EdNews Virginia | December 28, 2022
A recent survey found that many students are now “indifferent” to the flag. “About 30% overall said their children felt ‘indifference’ when they saw the flag,” Nathan Harden noted. “But when you consider younger parents as a group that number was much higher. 52.6% of parents aged 18-24 said their children felt indifference to the flag. For parents aged 25-34, that number is 41.6%.”
In his farewell address from the Oval Office, President Ronald Reagan urged those watching to share the nation’s ideals with rising generations. “An informed patriotism is what we want,” Reagan said. “Are we doing a good enough job teaching our children what America is and what she represents in the long history of the world?”
If recent survey data is correct, it appears that many students have internalized what Dinesh D’Souza has called the “shame narrative” of American history. In Virginia, the “shame narrative” has been embraced and is taught by many public, government-run schools. In November, the Commonwealth’s Department of Education unveiled new standards that seemed to offer a more traditional view of American history.
The Department of Education’s draft history standards immediately came under intense criticism, and the ultimate fate of those standards remains unclear. In the meantime, families remain free to share their own perspectives with their own children. As Reagan said back in 1989, “All great change in America begins at the dinner table. So tomorrow night in the kitchen, I hope the talking begins. And children, if your parents haven’t been teaching you what it means to be an American, let them know, and nail ’em on it — that would be a very American thing to do.”
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