What you don't know can hurt you By Nat Hentoff
Thu Jul 13, 6:53 AM ET
One day years ago, interviewing the usually cheerful Justice William Brennan in his Supreme Court chambers, I found him troubled. "Liberty," he said, "is a fragile thing. The Framers knew that. How can we bring the words of the Bill of Rights off the page into the lives of students?"
Were he still here, that paladin of individual liberties would have been even more troubled reading the words of retired justice Sandra Day O'Connor on this page: "Public schools have pretty much stopped teaching government, civics and American history. ... I truly don't know how long we can survive as a strong nation if our younger citizens don't understand the nature of our government. ... That is something you have to learn. It just isn't handed down in the genetic pool."
Add Sen. Lamar Alexander (news, bio, voting record), R-Tenn., who is trying to get his American History Achievement Act - to test the degree of knowledge in schools - through Congress. He points out that half the states don't require a course in U.S. government.
A few years ago, I supported the City University of New York's decision mandating the teaching of American history on all its campuses. I was denounced by several department heads for "jingoism." They insisted "world history" be taught instead.
What students believe
Not surprisingly, a Knight Foundation national survey last year of more than 100,000 high school students on "The Future of the First Amendment" found that 73% either had no opinion or said they took the First Amendment for granted, whatever that meant. Moreover, 36% believed that before publishing, newspapers must first get government approval.
As for this nation's adults, in an American Bar Association poll last summer, a little more than half of those surveyed were able to name the three branches of our government. Fewer than half had any idea what "the separation of powers" means.
Since congressional oversight of this president's powers has been lame - and more of our federal courts are yielding to the administration's invoking of "state secrets" to dismiss cases critical of expanding presidential powers - even fewer Americans will know that the Framers insisted on the separation of powers.
In April, Michael Greco, president of the American Bar Association, warned - without hyperbole - that "many Americans do not even know the basics of how their government works, and that is a long-term threat to our democracy. ... When people do not understand their rights, it's easy for others to take those rights away." And those who would take those rights away are not just our external enemies.
But the Constitution still lives - as an increasing number of organizations are educating school boards and principals across the country in effectively teaching the roots of Americanism:
• The Constitutional Rights Foundation Chicago, for example, provides programs and curriculums for elementary and secondary school students - and their teachers - in Chicago and across the USA. This foundation participates in the annual Youth for Justice National Teach-In, a program in which middle and high school students learn about our American democracy. Its associate director, Nisan Chavkin, said a lively discussion took place during a Chicago teach-in on the Second Amendment and gun control. Special education students led a debate with their peers from regular classes - a useful example of creative teaching.
• The Bill of Rights Institute, in Arlington, Va., has reached teachers across the country with constitutional seminars - I've spoken at one; week-long summer institutes for teachers; and instructional materials and lesson plans, including original sources, posters and the like, that make American history come alive.
• The Illinois First Amendment Center, based in Springfield, has an active national reach and provides curriculum guides from kindergarten to college. The chairman is John Foreman, who, in his day job, is publisher of The News-Gazette in Champaign, Ill. He tells me: "Our materials have been requested by schools in all 50 states, something we never expected."
A call for 'renewal'
When I speak at schools, telling stories of how this country got the Bill of Rights and what it has taken to keep those individual liberties, I quote Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy: "The Constitution needs renewal and understanding each generation, or it's not going to last."
And then I tell the students one of the consequences if it doesn't last, invoking George Orwell: "If large numbers of people are interested in freedom of speech, there will be freedom of speech, even if the law forbids it; if public opinion is sluggish, inconvenient minorities will be persecuted, even if laws exist to protect them."
I also suggest the students get a paperback copy of Mr. Orwell's chilling, increasingly contemporary novel, 1984.
Nat Hentoff is an authority on education, free speech issues and the Bill of Rights.
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