these two essential subjects, as well

as other initiatives such as those at the NEH and the ‘‘Our Documents’’ project at

the National Archives, I believe we are on the right course to achieve this goal.

I would be happy to respond to any questions you may have.

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PREPARED STATEMENT OF JAMES H. BILLINGTON

Senator Alexander, members of the Committee, thank you for inviting me to testify here today on a subject that is vital to the future of this country, on which you

yourself long have worked on, and on which you recently have spoken so eloquently.

During Alex Haley’s 12 years researching his groundbreaking novel, Roots, he

traveled the globe to uncover his family’s story, even taking a slow Atlantic crossing

to get some feel for what his ancestors went through on the Middle Passage. He

also spent many hours in the reading rooms of the Library of Congress, poring over

American Missionary Society files from our Manuscript Collection.

For the first 190 years of the Library’s existence, people could access our vast collections only by traveling to Washington, DC, and by working in our beautiful reading rooms as Mr. Haley did-or by tapping into our rich holdings secondhand,

through books that made use of our collections.

Let me suggest the educational value of the primary materials we have already

made available free of charge on-line.

The Library of Congress is actively supporting the teaching of history and civics

in the classroom and can be a key player in your program to establish academies

for students and to create a national alliance for teachers. Indeed, the Library has

already taken important steps in this direction.

The technology revolution of the past decade has made it possible for the Library

to reach far beyond its buildings in Washington. We now deliver 8 million interesting and educational multimedia documents, maps, and images of American history

and culture free of charge to stimulate curiosity and humanize the study of history.

By exploiting the power of the Internet and the incomparable resources of our collections, the Library of Congress has emerged as the leading provider of free noncommercial educational content on the World Wide Web. Millions of educators, librarians, students, and lifelong learners visit our Web sites daily for materials that

once were available only through our reading rooms on Capitol Hill.

The Library’s Web sites are attracting more than 2.5 billion ‘‘hits’’ a year. They

have won many awards, including the prestigious Global Information Infrastructure

Award as the best in education. The Harvard Education Letter praised the Library’s

on-line historical materials for encouraging students to question, observe details,

and think critically.

By offering easy access to the key documents, events, ideas, and people of American history, the Library is uniquely positioned to an port the goals of educators everywhere rough its various electronic initiatives. Tanks to generous support from

the Congress and the American people, the Library has grown into the largest repository of knowledge and information in the history of the world. The Library

shares its resources with educators who can use them in the classroom to bring to

life what their students have only read about in books.

American Memory was established as a pilot in 1990 as one of the first large-scale

efforts to use the Internet to disseminate high-quality educational and cultural content.

The National Digital Library program has created an on-line archives of more

than 100 collections of important, rare, and unique items in all formats documenting

America’s cultural heritage. The materials were selected from the Library of Congress as well as from 36 other American institutions, making the National Digital

Library a truly national effort.

Students get to work with primary sources: manuscripts; maps, which you can

zoom in on and view with greater clarity than with the naked eye; prints and photographs; and music. These are the actual stuff of history, not about history. These

resources encourage critical thinking in students and inspire learners to further exploration. The multimedia American Memory Collections include papers of the U.S.

residents, Civil War photographs, early films of Thomas Edison, historic speeches,

the first baseball cards, and oral histories representing our diverse culture.

The Learning Page Web site, introduced in 1996 as a companion to the American

Memory Collections, is a key component of our educational outreach program. Specifically designed for K–12 educators and their students, the Learning Page helps

teachers harness the power of these primary sources with ideas and instructions for

accessing the collections on a vast range of topics. Here, the content of the Library’s

digital collections is presented within an educational context, with lesson plans, curriculum guides, ‘‘how to’’ projects, and learning activities-making the educational experience a dynamic, stimulating and interactive activity like reading-not a passive

spectator experience like television.

On this page teachers, at the click of a mouse, can search the collections, try out

lesson plans, engage in classroom activities, connect with other teachers, ask a liVerDate 11-MAY-2000 09:27 Sep 26, 2003 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00078 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 S:\DOCS\86582 SLABOR3 PsN: SLABOR3
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brarian for help, view a lecture or a poetry reading, or visit more than 40 exhibitions.

Our American Memory Fellows Institute could serve in many ways as a pilot for

your program to establish a national alliance of teachers. This institute has successfully trained a network of teachers across the country who are teaching other educators in their localities what they have learned at the Library about using primary

sources in the classroom. Over a 5-year period more than 300 ‘‘master educators’’ from nearly every State participated in a year-long professional development program highlighted by a 6-day summer institute held at the Library.

Teams of educators worked directly with the Library staff and primary source materials to develop lesson plans and teaching materials based on the Library’s on-line

materials. These teacher-developed lesson plans were ‘‘road-tested’’ with students

and colleagues. They are now available electronically to all teachers through the

Learning Page Web site. Today, this alliance of teachers, connected virtually

through our Learning Page, is teaching other teachers how to use primary sources

to stimulate critical thinking in their students. But we need to reach teachers in

all of the nation’s 16,000 school districts.

