Producing good citizens trumps ideological short-sightedness

By Nancy Salvato
web posted January 9, 2006

Written in the text of "We the People: The Citizen and the
Constitution" is something I believe with my heart and soul,
"Freedom requires us to live as self-reliant individuals, to think
for ourselves, to solve our own problems, to cope with
uncertainty and change, and to assist and respect others." Only if
those living under the protection of our Constitution understand
this, can we maintain our way of life. This requires an educated
citizenry that understands the responsibilities inherent in a
"Democratic Republic." The WTP authors make it clear that the
Founders believed that good "Citizens are made, not born."

Unfortunately, our public school system is not nearly as
concerned with creating good citizens as with making sure that
our students don't hold any prejudice for classmates with
different values or lifestyles. Governor Jeb Bush wrote about this
in "Virtuous Reality: Character-Building in the Information Age" (
http://www.leaderu.com/common/virtuous.html) when he said,

Virtues, grounded in universal moral absolutes, represent
standards of behavior that are fixed and firm in any civilized
society. Values, on the other hand, refer to a system of
individualized beliefs and preferences. Everyone has values --
even Nazis and street gangs. Overemphasizing values
accentuates our differences, so that the values of self-expression
and individualism now trump the virtues of deferred gratification,
responsibility, and commitment to family.

While public policy over the last three decades focused more on
recognizing the differences between groups of people and their
competing value systems, it did little in the way of reinforcing the
common bonds between all peoples -- the moral absolutes that
transcend politics, race, and gender. Virtues, and the moral
imperatives implied by them, were either lost in the debate or
they were mischaracterized as values -- subjective and relative,
personal, and specific to a particular person or group.

The fact is the public school system is not turning out good
citizens. According to William Lind, who writes about this in
"What is Political Correctness" one reason for this is the agenda
of "Political Correctness" or "Cultural Marxism" which seeks to
achieve "a society not merely of equal opportunity, but equal
condition." This vision contradicts human nature, "because
people are different, they end up unequal, regardless of the
starting point – society will not accord with it unless forced.
Political Correctness takes over freedom of speech, press, and
thought." (
http://www.freecongress.org/PC_Essays/B_Intro_and_chapter_
one.pdf)

"Political Correctness" has been helped along by the nation's
courts, which have gone too far in taking religion out of public
life. Recently Brit Hume hosted a show on FOX, "Religion in
America: Church and State." in which he exposes the myth of the
wall of separation. Rather than Supreme Court Justices citing as
precedent the two clauses in the First Amendment which protect
freedom of religion (The "establishment" clause prohibits the
federal government from establishing one or more official
religions or churches for the nation. The "free exercise" clause
prevents the government from putting unreasonable restrictions
on particular religious practices.), our justices cite the wall of
separation coined by Thomas Jefferson in a letter written to the
Danbury Baptist Association in 1802 to answer a letter from
them written in October 1801.

According to a Melinda, a blogger on "The Stand To Reason" (
http://72.14.203.104/search?q=
cache:FPI21Re1VfEJ:str.typepad.com/+Brett+Hume+FOX++
Church+and+State&hl=en),

It was a Supreme Court case in 1947 that introduced this phrase
from a letter by Thomas Jefferson - "church and state" - into the
modern debate.  And, in fact, it has framed the debate in a way
that many Constitutional lawyers describe as a complete reversal
of what the First Amendment means.  Instead of making no law,
giving no favors, it has come to be used to discriminate against
religion, they argue.  The Supreme Court decision extended the
amendment to apply not only to the Federal government but
state governments, and claimed that the "wall" should be high and
impenetrable.  This has become the precedent for the last 60
years.

The attack on Judeo/Christian influence been demonstrated time
and again in attacks on public displays of religious symbols, the
phrase "under God" in the pledge of allegiance, and by taking
public prayer out of school, etc.

It used to be that we began learning to be citizens in early
childhood. We learned to think for ourselves in our homes and in
the classroom. In "We the People" students learn that the
founders acknowledged the value of organized religion in
promoting virtue. They believed that,

Virtuous behavior, which enabled people to control their
passions, would produce upright, responsible citizens. The
founders recognized the importance of education to good
citizenship. For the American experiment in republican self
government to succeed, each of its citizens had to be schooled in
ideals and principles upon which that experiment was based.
Formal schooling together with a free press became a priority in
the early years of the new republic.

The federal government is charged with protecting our way of
life. Producing the text "We the People: The Citizen and the
Constitution" is one way for the federal government to help
ensure that the public schools help create civically minded
citizens, not "Politically Correct" socialists who depend on others
to decide what they think, how they will take care of themselves,
and what laws we live by. While I don't believe that the federal
government should be in the education business (nor the
teacher's unions for that matter), the federal government has a
responsibility to ensure that we maintain our way of life and if this
textbook is what my federal tax dollars are going to support,
then I am in full accordance with this legitimate use of public
money.

Nancy Salvato is the President of The Basics Project,
(www.Basicsproject.org) a non-profit, non-partisan research
and educational project whose mission is to promote the
education of the American public on the basic elements of
relevant political, legal and social issues important to our country.
She is also a Staff Writer, for the New Media Alliance, Inc., a
non-profit (501c3) coalition of writers and grass-roots media
outlets, where she contributes on matters of education policy.
Copyright © Nancy Salvato 2005

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