[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 48 (Thursday, March 19, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3567-S3571]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. ALEXANDER:
  S. 659. A bill to improve the teaching and learning of American 
histroy and civics; to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and 
Pensions.
  Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, on a day in a week when there is a lot 
of news where people are hurting in a serious economy, I have some good 
news to report, and it will just take me a few minutes to do it. Our 
senior Senator, Mr. Byrd, Senator Ted Kennedy, who is chairman of the 
Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, and I introduced 
legislation today that will help push the teaching of U.S. history in 
our classrooms. The way I like to describe it is by saying this: that 
it will help to put the teaching of American history and civics back in 
its rightful place, in our classrooms, so our children can grow up 
learning what it means to be an American.
  The legislation which we have introduced would expand summer 
academies for outstanding teachers, authorize new teacher programs, 
require States to set standards for the teaching and learning of U.S. 
History, and create new opportunities to compare the tests that 
students take on U.S. history.

[[Page S3568]]

  Specifically, the legislation would, No. 1, authorize 100 new summer 
academies for outstanding students and teachers of U.S. history and 
align those academies with locations in our national park system, such 
as the John Adams' House in Massachusetts or the Independence Hall in 
Philadelphia. I see the pages sitting here today. They are real 
students of U.S. history because they live it and learn it each day 
they are here. I don't know what their scores are on the advanced 
placement tests for U.S. history, but I know one fact, which the Chair 
may be interested in learning: The highest scores in any high school in 
America on the advanced placement test for U.S. history is not from a 
New England prep school or a Tennessee prep school or an elite school 
in some rich part of America; it is from the page school of the House 
of Representatives. They had better scores on U.S. history than any 
other high school. I don't know what the Senate page scores were, so I 
won't compare them.

  The point is--and this is an idea David McCullough, a well-known 
author, had: We would expand the number of presidential and 
congressional academies for outstanding students and teachers and have 
them placed in the National Park Service initiative.
  Second, the bill we've introduced today would double the 
authorization of funding for the teaching of American history programs 
in local school districts, which today involve 20,000 students as a 
part of the No Child Left Behind Act.
  Third, it would require States to develop and implement standards for 
student assessments in U.S. history, although there would be no Federal 
reporting requirement, as there is now for reading and mathematics.
  Finally, it would allow States to compare history and civics student 
test scores in the 8th and 12th grades by establishing a 10-State pilot 
program expanding the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP), 
which is also called the ``Nation's Report Card.'' We have a tradition 
in the Senate where each of us, when we first arrive, make a maiden 
speech. We still call it that. Most of us pick a subject that is 
important to us. I made mine almost exactly 6 years ago, on March 4, 
2003. The subject was something I cared about then and care about today 
and on which we have made some progress.
  I argued, as I mentioned earlier, it was time to put the teaching of 
American history and civics back in its rightful place in our schools 
so as our children grow, they can learn what it means to be an 
American. On the ``Nation's Report Card,'' our worst scores for our 
seniors in high school are not in math or science but in U.S. history. 
It will be very difficult for us as a country to succeed if we don't 
learn where we came from.
  I ask unanimous consent that the speech I made 6 years ago be printed 
in the Record immediately following my remarks.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Begich). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  (See Exhibit 1.)
  Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that if Senator 
Byrd and Senator Kennedy make statements today on this legislation, as 
I believe they will, that our statements be put in the Record in about 
the same place, with Senator Byrd's first, then Senator Kennedy's, and 
mine third.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, in the speech I made 6 years ago, I 
called it the American History and Civics Education Act. I suggested we 
create summer academies for outstanding students and teachers of 
American history. The idea was to create one of those academies focused 
on American history and civics for teachers and one for students and to 
see how they worked and to gradually expand them.
  These presidential academies for students and teachers were modeled 
after the Tennessee Governors School, which I began when I was Governor 
of Tennessee, which still continue today, after 20 years. They are 
relatively inexpensive. They are 2-, 3-, or 4-week schools for 
students, and one for teachers. They held students in a variety of 
subjects, such as mathematics, science, the arts, international 
studies. They come together for a while and inspire one another, and 
then they go back to their schools and inspire their fellow students. 
