Dr. Ferrier is president of the Declaration Foundation, a communications center for founding principles.
The educrats and shallow politicians may not like to admit it, but there is a war going on in education, and New Jersey, the location of Washington's great revolutionary victories at Trenton and Princeton, is among the battlefronts. So too are Ohio, Florida, and Texas, where piety for the Founding is winning in new legislation, unlike in NJ. There, mandates to teach the Founding and honor the Declaration of Independence are on their way to becoming law. In NJ, the tide may be running the other way.
Here is a bit more from the Times:
“'This is what you call a historical irresponsibility,' said David Saxe, a Penn State University education professor who reviews state history standards nationwide for the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation in Washington. The foundation gave the New Jersey history standards a failing grade the last time it reviewed them.”
State school officials like Jay Doolan, the acting assistant commissioner of the state's Division of Academic and Career Standards, offer the usual bafflegab: “they do not need to list all the well-known historical figures — like other states' history or social studies standards do — because teachers will know they have to talk about the country's first president and the other Founding Fathers when the lesson on American history comes up,” reports the Times. Sure. “And the little streams of alcohol go trickling down the rocks, in the Big Rock Candy Mountain.”
The Times reports, “'[The word] Pilgrim implies religion,' said Brian Jones, vice president for Communications and Policy at the Education Leaders Council in Washington. 'It's getting more difficult to talk about the Bible and the Puritans.'”
Oh, excuse me. It's getting hard to tell the truth? Well then, let us tell lies. They are, after all, ever so much more comfortable! Let us lie, and say that the American Founding had no relation to Religion. Let us ignore the references to God in the Declaration, and the constant prayers and days of fasting or thanksgiving proclaimed by our forefathers. Let us lie, and say that the Puritans did not come here for religious liberty. Let us ignore the fact that New Jersey's most prominent Signer of the Declaration, John Witherspoon, was a clergyman! Let us lie, and not say that George Washington stands astride the currents of history like a Titan!
The Times goes on: “John Fonte, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington, charged that the state of New Jersey is not interested in getting to the core of American history. 'Obviously, there are anti-patriotic forces at work at the New Jersey legislature.'
Mr. Fonte is referring to the 13-year-long debate that has gone on in the state legislature on whether to allow public school students to recite a passage from the Declaration of Independence.
Last summer, the New Jersey state legislature rejected the measure, which would have required students to recite a 56-word passage from the document every day.
Mr. Doolan said the new history standards are only in their first draft and will undergo 20 public hearings before approval. 'If people are that upset, then they should let us know at the public hearings,' he said. 'If we get feedback from people who think we should include the names of George Washington or Thomas Jefferson in the standards, then we'll do it.'”
One hardly knows what to say in the face of this folly. The American Founding, the glorious Novus Ordo Seclorum, praised by such diverse voices as Winston Churchill, Alexis DeTocqueville, Lech Walensa and John Paul II is “too religious,” for the delicate sensibilities of the children of New Jersey in the 21st Century. The Doctrine of Natural Rights as a gift of the Creator, and the tales of the men who held that Doctrine, cannot be mandated in the public schools of a state that shared in the Revolution carried out under the banner of the Declaration that proclaimed those Truths!
But there is hope. Mr. Doolan claims that he and his fellow educrats will respond to “feedback.” In another age, that feedback might have taken the excessive form of tar and feathers. Now all it need be is reason and mocking laughter for the Politically Correct Pooh-Bahs of the New Jersey Department of Education.
It will be deeply interesting to see whether the citizens of New Jersey in this day will show the spirit and sense needed to correct these flaccid and servile standards. Their fellow citizens in Ohio and Texas and Florida and elsewhere are at work making standards and laws that will teach the Declaration and its story. All Americans should watch the outcome of these struggles with attention and interest. The liberty of our posterity may be at stake.
Copyright 2002 Catholic Exchange
