Guest Commentary by Herb London

Commentary
Herbert London: The coming crisis in American citizenship
Herbert London, The Examiner
Dec 1, 2006 3:00 AM (5 days ago)

WASHINGTON - The Intercollegiate Studies Institute recently completed a study on American civic literacy that should serve as a wake-up call for every educator in the country. Since America’s founding, leaders have argued that our nation cannot be free and ignorant at the same time. Yet, if this study can be relied on, that is precisely the predicament we find ourselves in.

Charles Eliot, former president at Harvard, once said, “The reason there is so much intelligence at the college is freshman bring so much in and seniors take so little out.” Eliot’s glib assertion was actually prescient.

According to the study, “There is a trivial difference between college seniors and their freshman counterparts regarding knowledge of America’s heritage.” Overall, college seniors failed the civic literacy exam. More than half could not identify the century when the first American colony was established in Jamestown. And a majority did not recognize Yorktown as the battle that brought the American Revolution to an end.

In addition, more than half of the college seniors did not know the Bill of Rights prohibits the establishment of an official religion and, remarkably, nearly half did not know that The Federalist Papers were written in support of the Constitution’s ratification.

What is going on here? The most highly educated generation, if one is reliant on college attendance, seems to know very little and, more significantly, does not learn very much while in the academy. Thorstein Veblen’s comment that students “are trained in incapacity” takes on new and poignant meaning.

Some might argue that these results apply to marginal colleges and universities, but they would be wrong. An Ivy League education contributes nothing to a student’s civic knowledge. Of the 50 schools in the survey, including Brown and Yale, 16 showed “negative learning,” to wit: The seniors in these colleges scored lower than freshman, “suggesting that they will graduate with even less civic knowledge than what little they had as freshmen.”

What is self-evident is that colleges that require a course in American history and institutions outperform those schools that do not. In fact, civic learning appears to be related to a traditional core curriculum. A lesser-known college such as Calvin College achieved a high ranking partly because its students took an average of 1.5 philosophy courses compared to 0.8 philosophy courses taken by seniors at Yale, Berkeley and Johns Hopkins.

Similarly, the study suggests that civic learning is related to active citizenship. Students with knowledge of American history tend to be more engaged in voting, community service and political campaigns. Clearly, family discussion helps to compensate for deficiencies at colleges. But whether it can compensate fully for curriculum omissions is unclear.

It should be obvious — but often isn’t — that our democratic republic needs to be nourished by citizens well versed in our traditions and unique institutions.

Unfortunately as this extraordinary study reveals, America’s colleges and universities are failing in this mission, leaving many college seniors bereft of the fundamental knowledge good citizenship demands.

Where will this ignorance of American life lead? It is hard to predict. But on one matter there cannot be any doubt: A people unfamiliar with their traditions will not be ardent about defending them.

America needs citizens well-versed in how exceptional this nation is.

If our colleges cannot produce these people, our enemies will know how to exploit this vulnerability.

Some might contend that is already happening. That is why we should all be indebted to ISI for this study and why it is time for our colleges and universities to address this fundamental need.

Herbert London is president of Hudson Institute and professor emeritus of New York University. He is the author of Decade of Denial (Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books, 2001).