They have been a great success in Tennessee and in other States.
  Senator Reid, the majority leader, was the whip at that time. He was 
on the floor when I made my remarks and he asked to be the prime 
cosponsor of the legislation, and he was. Senator Kennedy, who has had 
a long interest in U.S. history, takes his family once a year to some 
an historical part of the United States. A couple years ago, they went 
into Virginia and saw where Patrick Henry made his famous speech. I kid 
him and say he cares so much about history because he is a part of it 
in such a big way. Senator Kennedy heard about the proposal, and he 
went along the Democratic side and rounded up 20 cosponsors of the 
legislation. So, Senator Kennedy, Senator Reid and I and several 
Republican Senators introduced a bill. We had a hearing during which 
Senator Byrd testified on behalf of my proposal for summer academies. 
It passed the Senate and the House, and we have had those summer 
academies now for three summers. One of those is at the Ashland 
University in Ashland, OH, which has been a great success. I see the 
students and teachers every summer. I bring them on the Senate floor, 
and it has been proven that it is good for teachers and good for our 
country. So that is the reason we want to expand those programs. We 
also felt we would meet as a group--those of us who have something to 
do with U.S. history here--and we met with the Library of Congress and 
with other parts of the Federal Government and many of us are involved 
in helping Americans learn more about our country's history, especially 
young people. As part of that, we thought it would be wise to try to 
consolidate in one section of the Elementary and Secondary Education 
Act--which we call No Child Left Behind--the various programs we 
already have for U.S. history and then to expand those that seemed 
worthwhile.
  That is what this legislation does. There is a great need for it. I 
mentioned earlier that it is our worst subject for high school, even 
though some of our pages seem to do pretty well. Very few students 
score at or above the proficient level on the American history exam 
conducted by the National Assessment for Education Progress. Twenty 
percent of fourth graders were proficient in U.S. history, 17 percent 
of eighth graders were proficient in U.S. history, and 12 percent of 
high school seniors were proficient in U.S. history.
  In addition, the No Child Left Behind Act may have had the 
unintentional effect of reducing the focus on U.S. history, as some 
school districts have concentrated their efforts on reading and 
mathematics. Therefore, it is appropriate and necessary to improve and 
expand State and local efforts to increase the understanding and 
awareness of American history and to do it, of course, in a way that 
doesn't preempt State and local responsibility and authority for 
elementary and secondary education.
  Therefore, what the legislation we are doing today will do is expand 
the summer academies. We call them presidential academies for teachers 
and congressional academies for students. Those academies were created 
in 2004 to the number of 100 in the summer gradually over the years. 
The priority would be to place those academies in the National Park 
Service's national centennial parks initiative so the Library of 
Congress, the Smithsonian, and other museums that have innovative 
programs in U.S. history can be aligned with these academies. David 
McCullough, for example, suggested we have the academies at locations 
such as Andrew Jackson's home in Heritage. I think an even better idea 
would be to have a week for U.S. teachers at John Adams' home in 
Massachusetts, with Mr. McCullough as the teacher. That is the idea.
  Secondly, we would expand the Nation's report card--we call that 
NAEP--so there could be a 10-State pilot program for American history 
and civics student assessment in grades 8 and 12. Today, our Nation's 
report card doesn't measure State performance in American history. It 
gives us a picture of how 8th to 12th graders do nationally. This would 
permit Colorado, Tennessee, Alaska, and California to compare the 
seniors and, in doing so, call attention to improvements that might 
need to be made.

[[Page S3569]]

  The third thing would be to require all States to develop and 
implement standards and assessments in American history under the No 
Child Left Behind Act. But it doesn't require any Federal reporting, as 
we do in other subjects.
