With the 250th birthday party of our Declaration of Independence slated for July 4, 2026, federal, state, and local governments, as well as private organizations, are laying plans for the celebration. America 250, for instance, already has the birthday cake in the oven and candles and party hats at the ready, with several activities either underway or on tap, some of them centered on children and teens.
The year leading up to this Independence Day bash offers all of us the opportunity to join in these preparations in one special way: choosing to learn more about the history of our country. Moreover, we can make this semiquincentennial celebration a North Star of inspiration and work to imbue our young people with knowledge about the past even after the fireworks and backyard barbecues have ended.
Too many Americans of all ages know too little about even the rudiments of civics and history, and this trend is only getting worse. In 2022, for instance, the Nation’s Report Card reported that 40% of students tested scored below the Basic level in American history. Another 46% tested at the Basic level, with only 14% reaching the Proficient level.
In 2018, the now late popular historian David McCullough lamented this widespread decline in familiarity with historical figures and events:
I know how much these young people, even at the most esteemed institutions of higher learning, don’t know. History is often taught in categories, women’s history, African-American history, environmental history, so that many of the students have no sense of chronology. They have no idea of what followed what. Many contemporary textbooks are so politically correct to be comic. Very minor characters that are currently fashionable are given considerable space, whereas people of major consequence farther back are given very little space or none at all. History gives us a sense of proportion. It is an antidote to a lot of unfortunately human trends, like self-importance and self-pity. I think that in some ways I knew more American history when I finished grade school than many college students know today. And that’s not their fault, that’s our fault.
McCullough’s comment about grade school rings true with me. Over the years, I’ve run into Americans – adults as well as young people – who have little idea how the Constitution was created, when the Civil War took place, or what countries we were fighting in World War II.
As McCullough says, that fault lies with the rest of us. Teachers in all levels of education deserve some of the blame. The textbooks used in classrooms often come with a politicized point of view, and are dull in the bargain. And as the primary educators of their children, parents are culpable as well in failing to teach their children the history of their country.
These failures come with consequences. For one, ill-informed citizens are wide-open to all sorts of dangerous misconceptions, mistaking radical socialism as some sort of utopia worth pursuit, or labeling as Hitler anyone with whom they disagree. History taught on the slant is the yeast that breeds dangerous ideologies contravening life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, those three basic ingredients of our Declaration of Independence and the American Dream.
Arrogance makes an appearance as well, when we regard ourselves as morally and mentally superior to ancestors about whom we know little. The often overlooked proverb, “Pride goeth before a fall,” applies to nations as well as to individuals, and as McCullough noted, our knowledge of history is an antidote to this poison of self-importance.
But the greatest danger wrought by this ignorance is this: You can’t truly love what you don’t know. Ignorance of the American past means that patriotism, the love for one’s country, will disappear, which in turn transforms that country into a hollow shell of its former self.
It’s well past time that we made the effort to give our children and teenagers the heritage and knowledge of history they deserve. In my next article, we’ll look at some ways that anyone – parents, teachers, mentors – can help American history come alive for elementary-aged students.
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The republication of this article is made possible by The Fred & Rheta Skelton Center for Cultural Renewal.
Image Credit: Picryl