We are already reaching children and their families directly through our new Web

site called America’s Library. It is fun for children and their families as well as for

educators, and is currently attracting more than 22 million ‘‘hits’’ per month. The

site combines child-friendly graphics with the incomparable American collections of

the Library in more than 4,600 stories about our nation’s past. Interactive elements

on the site teach searching with a ‘‘scavenger hunt,’’ offer a virtual tour around

America, and give the opportunity to ‘‘send a postcard’ on-line.

The Library is also lining the world’s resources with America’s schools through

its Global Gateway Initiative. This Web site represents a collaboration between the

Library of Congress and the national libraries of Russia, Brazil, Spain, and the

Netherlands. Our growing collaboration with the greatest libraries and universities

in the world, combined with the power of the Internet, puts the Library in a pivotal

position in the new era of global education. And through the Portals to the World

section of the site, the Library’s area-studies specialists provide links to vetted and

reliable materials from more than 130 countries. When completed, this project will

bring free to America’s classrooms resource materials from all the nations of the

world.

Our new monthly magazine, The Wise Guide, offers articles that encourage newcomers to our Web site to explore the wealth of the Library’s on-line educational

programs.

By being the largest provider of free noncommercial high-quality content on the

Internet, the Library is reaching students, their teachers-and all learners-with the

documents, sounds, films, maps, music, and other artifacts that tell the story of

America. This can be an inspirational as well as educational enhancement for the

new initiatives this committee is considering.

PREPARED STATEMENT OF BLANCHE DEADERICK

Good morning Senators: I am so glad to be here today supporting Senator Alexander’s proposed legislation to establish American History and Civics academies. Enhancing instruction in these areas is critical right now. We have to provide remedies

for the problems Senator Alexander has identified: civic illiteracy, problematic textbooks, and the lack of requirements in some States for American History and Civics

classes. Our student population is increasingly diverse, and we must enhance understanding of what it means to be an American for all those whose families have lived

here for generations, but also for those new arrivals who have made a conscious

choice to make their homes here in the United States.

I have been invited here to explain how the Tennessee Governor’s School for

International Studies can be a model for these academies. In its structure our school

is very similar to what is proposed in this legislation. We have a director and a diverse core faculty chosen for expertise in the subject and for their teaching skills.

Because international studies is such a broad field, we decided to make student

teams focusing on different areas. We expect them to interact and share information. This year we have four teams, one studying Latin America and Portuguese language, another focusing on Sub Saharan Africa and Hausa language, a third dealing

with East Asia and Chinese language, and the fourth studying Eastern Europe and

Russia with Russian language.

Additionally, each morning all students address issues of major significance in today’s world. This summer we will have a strong focus on the Middle East, other current flash points, environmental issues, development issues, human rights, and

NATO and other alliance systems. This is not an exhaustive list. After lunch stuVerDate 11-MAY-2000 09:27 Sep 26, 2003 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00079 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 S:\DOCS\86582 SLABOR3 PsN: SLABOR3
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dents attend issues analysis classes where they deal with foreign policy decisionmaking, democracy and the conditions necessary for its survival, political systems,

leadership, and other similar topics.

At this point we dive a little free time from 3:30 until 6:30, unless there is a visit

to museum or exhibition. We also have an international arts emphasis. For 1 week

in the afternoons, visual and performing artists provide hands on instruction, culminating in a production. Evening activities include lectures, simulations, international dancing, Model United Nations, foreign films, and international dinners.

When the time really is free, participants swim, do their laundry, read, catch up

on assignments, or just talk. You can see how intense this program is. We want to

fit as much as possible into four short weeks. Our schools were designed to serve

gifted and talented young people. I don’t know what direction the admissions process for these academies will take, but it is key that students who really care about

participating be selected.

A school for American History could be developed along these same lines. There

are so many ways to individualize instruction. Students might concentrate on specific periods of history or on topics like foreign policy through our history, the development of immigration law, or civil rights growth. Senator Alexander spoke of the

principles of American citizenship: liberty, rule of law, laissez faire, individualism,

e pluribus unum, and the separation of church and State. Each could be an area

of study for a small group at the academies, culmination in grow presentations.

These are merely suggestions. Academy faculties will develop stimulating curricula.

The important point is that instruction be unique, individualized, and unpredictable. At the Tennessee Governors School our primary goal has been to provide experiences which would not ordinarily be found in schools. We encourage our faculty

to live in the dorms with students and interact with them as much as possible.

There is never a day when students aren’t around asking questions, engaging in debates among themselves and with faculty. Sleep deprivation is the norm. But then

they return to their schools exhilarated, ready to share all their new-found knowledge.