  Finally, it would take Senator Byrd's program--called Teaching 
American History, which he put into the No Child Left Behind Act 6 
years ago--and it would double the authorization for that program from 
$100 million to $200 million, so it can serve even more than the 20,000 
teachers it serves today.
  I thank David Cleary and Sarah Rittling of my staff, who have worked 
hard with the staffs of Senators Byrd and Kennedy to prepare this 
legislation. We intend to invite all Members of the Senate, and we hope 
the House will join us in cosponsoring this.
  Finally, I wish to tell one short story to conclude my remarks about 
some of the teachers who have participated. One of the things a Senator 
can do is to bring someone on the Senate floor who is not a Senator. It 
has to be done when the Senate is not in session and I have found it is 
a great privilege for most Americans. Early one morning last summer, I 
brought onto the Senate floor the 50 teachers who had been selected--
one from each State--for the presidential academy for outstanding 
teachers of American history. I showed them Daniel Webster's desk right 
here, and I showed them Jefferson Davis's desk, which is back there, 
and where the sword mark is where when the Union soldier came in and 
started chopping the desk, and the soldier who was stopped by a 
commander who said, ``We came to save the Union, not destroy it.'' I 
showed them where the majority and minority leaders speak. They saw ``E 
Pluribus Unum'' up there, and ``In God We Trust'' back there. They 
learned that we operate by unanimous consent, and we talked about what 
it would be like to actually try to operate a classroom by unanimous 
consent, much less the Senate.
  As you might expect, they asked a lot of good questions, being 
outstanding history teachers. I especially remember the final question. 
I believe it was from the teacher from Oregon who asked: Senator, what 
would you like for us to take back to our students? I said that what I 
hope you will take back is that I get up every day, and I believe most 
of us on either side get up hoping that by the end of the day, we will 
have done something to make our country look better. It may not look 
that way on television or read that way in the newspaper because we are 
sent here to debate great issues. That produces conflict and 
disagreement a lot of the time. I feel, and I believe all of us feel, 
we are in a very special place, in a very special country, with a very 
special tradition. We would like for the students to know that and to 
know that is how we feel about the job we have.
  I am delighted today that Senators Byrd and Kennedy, who have 
contributed so much to U.S. history over the years, both in their own 
personalities and by legislation they have introduced, have joined me 
in this effort to expand the Federal programs that focus on putting 
U.S. history and civics in a little higher place in the classroom so 
that our students learn what it means to be an American.
  I invite my colleagues to join us, and I invite all Americans to join 
us in their communities, in their schools and in their States, to make 
that a priority.

                               Exhibit 1

 Remarks of Sen. Alexander--American History and Civics Education Act 
                              Introduction

       Mr. President, from the Senate's earliest days, new members 
     have observed as we just heard a ritual of remaining silent 
     during floor debates for a period of time that ranged from 
     several weeks to two years. By waiting a respectful amount of 
     time before giving their so-called ``maiden speeches,'' 
     freshman senators hoped their senior colleagues would respect 
     them for their humility.
       This information comes from the Senate historian, Richard 
     Baker, who told me that in 1906, the former Governor of 
     Wisconsin, Robert LaFollette, arrived here ``anything but 
     humble'' (and I'm sensitive to this as a former governor). He 
     waited just three months, a brief period by the standards of 
     those days, before launching his first major address. He 
     spoke for eight hours over three days; his remarks in the 
     Congressional Record consumed 148 pages. As he began to 
     speak, most of the senators present in the chamber pointedly 
     rose from their desks and departed. LaFollete's wife, 
     observing from the gallery, wrote, ``There was no mistaking 
     that this was a polite form of hazing.''
       From our first day here, as the majority leader said, we 
     new members of this 108th Congress have been encouraged to 
     speak up, and most of us have. But, with the encouragement of 
     the majority leader, several of us intend also to revive the 
     tradition of the maiden address by making a signature speech 
     on an issue that is important both to the country and to each 
     of us. I want to thank my colleagues who are here, and I want 
     to assure all of you that I will not speak for three days--as 
     former Governor LaFollette did.
