CEO's Corner

As a new school year begins, we should recall the vital role that an educated citizenry plays in keeping representative government alive. Our nation’s founders considered education to be a critical underpinning of the unique form of government that they struggled to establish during the American Revolution. “No republic can maintain itself in strength,” Thomas Jefferson asserted, without “general education, to enable every man to judge for himself what will secure or endanger his freedom.” Among the suggestions in his 1776 essay Thoughts on Government, John Adams noted: “Laws for the liberal education of youth . . . are so extremely wise and useful, that, to a humane and generous mind, no expense for this purpose would be thought extravagant.”

Numerous surveys—including The American Revolution Center’s own recent study — confirm an alarming erosion of knowledge of our founding history and principles among our citizens. The Marist Poll, the first college-based survey center, found that more than one quarter of Americans did not know that the United States won its independence from Great Britain. Cynics may explain such trends by noting that we are a forward-looking people, more interested in the future than in the past, but the guiding hand of history is clear to those who know where we have been.

Our children and grandchildren are our greatest hope for liberty and freedom at home and around the world. We need to ensure that they learn the history and ideals that have inspired our greatest achievements and sustained our nation in its moments of deepest peril.

The American Revolution Center is doing its part to promote history education with on-line educational resources for students, teachers, and the general public, including lesson plans and links to other organizations that keep the ideals of the American Revolution alive. On our Connections page, you will find information about places that figure prominently in the Revolution. Together, we will continue the centuries-long struggle to ensure that our precious birthright of freedom endures.

Bruce Cole, President and CEO