This same scenario applies to the teacher academies. I’m sure you all know how

little time teachers have today. School teaching has become an all inclusive operation-teaching a subject, guiding, teaching manners and ethics, paper work, guarding against litigation, coaching, hall monitoring, mastering the newest computer

programs for attendance and parent contacts, lesson line, curriculum maps-the list

is endless and what suffers is preparation in the subject. Teachers hardly have time

left to read and keep up to date. This is why these academies are essential. When

these teachers go back to their schools, they will have been involved in scholarly

pursuits and will have developed lessons which reflect depth, and these lessons will

be ready to teach. This can even help with textbook problems. I can’t imagine anything better than to spend weeks in a stimulating environment with other people

focused on history and government, while someone else is taking care of the dayto-day responsibilities. Teachers will return home more knowledgeable, rested, and

ready to inspire students and other faculty.

Again and again, I encounter students who have attended Governor’s School or

who know someone who has, and I hear how their lives have been transformed by

experiences in our classrooms and during late night talk sessions. Our students are

now in the U. S. Foreign Service, in State Government, in teaching, in all kinds of

leadership positions, probably even in your offices; and many, many say that Governor’s School was the shaping event in their lives. With this legislation you can

make these same life changing experiences possible for even more students and

teachers.

PREPARED STATEMENT OF DIANE RAVITCH

My name is Diane Ravitch. I am a Research Professor of Education at New York

University and a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. I am a

historian who specializes in the history of American education. It was my honor to

serve as Assistant Secretary for the Office of Research and Improvement in the U.S.

Department of Education from 1991 to 1993.

I strongly an port this proposed legislation.

In these perilous times, with our men and women engaged in combat on the other

side of the globe, knowledge of history is clear. We rely on a volunteer force of men

and women to protect our freedoms and our way of life. We rely on them to know

what they are fighting for. They are on the battlefield and risk their lives because

they love our country and what it represents in the annals of human freedom.

Although it is customary for people of a certain age to complain about the inadequacies of the younger generation, such complaints ring hollow today. Many AmeriVerDate 11-MAY-2000 09:27 Sep 26, 2003 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00080 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 S:\DOCS\86582 SLABOR3 PsN: SLABOR3
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cans have been surprised to see the character of our young people on the battlefield.

Many of us believed the image so often projected in the movies of a younger generation that is self-centered, lazy, shallow, and lacking in purpose. Certainly our adversaries believed this portrayal and believed that we as a people were soft and fearful,

caring only for material comforts.

Now we know that the moviemakers’ depiction of mass narcissism said more

about Hollywood than it did about our young men and women. What we have

learned in these past few weeks is that this younger generation, as represented on

the battlefields of Iraq, may well be our finest generation. We have daily, almost

hourly, seen demonstrations of remarkable courage, self-discipline, compassion, and

strength. Free peoples everywhere should sleep better at night knowing that we are

protected by a strong fighting force committed to the ideals of freedom and democracy.

Our nation has time and again been required to stand up for its ideals. Each time

we do, we promise those who serve that their sacrifices will not be forgotten. We

must keep our promises. The best way to keep our promises is to make sure that

we teach the history of freedom and democratic institutions and that each generation learns again about the ideas, the heroes, the events, and the controversies that

have made it possible for us to live in a free society. We must not forget those who

have served on our behalf, nor forget why they served.

Each generation needs to learn about such important principles as equality, freedom, equal justice under law, individualism, separation of church and State, popular

sovereignty, and limited government. Each generation needs to understand the

rights and freedoms that we hold dear. Each generation needs to know how our nation was created and the struggles that it has endured in order to breathe life into

our Constitutional guarantees and institutions.

History education is one of the most important responsibilities of our schools. Unfortunately, for many years, the teaching of history had a low priority. In the 1970’s and 1980’s, history in many schools was replaced by a mishmash of ill-defined social

studies courses that taught things like group decisionmaking, consumer education,

and social science concepts. In 1983, for instance, the New York State Education Department intended to replace the chronological study of history with a thematic approach in which events were merged with big concepts and taught without regard

to cause and effect. A popular outcry prevented that from taking place.

In many States, history was submerged into social studies programs, and States

adopted social studies standards that ignored chronological history. Civics too suffered when it was separated from the study of American history. The study of history has been making a comeback in recent years. Ten years ago, only four States— California, Virginia, Massachusetts, and Texas-had history standards to guide

teachers. Today, after 10 years of popular support for academic standards, about

half the States now have history standards.

We know from the tests given by the National Assessment of Educational

Progress that our students, especially in their senior year, have low scores in American history. In fact, the performance of seniors on the NAEP in U.S. history is

worse than in any other subject, whether science, reading, or mathematics.

The greatest need in history education today is for well-prepared teachers who

have studied history and who know how to make it vivid for youngsters.

Too many States have very low requirements for those who plan to teach history.

In part, this is because of a longstanding tradition that anyone can teach history;

just stay a few pages ahead of the students in the textbook, and you too can be a

history teacher. That method is not good enough for teachers of math or science,

and it is not good enough for history teachers either.