       Mr. President, I rise to address the intersection of two 
     urgent concerns that will determine our country's future. 
     These are also the two topics I care about the most: the 
     education of our children and the principles that unite us as 
     Americans.
       It is time that we put the teaching of American history and 
     civics back in its rightful place in our schools so our 
     children can grow up learning what it means to be an 
     American.
       Especially during such serious times when our values and 
     way of life are being attacked, we need to understand clearly 
     just what those values are.
       In this, most Americans would agree. For example, in 
     Thanksgiving remarks in 2001, President Bush praised our 
     nation's response to September 11. ``I call it,'' he said, 
     ``the American character.'' At about the same time, while 
     speaking at Harvard, former Vice-President Al Gore said, ``We 
     should [fight] for the values that bind us together as a 
     country.''
       Both men were invoking a creed of ideas and values in which 
     most Americans believe. ``It has been our fate as a nation,'' 
     the historian Richard Hofstadter wrote, ``not to have 
     ideologies but to be one.'' This value based identity has 
     inspired both patriotism and division at home, as well as 
     emulation and hatred abroad. For terrorists, as well as for 
     those who admire America, at issue is the United States 
     itself--not what we do, but who we are.
       Yet our children do not know what makes America 
     exceptional. National exams show that three-quarters of the 
     nation's 4th, 8th and 12th graders are not proficient in 
     civics knowledge and one-third does not even have basic 
     knowledge, making them ``civic illiterates.''
       Children are not learning about American history and civics 
     because they are not being taught it. American history has 
     been watered down, and civics is too often dropped from the 
     curriculum entirely.
       Until the 1960s, civics education, which teaches the duties 
     of citizenship, was a regular part of the high school 
     curriculum, but today's college graduates probably have less 
     civics knowledge than high school graduates of 50 years ago. 
     Reforms, so-called, in the '60s and '70s resulted in the 
     widespread elimination of required classes and curriculum in 
     civics education. Today, more than half the states have no 
     requirement for students to take a course--even for one 
     semester--in American government.
       To help put the teaching of American history and civics in 
     its rightful place, today I introduce legislation along with 
     several distinguished co-sponsors including: Senators Reid, 
     Gregg, Santorum, Inhofe and Nickles. We call it the 
     ``American History and Civics Act.'' This act creates 
     Presidential Academies for Teachers of American History and 
     Civics and Congressional Academies for Students of American 
     History and Civics. These residential academies would operate 
     for two weeks (in the case of teachers) and four weeks (for 
     students) during the summer.
       Their purpose would be to inspire better teaching and more 
     learning of the key events, persons and ideas that shape the 
     institutions and democratic heritage of the United States.
       I have had some experience with such residential summer 
     academies, when I was Governor of Tennessee. In 1984, we 
     began creating Governor's schools for students and teachers. 
     For example, there was the Governor's School for the Arts at 
     Middle Tennessee State University and the Governor's School 
     of International Studies at the University of Memphis as well 
     as the Governor's School for Teachers of Writing at the 
     University of Tennessee at Knoxville, which was especially 
     successful. Eventually there were eight Governor's Schools 
     helping thousands of Tennessee teachers improve their skills 
     and inspiring outstanding students to learn more about core 
     curriculum subjects. When these teachers and students 
     returned to their schools for the next school year, they 
     brought with them a new enthusiasm for teaching and learning 
     that infected their peers. Dollar for dollar, the Governor's 
     Schools were one of the most effective and popular 
     educational initiatives in our state's history.
       States other than Tennessee have had similar success with 
     summer residential academies. The first Governor's school was 
     started in North Carolina in 1963 when Governor Terry Sanford 
     established it at Salem College in Winston-Salem. Upon the 
     establishment of the first school, several states, including 
     Georgia, South Carolina, Arkansas, Kentucky, and Tennessee 
     established similar schools.
