This article is one of the winning submissions from the first annual New York Post Scholars Contest, presented by .
Any New York high schooler can tell you all about Rosa Parks.
It doesn’t take the top student to describe in detail the racist society from which Parks hailed and the circumstances that led to her not being allowed a seat at the front of the bus. That very same student would need no invitation to talk about segregation, slavery, the mistreatment of the Native Americans, imperialism and all the other failings of the United States. It’s a testament, after all, to our public education system and just how much historical information our youth have access to.
But why, then, with all this information, could none of these high school students talk with any real knowledge about the great successes and accomplishments of our country? What can these students tell you about the Founding Fathers? With the exception of Alexander Hamilton (who was fortunate enough to have a Broadway musical made about him), nobody is capable of summarizing the merits associated with each of them when it came to establishing our country.
Nobody can talk about the instrumental role the United States played in bringing an end to the Age of Imperialism. Sitting in my own history classroom, I cannot count the number of times that I have heard people around me complain that America is a nation founded on “stolen land” (as opposed, I guess, to all those nations founded on land that magically fell from the sky uninhabited) and that we have a history of harsh discrimination and prejudice (once again, this is in stark contrast with all the other nations in the world whose history contains nothing but holding hands and singing Kumbaya).
Curiously enough, however, I have never once heard a fellow student comment on how lucky we all are to be Americans. Perhaps this is because none of today’s students truly know what it means to be an American. Back in the 1940s, when called, American teenagers left their homes and their families to storm the beaches of Normandy and give their lives to see freedom prevail over oppression. Today’s teenagers need to run to their safe spaces when someone uses a pronoun they don’t like.
Somewhere along the way, we lost what it meant to be Americans. Of course, who can blame the children of this generation for having such a way about them when it is all that they have been taught?
Our education system, especially here in New York, has replaced American pride with American shame. Instead of being taught that we should be proud to be members of the greatest country the world has ever seen, we are taught that we should do nothing but wallow in each and every instance where the United States’ actions did not perfectly align with today’s moral standards. Rather than learning about the imperfections of United States history and how they came to be corrected to form a more perfect union (perhaps the original purpose of all this revisionist history), our education system focuses on our flawed trees rather than our magnificent forest.
When students hear the name Thomas Jefferson, all that they think of is the fact that he was a famous slave owner. Some students might even ridicule the apparent contradiction of his owning slaves despite stating in the Declaration of Independence that all men are created equal. What our teachers neglect to mention is that Jefferson played a critical role in the creation of the first ever state that put such an emphasis on freedom.
Countless Americans gave their lives to achieve a state that better fit the vision that Jefferson put forth. Hundreds of thousands of Americans gave their lives in a bloody civil war to see the end of slavery in America. Why is it that America is remembered more for its slave owners than for being the only major country that fought a war with itself to bring an end to slavery?
When this is all that we learn, this becomes all that we know.
President Reagan once said that “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed down for them to do the same.” I would argue that Reagan hit the nail on the head with this quote, in describing not only the fragility of freedom, but also the similar fragility associated with the love of freedom.
The fact that we are living in the land of the free, the very same land that fought a war to end slavery inside its borders, the land that battled fascists, communists and other worldwide oppressors alike in the name of freedom means nothing to today’s youth.
The fact that all over the world oppressed people have long looked to America as a beacon of hope, and have sacrificed much to come here in search of opportunity and freedom is lost on today’s younger generations.
What happened to the Americans who stood and saluted their flag? The Americans who understood that what matters most isn’t who wins our elections, but the very fact that they take place at all? Today we take for granted the tremendous positive influence that American ideals have over the world and credit ourselves for nothing but the negatives.
One of the great distinguishing factors between the United States at its founding and all other countries was its revolutionary principle that “We the People” were running the show. Our government was going to serve us and not the other way around. The fact that this idea stemmed in large part from within our borders used to be a point of pride for us. The word American used to be synonymous with freedom. It is time that we return to emphasizing that in our education.
It is time that our education system places the Founding Fathers and other American heroes in their rightful seats beside Rosa Parks on the greatest bus ride this world has ever known.
A 10th-grader at Fox Lane High School in Bedford, NY, Stark hopes to be a political commentator on the road to the White House.