Our young people should study history with teachers who love history, who can

go far beyond the textbook to get youngsters involved in learning about the exciting

events and controversies that bring history to life; we need teachers who know

enough about history to awaken the curiosity of their students and to encourage

them to read more than the textbooks tell them and even to question what the textbooks tell them.

Sadl the majority of those who teach history in our schools are teaching out of

their Field. According to data from the U.S. Department of Education, a majority

of history teachers in grades 7–12 lack either a college major or minor or graduate

degree in history. In many cases, they majored in education, not in an academic

subject. The only field that has more out-of-field teaching than history is the physical sciences, that is, physics and chemistry.

Many States recognize that they must make extraordinary efforts to reach out

and recruit qualified teachers of physical sciences, but there is no comparable

awareness of the conspicuous shortage of qualified teachers of history. In part, the

problem is one created by short-sighted State policies, which put more emphasis on

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pedagogical degrees than on knowledge of one’s subject. The young person with a

history degree who wants to teach may be required to take many courses in pedagogy, even another master’s degree in pedagogy, whether relevant to teaching ability or not.

Another reason for the shortage of qualified history teachers is that our universities have not addressed this need. With few exceptions, their history departments

have become highly specialized; in addition to narrow specialization, university professors tend to pride themselves on taking a highly critical, adversarial attitude toward American history and culture. Nor do university professors believe that it is

their role to teach civics along with history. Few universities have programs geared

to produce teachers of history and civics for the K–12 classrooms; they leave that

to the social studies educators, who see history as only a small part of their very

large and diffuse subject.

This is a case where Congress can help with very clear and specific goals: Supplying academies for teachers of American history and civics, as well as programs for

motivated students of American history and civics.

The need is clear. We simply do not have enough teachers who are well prepared

to teach these basic subjects. The legislative program is equally clear: to provide

academies where teachers can gain the knowledge and skills to teach American history and civics effectively.

Many teachers today would be grateful for the opportunity to strengthen their

knowledge of American history and civics in a 2-week summer institute. Many who

seek to deepen their understanding of these subjects would leap at the chance to

participate in a Presidential Academy. The models of teaching and learning developed by these academies would supply an important service to our nation’s schools.

There are many talented young people who would eagerly respond to the chance

to attend a Congressional Academy in American history and civics. For those who

love history, this would be a wonderful opportunity to inquire deeply into a field

that is usually far too compressed. Many of these young people may well become

the history teachers of the future.

One of the responsibilities of a free society is to teach its young peoples the principles of freedom and democracy. These principles do not exist in a vacuum. They

have a history. They evolved over time. They were won with the sacrifices and

struggles of generations of Americans. Students are not born understanding what

they need to know a bout our government and way of life. They runs to be taught.

This legislation will make an important contribution toward improving and

strengthening our teachers and students of history and civics, and through them,

will enrich the classrooms of America.

PREPARED STATEMENT OF RUSSELL BERG

Mr. Chairman, it is an honor to testify before this Committee on this most important issue of civic education. By promoting civic education in our schools, you and

the cosponsors of this legislation, including our Senator Christopher Dodd, have

proven that education is not an issue to be sidelined in the face of pressing current

issues. Your actions have shown us that education is a pressing current issue.

Unfortunately, to many Americans, our government seems intimidating and difficult to understand. Civic education is the key to comprehending, appreciating and

eventually participating in our democratic process. The ‘‘We the People, the Citizen

and the Constitution’’ program, which is administered by the Center for Civic Education and funded by the United States Department of Education by an act of Congress, takes the logical approach to understanding our American government, by

tracing its manifestations to their source, the Constitution.

Our Constitution provides government with powers and limitations, to ensure congruence with the Founders’ greatest hopes of a benevolent government ruling under

popular consent. To many Americans, the Constitution is a revered document, written on browned parchment with faded ink. But to my class, the Constitution is a

living gold mine of philosophical, political and social history.

Our State champion Trumbull, Connecticut ‘‘We the People’’ class is led by the

knowledgeable and charismatic Mr. Peter Sullivan. The most incredible achievement

that our class has made, and that Mr. Sullivan has in no small way facilitated, is

the critical mass of constitutional knowledge we have learned. My favorite moments

in education occur when concepts and new information can be integrated into an

overall framework of the issue. A beautiful symphony of debate and exchange miraculously manifests every morning in our class. Mr. Sullivan might bring up an issue

currently on the Supreme Court docket, or ask the class for any news they heard

the night before. An opinion is expressed by a student, a rebuttal by another. A particularly progressive member of the class might apply the issue to its broader social

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ramifications. A more critical member of the class would then appeal to our logic

and the realistic implications of the Court’s decisions.

