Weekly Opinion Editorial
CIVICS IS NOT THE ANSWER
by Steve Fair
On Saturday, the SW Oklahoma
Republican Women held their annual Beans & Baskets fundraiser in Altus. The keynote speaker was Nick Adams, a 33 year
old Australian native, who has written four books on American
exceptionalism. Adams is a Fox News
commentator and a highly sought speaker.
President Trump is one of his biggest fans. The POTUS has twice tweeted that out his
admiration for Adams and has been photographed carrying one of Adams’ books
aboard Air Force One.
Adams heads up a 501c3
organization- FLAG- that is publishing America’s founding documents, The
Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, in simple easy to understand formats
for elementary students. Adams claims over
500,000 students in all 50 states have copies of their version of the
Constitution. Adams is a very organized,
articulate, polished, impressive speaker.
His analysis of what is wrong with America- in particular the ‘political
correctness’ movement- is right on target. Adams believes restoring ‘civics’ to
America’s classrooms will save the country.
While commendable, expanding civics and stopping political correctness
will not save America.
America school children
should study civics. Civics is the study
of the rights and duties of citizenship.
If you are a citizen in a country, you should know something about the
country’s founding, the system of government the country uses, and how it works. Sadly, many schools across America do not
teach civics and if they do, it has a liberal slant. That has resulted in widespread ignorance in millennials. In
2006, The National Assessment Governing Board, found that only 24% of
fourth-graders, 22% of eighth- graders and 27% of twelfth graders were
proficient in U.S. history and had working knowledge in how America’s
government works. In a more recent study
carried out in 2015 for the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA),
more than 80 percent of college seniors at 55 top-ranked universities tested on
their knowledge of American history and government received grades of D or
F. It’s tragic that we have failed to
teach a generation of children anything about our country.
Adams also advocates for
the teaching of American exceptionalism.
The concept of American exceptionalism was first mentioned in 1831 by
Alexis de Tocqueville. Exceptionalism is
a concept that the United States is founded on principles of personal liberty, capitalism,
and a belief that all rights are God given, not granted by the government. As long as it is understood that every
American, like every other human being is a fallen creatures and fallen
creatures create flawed systems of government, it’s fine to refer to America as
exceptional as compared to other nations.
The problem is many who talk about American exceptionalism are talking
about patriotism, not our system of government.
Nick Adam’s assessment of
what is wrong in America- apathy and political correctness- is right, but his
solution treats the symptom, not the disease.
The only thing that truly will change America is the gospel of Jesus
Christ. The real void in this country is
not the lack of teaching of civics in the classroom- it’s the lack of preaching
of truth from pulpits. Americans want
their ears tickled, but not their hearts pricked and consumer driven churches
have accommodated them. Until that
changes, it won’t get any better.
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