By David Harmer We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. […]

By David Harmer “It’s such a relief to attend a P.D. [professional development course] where it’s okay to love your country!” So said one of the teachers attending “Abraham Lincoln and His America,” our most recent week-long graduate program. Wait—does that mean that in most professional development programs for teachers, it’s NOT okay to love […]

By David Harmer THE SECRETARY OF WAR ASKS THAT I ASSURE YOU OF HIS DEEP SYMPATHY IN THE LOSS OF YOUR HUSBAND FIRST LIEUTENANT EDGAR A WADE WHO WAS PREVIOUSLY REPORTED MISSING IN ACTION REPORT NOW RECEIVED STATES HE WAS KILLED IN ACTION FOURTEEN JANUARY IN BELGIUM CONFIRMING LETTER FOLLOWS The telegram above was addressed […]

By David Harmer “If a nation expects to be ignorant & free,” warned Thomas Jefferson, “it expects what never was & never will be.” Jefferson would be horrified by the latest results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). For over half a century NAEP has served as the nation’s report card, providing objective, […]

By David Harmer On this day in 1775, colonial militiamen from the Massachusetts countryside, defending their homes, their freedoms, and their own elected government, routed 1,700 British regulars, sending them from Concord to Charlestown in ignominious retreat. Loosely organized farmers and tradesmen, who supplied their own weapons and elected their own officers, defeated the professional […]

By David Harmer Lots of people demand their rights as citizens. But how many accept the corresponding responsibilities? Not nearly enough! That’s why this week (March 6-10), as we join in celebrating Civic Learning Week, Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge is highlighting one of our unique contributions to civic education: the Bill of Responsibilities. I’d […]

By David Harmer Today is the birthday of General George Washington, who, through sheer strength of character, held the underfunded, undersupplied, underequipped, ragtag Continental Army together through six and a half long, lonely, perilous years of fighting, until, against all odds, the Revolutionary War was won and America’s independence achieved. Among our nation’s founders—a constellation […]

By David Harmer Encompassing the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, the first Negro History Week was observed in 1926. Fifty years later, in connection with the nation’s bicentennial, the annual observance was expanded to a month. In his message marking the occasion, President Gerald Ford declared: Freedom and the recognition of individual rights […]

By David Harmer Q: If pro is the opposite of con, then what is the opposite of progress? A: Congress! Attributed variously to Paul Harvey, Will Rogers, and other wags, that old joke gained new currency earlier this month when members of the newly elected House of Representatives met on January 3, as required by […]

By David Harmer On this day in 1777, General Washington led the soldiers of the Continental Army into Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Here, 20 miles northwest of Philadelphia, they established the winter encampment that became the crucible of the American Revolution. Some idea of their suffering can be gleaned from Washington’s words, written less than two […]