Here, in a brew of free, creative thought, coupled with a solid foundation of constitutional knowledge on which to anchor our arguments, lies true learning. Not

learning without any application to our lives, but knowledge that sheds light and

understanding upon issues affecting a government that is involved in so many

issues that concern our daily lives. ‘‘We the People’’ was a class I signed up for at the end of my junior year, with

great expectations in mind. I had heard from many older students that the class

was more than a class. It was hard work, to be sure, but the rewards extended beyond grades and test scores.

In two weeks, our team will be competing in the National Finals for the ‘‘We the

People: The Citizen and the Constitution’’ program. Throughout the year, a common

goal has driven us together, and together forward. I have seen miraculous things

this past year. I have seen quiet, reserved students suddenly emerge, citing complex

Court cases with confidence and vigor in our daily debates. Students who many

dreaded would succumb to the great demands of the program have only flourished

to become our leaders and exemplars. Simply put, well-designed programs in civics,

such as ‘‘We the People’’, taught by teachers like Mr. Sullivan, make a difference

in the classroom.

Surely, such changes in our young people can only be for the better. A civic education, as buttressed by the ‘‘We the People’’ program, does not merely press rote

facts into receptive minds. It challenges us to use this information as support for

our own arguments and opinions. Undoubtedly, everyone in our class has learned

more than they bargained for about the U.S. Government and her Constitution. But

the benefits of this civic education extend beyond learning. This program has allowed us to become involved in the government that we spend so much time studying.

The Constitution is associated with words which reflect the importance of the

American citizen, such as ‘popular sovereignty’, ‘consensus’, and ‘majority’. It is clear

who was intended to captain the ship of America; her people. Our nation is designed

to be accessible, to its citizens and to incoming immigrants. To those who have ambition and a dream. For me, this lesson has only been confirmed by my experiences

this year. ‘‘We the People’’ is not merely a mental exercise, or a contest of effort and

knowledge. By learning about the government, one automatically becomes involved

in it. I am here today, in front of the nation’s leaders, speaking with a message I

hope to convey. I have learned in class that we are blessed with a participatory government. Now it has been proven to me.

The importance of developing these fundamental principles and values among my

generation and future generations was noted by Judge Learned Hand in an article

on liberty, published by the Yale Alumni Magazine on June 6, 1941:

‘‘I often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon constitutions,

upon laws, and upon courts. These are false hopes, believe me, these are false hopes.

Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women, when it dies there, no constitution,

no law, no court can save it; no constitution, no court, no law can even do much

to help it. While it lies there it needs no constitution, no law, no court to save

it . . . .’’

Mr. Chairman, I thank the committee for giving me the opportunity to testify.

PREPARED STATEMENT OF PHILIP D. DUNCAN

Chairman Gregg and Senator Kennedy, I am pleased to have this opportunity to

submit written testimony on behalf of the National Conference on Citizenship on the

important issue of teaching civics education in the classrooms of our Nation.

As the Committee knows, there has been a lack of focused civics education at all

levels of schooling in the United States for several decades. As President Bush recently noted, tests and studies have demonstrated that 28 percent of 8th graders

do not know why the Civil War was fought, one-third of 4th graders did not know

what it means to ‘‘pledge allegiance to the flag,’’ and 20 percent of high school seniors believed that Germany was an ally of the United States in World War II. Meanwhile, there has been a trend of disengagement from political affairs among collegeage students and recent graduates.

There is a need for innovative educational programs that will foster informed,

thoughtful and active citizen leaders among our younger generations. We believe

that bipartisan legislation such as S. 504, the American History and Civics Education Act of 2003, demonstrates that Congress is prepared to tackle the challenge

of reinvigorating classroom discussion on the events, ideas and historical figures

that unite us all as Americans. We commend Senator Alexander for taking a leaderVerDate 11-MAY-2000 09:27 Sep 26, 2003 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00083 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 S:\DOCS\86582 SLABOR3 PsN: SLABOR3
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ship role on this issue, reflecting his career as public servant, educator and innovator.

Over the decades, the National Conference on Citizenship has undertaken a variety of programs and projects aimed at promoting civic involvement and civil dialogue. The National Conference on Citizenship is a non-profit, non-partisan 501(c)(3)

organization founded in 1946 by citizens who gathered in Philadelphia and sought

to preserve the spirit of civic unity that prevailed in the U.S. during World War 11.

In its early years, the Conference received financial support from the Dept. of Justice and the National Education Association. Congress enacted legislation in August,

1953 granting the National Conference on Citizenship a federal charter, directing

it to ‘‘assist in the development of more dynamic procedures for making citizenship

more effective...’’ Public Law 257, 83rd Congress, 1st Session. Past Honorary

Chairmen have included former Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, Lyndon Johnson

and Harry Truman, and former Supreme Court Chief Justices Earl Warren and

Warren Burger, and former Justice Tom Clark.