       For example, in 1973 Pennsylvania established Governor's 
     Schools of Excellence, which has 14 different programs of 
     study. As in Tennessee, students participating in the 
     Pennsylvania Governor's School program attend academies at 8 
     different colleges to

[[Page S3570]]

     study everything from international studies, to health care 
     and teaching. Also established in 1973, Virginia's Governor's 
     School is a summer residential program for 7500 of the 
     Commonwealth's most gifted students. Mississippi established 
     its Governor's School in 1981. The Mississippi University for 
     Women hosts the program, which is designed to give students 
     academic, creative, and leadership experiences. Every year 
     West Virginia brings 80 of its most talented high school 
     performing and visual arts students to West Liberty State 
     College for a three-week residential program.
       These are just a few of the more than 100 Governors' 
     schools in 28 states--clearly the model is a good one. The 
     legislation I propose today applies that successful model to 
     American history and civics education at the national level 
     by establishing Presidential and Congressional academies for 
     students and teachers of those subjects.
       Additionally, this proposed legislation authorizes the 
     creation of a national alliance of American history and 
     civics teachers who would be connected by the internet. The 
     alliance would facilitate sharing of best practices in the 
     teaching of American history and civics. It is modeled after 
     an alliance I helped the National Geographic Society begin 
     during the 1980's to put geography back into the American 
     school curriculum. Tennessee and the University of Tennessee 
     were among the first sponsors of the alliance.
       This legislation creates a pilot program. Up to 12 
     Presidential academies for teachers and 12 Congressional 
     Academies for students would be sponsored by educational 
     institutions. The National Endowment for the Humanities would 
     award 2-year renewable grants to those institutions after a 
     peer review process. Each grant would be subject to rigorous 
     review after three years to determine whether the overall 
     program should continue, expand or end. The legislation 
     authorizes $25 million annually for the four year pilot 
     program.
       There is a broad basis of renewed support for and interest 
     in American history and civics in our country.
       David Gordon noted in a recent issue of the Harvard 
     Education Letter: ``A 1998 survey by the nonpartisan research 
     organization Public Agenda showed that 84 percent of parents 
     with school-aged children said they believe that the United 
     States is a special country and they want schools to convey 
     that belief to their children by teaching about its heroes 
     and traditions. Similar numbers identified the American ideal 
     as including equal opportunity, individual freedom, and 
     tolerance and respect for others. Those findings were 
     consistent across racial and ethnic groups.''
       Our national leadership has responded to this renewed 
     interest. In 2000, at the initiative of my distinguished 
     colleague Senator Byrd, Congress created grants for schools 
     that teach American history as a separate subject within 
     school curricula. We appropriated $100 million for those 
     grants in the recent Omnibus appropriations bill, and 
     rightfully so. They encourage schools and teachers to focus 
     on the teaching of traditional American history, and provide 
     important financial support.
       Last September, with historian David McCullough at his 
     side, President Bush announced a new initiative to encourage 
     the teaching of American history and civics. He established 
     the ``We the People'' program at the NEH, which will develop 
     curricula and sponsor lectures on American history and 
     civics. He announced the ``Our Documents'' project, run by 
     the National Archives. This would take one hundred of 
     America's most important documents from the National Archives 
     to classrooms and communities across the country. This year, 
     he will convene a White House forum on American history, 
     civics, and service. There, we will discuss new policies to 
     improve the teaching of history and civics in elementary and 
     secondary schools.
       This proposed legislation takes the next step by training 
     teachers and encouraging outstanding students. We need to 
     foster a love of this subject and arm teachers with the 
     skills to impart that love to their students.
       I am pleased that today one of the leading members of the 
     House of Representatives, Roger Wicker of Mississippi, along 
     with a number of his colleagues, are introducing the same 
     legislation in the House.
       I want to thank Senator Gregg, Chairman of the Committee on 
     Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, who has agreed that 
     the committee will hold hearings on this legislation so that 
     we can determine how it might supplement and work with 
     recently enacted legislation and the President's various 
     initiatives.
