"Freedom is never more than one generation from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free." -- Ronald Regan.
I will agree that it is very important for students to learn when and where the Declaration of Independence was written, and who signed it. And, of course, it's important for them to remember the dates, places and names attached to other significant historical events, such as the Constitution, Revolutionary War, Civil War, etc. But, we don't have century upon century of traditions, buildings, ruins and relics for our children to see and touch in order to understand American history. America is an idea.
In order for America to remain America, we need to know the WHY of the idea of America. It's not enough for our children to memorize...
1776 - "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
... and ...
1787 - "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, Provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Prosperity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
... but what do these, and the rest of the words in these documents actually MEAN? What are the reasons behind them? What makes America different from other nations?
Why was the Declaration written? Why was it necessary to spend time to write out the Declaration of Independence? You don't have to look very far for the answer. You just have to read the Declaration. The reasons for the Declaration are written right there in the document itself. The Founding Fathers included a whole litany of reasons why they found it necessary to declare their independence from England. They also saw the revolution as a last resort, after years of attempting to get along. Most children don't know that, however. Frankly, most adults don't either. What they remember from school is the Boston Tea Party, maybe the Stamp Act, the Declaration and the Revolutionary War.
What many people don't remember, or were never taught, is this: Because the colonies had been largely left to themselves, they had developed a rather natural free market and free trade system of capitalism based on private land ownership, individual initiative, competition, and supply and demand. Freedom of religion was also a key component of colonial life. However, because of the French and Indian Wars (1754-1763), the British national debt doubled, and by the 1760's England was about to go broke. Parliament, looking for a way to increase the treasury, looked over to the colonies after years of virtually ignoring them, and decided the colonies had money the English government needed to pay down the war debt. They began to seriously enforce the Navigation Acts from back in the 1650's and 1660's. Then, the Proclamation Line of 1763, the Sugar Act (1764), the Currency Act (1764), the Stamp Act (1765), the Townsend Acts (1767), the Quartering Acts (1766 & 1774), and the Quebec Act (1774) were all attempts by the British to replenish its treasury and also to gain absolute control of the colonists and their growing colonial economy.
All of this information is right there in the Declaration itself, along with a statement that the Signers had seriously contemplated this step before taking it. After all, these men were literally pledging their "Lives, Fortunes, and Sacred Honor" by signing the document! They also thought it necessary that other nations know all of the reasons for their decision. WHY? If the new nation was to be taken seriously in the world, the Founding Fathers knew they must show that the revolution was legitimate.
Since a FREE nation was created, one that actually respects the Unalienable Rights of the people, the various "people's revolutions" which installed tyrannies in Cuba, China, Venezuela and the USSR cannot honestly be compared to the revolution fought here to create the United States of America. But, when the students in schools do not learn the WHY of our revolution and Declaration, it becomes possible to pretend all revolutions are equal, and legitimize people like Castro and Mao.
The best way to learn about and teach the Declaration of Independence is to read it and translate it into modern-day language. Even my 9-year-old could do that last year as a 3rd grader. She now understands the birth of our country.
When you don't understand the WHY of the Declaration ... it becomes just a boring old piece of parchment with absolutely no modern-day relevance!
And when you don't understand the WHY of the idea of America ... it becomes just another nation among many with absolutely no differences.
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