Our Nation’s ability to raise ‘‘effective’’ citizens is linked inextricably to what goes

on in our classrooms from the earliest ages of our children. Over the 56 years that

the National Conference on Citizenship has been in existence, there has been a

great fluctuation in terms of the content of curricula at all levels. Our organization’s

mission includes efforts to commemorate Citizenship Day and Constitution Week

each September and thus raise awareness of the United States Constitution. As our

Nation has faced unprecedented challenges in the post-September 11 environment,

there has been increased discourse as to the range of Constitutional freedoms—privacy, rights of prisoners, the death penalty, free speech, just to name a few. How

can we as a society have intelligent and reasoned discourse if our young people

aren’t fully aware of the origins and nature of such rights?

Now, more than ever, it is essential that Congress support the notion of improving

civics education at all levels of schooling. Our organization is undertaking new initiatives designed to reach K-12 and college-age students and to inspire them to become active, enlightened citizens. And, we are very pleased that this Committee is

taking the time to learn more about the current state of affairs in civics education

and to consider legislation such as Senator Alexander’s comprehensive bill.

STATEMENT OF LAWRENCE M. SMALL

INTRODUCTION

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee: Thank you for the opportunity to

testify before you today to express the Smithsonian Institution’s commitment to

American History education. Americans need to be aware of the key events and

issues of our history in order to be engaged and effective citizens in a democratic

society. And now, more than ever, a knowledge and understanding of our nation’s

foundation is vital for every citizen.

Every day at the Smithsonian, Americans benefit from seeing our nation’s historic, artistic, and scientific treasures. These original, iconic objects have a power

to educate, enlighten, and inspire that is truly unique. From them, visitors learn

stories of American courage, sacrifice, and triumph. They are reminded of our willingness to fight for the values we hold dear, our ability to overcome adversity, and

our responsibilities as citizens to participate in the democratic process. Within our

great democracy, they are able to think about, freely discuss, and even argue their

nation’s history.

As the largest museum complex in the world, the Smithsonian spans sixteen museums and galleries, the National Zoo, world-class research facilities, and extensive

education and outreach programs. We are privileged to be the steward of millions

of objects that preserve the memories and experiences of the American people. We

are home to The Star Spangled Banner, Gilbert Stuart’s famous 1796 ‘‘Lansdowne’’

portrait of George Washington, the desk on which Thomas Jefferson drafted the

Declaration of Independence, the microphone FDR used for his fireside chats, and

countless other American icons. Our exhibitions tell stories of people and events

that shaped our nation, from The American Presidency: A Glorious Burden, to GI:

World War II, to Apollo to the Moon, all the way up to September I1: Bearing Witness to History.

As guardians of our nation’s greatest treasures, we at the Smithsonian are continually asking what we need to do to assure that today’s generation and the next generation of Americans can learn about our nation’s history, challenges, achievements,

and values. One way is through museum exhibitions and programming. Another

way is through a greater emphasis on American history and civics education in our

schools. Museums and schools share similar-and complementary- educational goals.

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BRINGING AMERICAN HISTORY TO LIFE

The great public mission at the Smithsonian is to create experiences that educate,

excite, entertain, and inspire Americans. The next Neil Armstrong may be moved

to reach for the stars by our new Apollo 11 website for students. A young person

who visits the Greensboro lunch counter in our National Museum of American History and hears the story of four African American students who sat down there and

politely asked for service in 1960, might be drawn to a life of activism. Or seeing

the New York City Fire Department cap that Rudolph Guiliani wore during his visits to Ground Zero might inspire a child to a career in public service. By visiting

Smithsonian exhibitions, our young people can find these stories and those of other

American heroes who have made great contributions to this country.

Our approach is comprehensive-in our museums, in our traveling exhibitions, our

publications, our teacher training, and our websites. A good example is the

Smithsonian’s groundbreaking American Presidency: A Glorious Burden exhibition,

which gives visitors a greater understanding of public service and leadership, as

well as a sense of pride in the history of the institution of the American presidency.

It includes a permanent exhibition in Washington and a traveling exhibition currently touring across the country. We have also conducted teacher workshops,

hosted an American Presidency Family Day, published a family guide and an interactive website, and produced print and web K-12 teaching guides.

COMMITMENT TO EDUCATION

The Smithsonian is far more than just a place to visit. The Institution was established in 1846 for the ‘‘increase and diffusion of knowledge.’’ For 157 years, we’ve

been working to fulfill this dual mission. Last year alone, we reached tens of millions of Americans through our education programs. But we’re committed to doing

even more. Our Center for Education and Museum Studies conducted an institutionwide survey of education, identifying the thousands of programs that the Smithsonian offers for teachers, students, and families, and laying the groundwork for strategic planning. We have made worldclass education a top priority at the Smithsonian. Our staff is working together as never before to set new educational programming standards and to better serve teachers and students. And we are making a

real difference.

Nearly 15 million students have benefited in the past year from Smithsonian educational programming, including publications, docent-led tours, museum and classroom enrichment activities, distance learning classes, visiting scholars, websites,

and publications.

