Cicero Endorses History

Tomb of Andrew & Rachel Jackson

The Hermitage, Tennessee, summer 1990

"To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child."

Cicero, Roman Senator

I always had this on the wall of my classroom, over by the door. Surely everyone saw it a couple of times at least during the course of a school year. It's true, you know. Children, especially little children, are so limited in their awareness of things outside their own bodies and their own experience, that they actually think that other people exist only when they are awake. That trait is cute in a baby. But we expect folks to grow out of that. When people in their mid to late teens still see others and the efforts of others as existing for their own entertainment, those children are lost as useful members of society.

How will new citizens become informed about the past which built our present? Less and less money is set aside from school district budgets for the so-called "core classes," so called because they are recognized as being basic to a person's function in society. History and other Social Studies are often thought of as disposable or as of secondary importance. This bothered me for the two decades I spent trying to instill an appreciation for History into the hearts and minds of people who were leaving childhood and about to be held responsible for the status of the nation. I had some success. A few kids over the years reported back to me that they sill loved History. A few more actually went so far as to go into History themselves, giving me the credit for their choice. Pretty thrilling flattery.

But for every one like that in our society, there are dozens who can't tell you the difference between the Revolution and the Civil War. The can't tell you what the Civil War was about. They can't name any major battles in any of our major wars.

I think I've spotted a key difference between them and my generation. Fewer of them read. Kids from my generation are likely to run across historical facts which repeat things they've learned, because they read lots of different things. Many kids today don't read. I can guarantee you that many of today's kids CANNOT read. Someone has said, "Those who don't read have no advantage over those who can't." How literally true!

Have you ever seen Jay Leno do his little segment called "Jay Walking?" He asks people on the street basic question about current events and about history or the constitution. They often betray an embarrassing lack not only of knowledge but of interest in these things. Once he even did the segment on the USC campus. Only a relative few of the students stopped could name who is on the one dollar bill or the five or the ten. They confuse one war with another, Austria with Australia, and the names of states with the names of cities. It's actually pretty upsetting for a patriot to watch this sort of thing, even though it's presented as humor.

They don't know who the vice president is. They sometimes provide the names of famous entertainers when asked for the names of important pubic officials. I don't know what will cause America's youth to become a proud nation of readers and informed citizens. Indeed, so many people today seem to be embarrassed to have much knowledge. They' don't want to offend the crowd which seems so bent on becoming the least informed generation to date.

There were many generations which came and went in this country which were populated by persons for whom demonstrating knowledge was as important as showing off physical prowess. My father-in-law has worked with his hands all his life. But he prides himself on his knowledge of political and military history, both during his 79 years and before them.

We need once again to take pride in doing that which is good. We need to be willing to be the one who stands out from a crowd by not believing what the crowd chooses to believe and by speaking up for that which is morally right. We need to be willing to sacrifice friendship and popularity for a clean conscience. History is replete with such people. If you read it, they'll demonstrate to you how hard it is to stand up for that which is right. Sometimes they lived to be cheered by the same people who once shunned and persecuted them. Sometimes the were not vindicated in their righteous attitude until many ears after their deaths.

The great Frederick Douglass, former slave, abolitionist, political organizer, and powerful public speaker, had a leonine head and fiercely piercing eyes. This is what he said on the subject of choosing the right without regard to what others think:

"I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and incur my own abhorrence."

We are taught to seek wisdom out of the best books. Biographies and Histories can often be among the very best. I know.