The Classics belong in the education of every American. They contain a unique fund of stimulating and important ideas, exercise mental skills and the imagination, sharpen awareness of the complexities of a nation's culture, and underlie America's most cherished institutions and values. Classics are fundamentally civilizing. For these reasons, Classics support the most basic goal of education in America, to produce knowledgeable, productive, and thinking citizens.
American education strives to produce knowledgeable and concerned citizens.
The democratic process depends on a citizenry actively engaged in the pressing issues of the day with a critical judgment informed by social, political, and cultural perspectives. Because of American's unique historical roots and because of the preoccupation of Greek and Roman civilization with issues of political and moral choice, the Classics are a valued component of this educational task. For example, the historical development of ancient Rome extensively and naturally parallels that of the United States. The legacy of Greece and Rome can be viewed from two traditional points of view. On the one hand, Classical works comprise an ideal to which subsequent creative works in western civilization refer.