In addition, we reached 1.5 million K-12 educators through publications, resources, and training designed specifically for them. Educators are clearly looking

to the Smithsonian for teaching resources. Of the 65 million visits to the

Smithsonian’s websites in the past year, one in four is searching for educational materials. We’re working hard to fill their needs; we have more than 300 educational

websites at the Smithsonian, and dozens more are under development right now.

IMPROVING THE TEACHING OF AMERICAN HISTORY

Smithsonian resources are found in every middle and elementary school in the nation. Our teaching guide to American history, Smithsonian in Your Classroom, is

sent biannually to more than 82,000 schools. We have recently launched a major

central education website, which brings together nearly 1,000 Smithsonian educational resources that can be used in the classroom. It helps users find such notable teaching resources as our award-winning ‘‘George Catlin Classroom’’ website;

our Advanced Placement site, which shows educators how to teach American history

through documents and artifacts; and our ‘‘George Washington: A National Treasure’’ site, which shows children how to explore the most important visual document

of our nation’s founding-Gilbert Stuart’s famous 1796 ‘‘Lansdowne’’ portrait of

George Washington.

The Smithsonian is also actively partnering with schools to make a real and quantifiable difference in the teaching of American History. Thanks to legislation introduced by Senator Robert Byrd, the Smithsonian is participating in two Teaching

American History grants provided by Congress and the Department of Education.

The Smithsonian is providing advanced techniques for teaching American history in

two school districts: Montgomery County in Maryland and Charlotte-Mecklenburg

in North Carolina. The teachers are learning how to use primary and secondary

sources, develop model lesson plans, and improve student performance. These threeyear grants are breaking new ground in showing how museums can make positive

contributions to the teaching of American history. After just one year, Montgomery

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County formally adopted the Smithsonian’s materials into its fourth-and fifth-grade

history curriculum, and its teachers have shown significant gains in their historyteaching skills, as well as in their personal and professional interest in American

history.

Through partnerships such as these, the Smithsonian is uniquely positioned to see

the real need for resources and training in the teaching of American history and

civics. Our partner school districts report large percentages of teachers who have

never been given the necessary training in American history. For example, in Montgomery County, one of the strongest school districts in the state, teachers have

taken an average of only three history classes in college. Less than thirty percent

have taken an American history class in the previous five years. And more than

forty percent have never had any training in how to teach history.

These data are cause for concern. If teachers don’t have the training they need,

our students will not receive an adequate understanding of the history of their own

nation. Schools clearly need direction and assistance in developing the necessary expertise within their teaching ranks. And we know they are looking for this direction

and assistance because of the hundreds of requests the Smithsonian receives each

year for materials, assistance, and potential partnerships.

CONCLUSION

The desk on which Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence is

on display in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. If you look

carefully, you can see ink stains from the first pen strokes that shaped our democracy. In these same halls, you can find the remains of a bullet-riddled tree that once

stood at the Battle of Spotsylvania during the Civil War. Now more than ever, this

tree is a reminder of the sacrifices required by liberty and freedom. These are more

than objects; they are tangible symbols of what it is to be an American.

Understanding our history is fundamental to being a good citizen. The Smithsonian Institution and the American History and Civics Education Act of 2003 share

a common goal: to ensure that our young people have a solid historical foundation

so they can understand American history and democratic principles and be prepared

to exercise their civic rights and responsibilities. As a guardian of a large portion

for our nation’s most significant historic treasure, the Smithsonian is eager to contribute to the teaching of American history and civics. Museums have so much to

offer schools, and we know that we can do so much more by working together.

STATEMENT OF ROBIN BUTTERFIELD

PUTTING NATIVE AMERICANS BACK INTO AMERICAN HISTORY

Introduction. Chairman Gregg and Members of the Committee, thank you for this

opportunity to submit testimony on behalf of the National Indian Education Association with regard to the American History and Civics Education Act of 2003, S. 504.

The National Indian Education Association (NIEA) is the oldest and largest national organization representing the education concerns of over 3,000 American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian educators, tribal leaders, school administrators, teachers, parents, and student members. Founded in 1969, the NIEA works

to support traditional Native cultures and values and to provide American Indians

and Alaskan Natives with a national voice in their efforts to improve access to educational opportunities.

The role of Native Americans in the development of the American democracy often

has been overlooked or misrepresented. For years, American History and Civics

textbooks did not do justice to the role of Indians in American history, nor their part

in the development of the American government. Instead, to the extent Indians were

mentioned at all, they were either romanticized as the ‘‘Noble Savage’’ or described

as impediments to the realization of the Manifest Destiny of the United States to

extend its reach from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Fortunately, in recent years, a

number of states, including California, Montana and Minnesota, have required curriculum changes to include teaching on American Indian history. Hopefully, more

will do so in the near future.

