The Majority of Americans Demonstrate Ignorance of the Founding of Our Country

Many polls provide shocking examples of the ignorance of the majority of Americans regarding the free enterprise system, the Founders, civics, and the founding documents of our country.

  • “The majority of millennials (58 percent) would prefer to live in a socialist, communist or fascist nation rather than a capitalist one,” according to a poll by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. Washington Times, 2017
  • A survey conducted by the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy Center in 2017 found that most Americans are ignorant of basic facts about the Constitution.  In their survey posted September 2019, only 2 in 5 American adults (39%) correctly named the three branches of government:  executive, legislative and judicial.
  • The Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs commissioned a poll in 2009 that found that 77 percent of students in public high schools could not name George Washington as our first president. (A poll in Arizona had similar results.)
  • Reported by Allan Brownfeld, CDN (Communities Digital News) in April 2018:
    • “More Americans could identify Michael Jackson as the composer of “Beat It” and “Billie Jean” than could identify the Bill of Rights as a body of amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
    • “More than 50% of respondents attributed the quote, “From each according to his ability to each according to his needs,” to either Thomas Paine, George Washington, or Barack Obama. The quote is actually from Karl Marx, author of The Communist Manifesto.
    • “More than a third polled did not know the century in which the American Revolution took place. Half of the respondents believed the Civil War, the Emancipation Proclamation, or the War of 1812 were before the American Revolution.
    • “More than half misidentify the system of government established in the Constitution as a direct democracy, rather than a republic. However, this is a question that immigrants qualifying for U.S. citizenship must correctly answer.”

Education is the answer, but not the status quo!  We need a new pro-American curriculum in our schools from the Freedom Education Foundation.  Our 20-session FreedomCivics® course is the best available.                  

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The foundations of our Constitutional Republic and the free enterprise system have long been under attack.  Our young people know little of the principles employed that resulted in wonderful freedom, prosperity, and the greatest nation on earth.  Ignorance and misinformation about economics have resulted in schools that teach that America is not good and not a beacon of freedom to the world.  Instead of focusing on the “sins of the fathers” and denigrating the Founders and the United States of America, we must promote legislation in the states requiring standalone civics education classes and we must produce excellent curriculum for schools that teaches about the founding principles and Founding Documents that established the United States of America.

The FreedomCivics® workbooks (Teacher and Student versions) include accurate and succinct history, as well as the inspired principles of the Founders.  The curriculum includes sessions on the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the Northwest Ordinance, and the U.S. Constitution (including the Bill of Rights and all other amendments).  It has been developed by historians, teachers, and parents over the last four years.  The courses include colonial and American Revolutionary War history, full texts of the Founding Documents, 123 Discussion Questions, 8 Activities, Quizzes, and a Final Exam.  It also includes sections about the scourge of slavery and how our Constitution provides for corrective action by amending it and passing new laws.  We will expend great effort advocating for the adoption of civics education in the states, with a focus on the FreedomCivics® course—all to work for a more perfect union.

www.freedomeducation.org

Battling the Rise of Socialism

Here’s the grim truth: Polls show that more than half of young adults prefer socialism over capitalism. 

The traditional American and biblical values we were taught in school have all but disappeared in much of public education today. The fundamentals that led this country to freedom and great power have been skewed by mainstream media and extreme leftist politics. 

Our country is in a crisis. Our people have never been more polarized and our kids have no social values in common with their parents or grandparents. The ignorance of basic civics and civics history in the U.S. is worse than it’s ever been. 

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