       Mr. President, in 1988, at a meeting of educators in 
     Rochester, the President of Notre Dame University, Monk 
     Malloy, asked this question: ``What is the rationale for the 
     public school?'' There was an unexpected silence around the 
     room until Al Shanker, the president of the American 
     Federation of Teachers, answered in this way: ``The public 
     school was created to teach immigrant children the three R's 
     and what it means to be an American with the hope that they 
     would then go home and teach their parents.''
       From the founding of America, we have always understood how 
     important it is for citizens to understand the principles 
     that unite us as a country. Other countries are united by 
     their ethnicity. If you move to Japan for example, you can't 
     become Japanese. Americans, on the other hand, are united by 
     a few things in which we believe. To become an American 
     citizen, you subscribe to those principles. If there were no 
     agreement on those principles, as Samuel Huntington has 
     noted, we would be the United Nations instead of the United 
     States of America.
       There has therefore been a continuous education process to 
     remind Americans just what those principles are. Thomas 
     Jefferson, in his retirement at Monticello, would spend 
     evenings explaining to overnight guests what he had in mind 
     when he helped create what we call America. By the mid-19th 
     century it was just assumed that everybody knew what it meant 
     to be an American. In his letter from the Alamo, Col. William 
     Barrett Travis pleaded for help simply ``in the name of 
     liberty, patriotism and everything dear to the American 
     character.''
       There were new waves of immigration in the late 19th 
     century that brought to our country a record number of new 
     people from other lands whose view of what it means to be an 
     American was indistinct--and Americans responded by teaching 
     them. In Wisconsin, for example, the Kohler Company actually 
     housed German immigrants together so that they might be 
     ``Americanized'' during non-working hours.
       But the most important Americanizing institution, as Mr. 
     Shanker reminded us in Rochester in 1988, was the new common 
     school. McGuffey's Reader, which was used in many classrooms, 
     sold more than 120 million copies introducing a common 
     culture of literature, patriotic speeches and historical 
     references.
       In the 20th century it was war that made Americans stop and 
     think about what we were defending. President Roosevelt made 
     certain that those who charged the beaches of Normandy knew 
     they were defending for freedoms.
       But after World War II, the emphasis on teaching and 
     defining the principles that unite us has waned. Unpleasant 
     experiences with McCarthyism in the 1950's, discouragement 
     after the Vietnam War, and history books that left out or 
     distorted the history of African-Americans made some skittish 
     about discussing ``Americanism.'' The end of the Cold War 
     removed a preoccupation with who we were not, making it less 
     important to consider who we are. The Immigration law changes 
     in 1965 brought to our shores many new Americans and many 
     cultural changes. As a result, the American Way became much 
     more often praised than defined.
       Changes in community attitudes, as they always are, were 
     reflected in our schools. According to historian Diane 
     Ravitch, the public school virtually abandoned its role as 
     the chief Americanizing Institution. We have gone, she 
     explains, from one extreme (simplistic patriotism and 
     incomplete history) to the other--``public schools with an 
     adversary culture that emphasize the nation's warts and 
     diminish its genuine accomplishments. There is no literary 
     canon. There are no common readings, no agreed upon lists of 
     books, poems and stories from which students and parents 
     might be taught a common culture and be reminded of what it 
     means to be an American.''
       During this time many of our national leaders contributed 
     to this drift toward agnostic Americanism. These leaders 
     celebrated multiculturalism and bilingualism and diversity at 
     a time when there should have been more emphasis on a common 
     culture and learning English and unity.
       America's variety and diversity is a great strength, but it 
     is not our greatest strength. Jerusalem is diverse. The 
     Balkans are diverse. America's greatest accomplishment is not 
     its variety and diversity but that we have found a way to 
     take all that variety and diversity and unite ourselves as 
     one country. E pluribus unum: out of many, one. That is what 
     makes America truly exceptional.