For Indian people, the link between education and culture is fundamental. Unfortunately, this can work for good or for ill. For years, the Federal government used

education as a tool to force assimilation on Indian peoples, most notably during the

period when Federal Indian policy required Indian children to attend boarding

schools where they were prohibited from speaking their native languages. The motto

of the Federal government during that time was: ‘‘Kill the Indian, Save the Man.’’

This policy was morally repugnant and did great harm to Indian culture and identity. In this context, it is all the more important that when the Federal government

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promotes the teaching of American History and Civics that it specifically include the

role and contribution of Native Americans. From our standpoint, it is not possible

for Americans to fully understand American democracy unless they also understand

the rich traditions of precontact Indian societies, the roles Indians played directly

in the development of American democracy, and the devastation of forced assimilation and the loss of tribal lands, which all contributed in one way or another to the

development of that democracy.

Native Americans have played a substantial role in the development of the key

institutions and democratic heritage of the United States. American democracy was

not developed in a vacuum. The American colonists had to look no farther than their

next-door neighbor, the Iroquois Confederacy, to find a working ‘‘federal’’ system of

government. The Iroquois Confederacy consisted of a federation of five, and then

later six, Indian nations governed by a United Council of elected tribal leaders

under the Great Law of Peace. The sophisticated tenets of governance that sustained the Iroquois Confederacy-equal rights (including full rights for woman, something not realized by the United States until the early 20th Century), freedom of

speech, religious tolerance, balance of power, a mix of individualism combined with

concern for the common welfare-provided a sharp contrast to the tyrannical system

of George In and the divine rights of European monarchies. Benjamin Franklin, who

incorporated many of the same governing principles into his draft of the historic Albany Plan, stated ‘‘It would be a strange thing . . . if Six Nations [the Iroquois

Confederacy]... should be capable of forming such a union and be able to execute

it in such a manner that it has subsisted for ages and appears indissoluble, and

yet that a like union should be impractical for ten or a dozen English colonies, to

whom it is more necessary and must be more advantageous...’’ It only makes

sense that the colonists and the Native peoples would exchange not only trade

goods, but ideas. Indeed, in October 1998, the Senate and the House passed Congressional Resolution 331 which formally acknowledged ‘‘the contributions of the Iroquois Confederacy of Nations to the development of our Constitution.’’

Another example of Indian contributions to American democracy is the caucus.

The word ‘‘caucus’’ is taken directly from the Algonquin language. The colonists

adopted both the word and the idea from the Algonquin Indians.

American Indians have made great contributions to the defense of the United

States. Despite the often tragic history between the United States and its Indian

peoples, American Indians have made major contributions to the defense of this

land and to the preservation of American democracy. American Indians per capita

have received the Medal of Honor and have volunteered in larger numbers for the

armed forces than any other group in this country. Native Americans were granted

U.S. citizenship in 1924 as a direct result of the overwhelming number of Native

American volunteers who signed up to defend the United States during World War

I. Today, Native Americans are proud of both their U.S. citizenship and their tribal

citizenship. In 2001, President Bush awarded Congressional Gold Medals to the

Navajo Codetalkers for their extraordinary service in the Pacific Campaign during

World War II relaying encoded messages in the Navajo language. The Japanese

never broke this code. Military historians have indicated that these secure communications contributed enormously to U.S. successes in this theater.

American Democracy Includes a Respect for Tribal Sovereignty. The inclusion of

Native American history in any discussion of American History and Civics is also

essential for understanding the unique relationship between the United States government and federally recognized tribes that exists today. The Constitution of the

United States, treaties, federal statutes, Executive Orders, other agreements and

Supreme Court rulings define the Federal government’s trust obligations to protect

the interests of Indian peoples. They also set forth Federal recognition of Indian

tribes as sovereign nations with inherent powers of self-governance.

Proposed Amendments to S. 504. The National Indian Education Association supports the goals of S. 504. It is critically important for Americans to have a deeply

grounded understanding of American history. This includes, however, the often forgotten history of Native Americans. The NIEA would like to see S. 504 amended

to specifically provide for recognition of Native Americans, their contributions to

American democracy, and their ongoing contributions to American history. Specifically, NIEA recommends the following amendments:

Section 2(1): Adding to the end of the definition of ‘‘American history and civics’’

the following: ‘‘, including Native American contributions.’’

Section 2(4): Adding to the end of the definition of ‘‘key documents’’ the following:

‘‘the Great Law of Peace.’’

Section 2(7): Adding to the definition of ‘‘key persons’’, after the words ‘‘elected

officials’’ the following: ‘‘Native American leaders,’’

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Section 5(d)(3): Adding at the end of this paragraph the following: ‘‘including Indian tribes and tribal education departments.’’

Conclusion. We hope that these comments are helpful. The NIEA looks forward

to working with this Committee to achieve the laudable goal of increasing the understanding of American history and civics.

[Whereupon, at 12:03 p.m., the committee was adjourned.]

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