       Since 9/11 the national conversation about what it means to 
     be an American has been different. The terrorists focused 
     their cross-hairs on the creed that unites Americans as 
     one country--forcing us to remind ourselves of those 
     principles, to examine and define them, and to celebrate 
     them. The President himself has been the lead teacher. 
     President Bush has literally taken us back to school on 
     what it means to be an American. When he took the country 
     to church on television after the attacks he reminded us 
     that no country is more religious than we are. When he 
     walked across the street to the mosque he reminded the 
     world that we separate church and state and that there is 
     freedom here to believe in whatever one wants to believe. 
     When he attacked and defeated the Taliban, he honored 
     life. When we put planes back in the air and opened 
     financial markets and began going to football games again 
     we celebrated liberty. The President called on us to make 
     those magnificent images of courage and charity and 
     leadership and selflessness more permanent in our every 
     day lives through Freedom Corps. And with his optimism, he 
     warded off doomsayers who tried to diminish the real gift 
     of Americans to civilization, our cockeyed optimism that 
     anything is possible.
       Just after 9/11, I proposed an idea I called ``Pledge Plus 
     Three.'' Why not start each school day with the Pledge of 
     Allegiance--as we do here in the Senate--followed by a 
     faculty member or student sharing for three minutes ``what it 
     means to be an American.'' The Pledge embodies many of the 
     ideals of our National Creed: ``one nation, under God, 
     indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.'' It speaks to 
     our unity, to our faith, to our

[[Page S3571]]

     value of freedom, and to our belief in the fair treatment of 
     all Americans. If more future federal judges took more 
     classes in American history and civics and learned more about 
     those values, we might have fewer mind-boggling decisions 
     like the one issued recently by the Ninth Circuit.
       Before I was elected to the Senate, I taught some of our 
     future judges and legislators a course at Harvard's John F. 
     Kennedy School of Government entitled ``The American 
     Character and America's Government.'' The purpose of the 
     course was to help policy makers, civil servants and 
     journalists analyze the American creed and character and 
     apply it in the solving of public policy problems. We tried 
     to figure out, if you will, what would be ``the American 
     way'' to solve a given problem.
       The students and I did not have much trouble deciding that 
     America is truly exceptional (not always better, but truly 
     exceptional) or in identifying the major principles of the 
     American Creed or the distinct characteristics of our 
     country. Such principles as: liberty, equal opportunity, rule 
     of law, laissez faire, individualism, e pluribus unum, the 
     separation of church and state.
       But what we also found as we find in this body was that 
     applying those principles to today's issues was hard work. 
     This was because the principles of the creed often 
     conflicted. For example, when discussing President Bush's 
     faith-based charity legislation, we know that ``In God We 
     Trust'' but we also know that we don't trust government with 
     God.
       When considering whether the federal government should pay 
     for scholarships which middle and low income families might 
     use at any accredited school--public, private or religious--
     we find that the principle of equal opportunity conflicted 
     with the separation of church and state.
       And we find there are great disappointments when we try to 
     live up to our greatest dreams, for example, President 
     Kennedy's pledge that we will ``pay any price or bear any 
     burden'' to defend freedom, or Thomas Jefferson's assertion 
     that ``all men are created equal,'' or the American dream 
     that for anyone who works hard, tomorrow will always be 
     better than today. We are often disappointed when we try to 
     live up to those dreams.
       We learned that, as Samuel Huntington has written, 
     balancing these conflicts and disappointments is what most of 
     American politics and government is about.
       Mr. President, if most of our politics and government is 
     about applying to our most urgent problems the principles and 
     characteristics that make us the exceptional United States of 
     America, then we had better get about the teaching and 
     learning of those principles and characteristics.
       The legislation I propose today with several co-sponsors 
     will help our schools do what they were established to do in 
     the first place. At a time when there are record numbers of 
     new Americans, and at a time when our values are under 
     attack, at a time when we are considering going to war to 
     defend those values, there can be no more urgent task than 
     putting the teaching of American history and civics back in 
     its rightful place in our schools so our children can grow up 
     learning what it means to be an American.
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