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National Endowment - Humanities 3/2/89 [OA 8747]
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Records of the White House Office of Speechwriting (George H. W. Bush Administration)
Mark Davis Subject Files
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MARKER
This is not a textual record. This is used as an
administrative marker by the George Bush Presidential
Library Staff.
Record Group/Collection:
George H.W. Bush Presidential Records
Collection/Office of Origin:
Speechwriting, White House Office of
Series:
Davis, Mark, Files
Subseries:
Subject File, 1989-1991
OA/ID Number:
13873
Folder ID Number:
13873-009
Folder Title:
National Endowment of the Humanities, 3/2/89
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19
2
6
6
PRESIDENT BUSH/3/2/89
DRAFT/2/25/89/NOON
Page 7
Together, these two organizations have rewarded you with the
precious
most appropriate gift that can be bestowed on teachers -- time.
Time away from report cards, library fines and hall passes. Time
to learn, to master a subject. Time to write and publish. Time
to meditate and reflect.
and so many will venefit.
and passon to ourchildren
What you will learn and accomplish, however, is not for you
alone. It is a trust for you to share with generations. to come
will risple though the years like a s-o-
asend On a shill pond,
In perusing the list of your projects, my eye settled on one
check
in particular -- a project proposed by Barbara Whittaker of
Traverse City, Michigan, entitled, "The Origin of the American
Dream and its Development in American Literature."
I am sure Barbara will reveal deep insights into the
American novel. But there is a larger point here. My friends, I
believe we can trace the origin of the American dream to a very
ordinary place. It can be found between the hours of 8 a.m. and
3 p.m, in every classroom in every city and town in America.
my gratutude
For all that you do, you have my highest respect, and my
sincerest congratulations.
Thank you.
#
#
#
PRESIDENT BUSH/3/2/89
DRAFT/2/25/89/NOON
Page 6
I want to single out Chairman Lynne Cheney for organizing
this project. This is only but one outgrowth of her remarkable
report, American Memory, which detailed how administrative
impediments can demoralize even the best teachers. Her
observations should prompt every state in America to reassess its
programs and priórities.
I also want George Grune to convey my gratitude and
admiration to the DeWitt Wallace trust. You have shown a public
spiritedness and dedication that is a model for the private
sector.
I am sure George won't mind if I point out that this grant
of $1.5 million isn't a case of pure charity. For the corporate
community, investment in education is a hardnosed business
decision. It is not surprising that someone in George's business
-- whose publication, Reader's Digest, is read by more than 50
million Americans -- should take an active interest in the future
of American education. Will there be 50 million Americans who
read for pleasure in the year 2020 A.D.?
you have
ed the
In making this grant, the Dewitt Wallace trust is planting =
of
(and learning
the will benefit
seeds for the future growth of literacy, and the future of our
country for generations to come;
-MORE-
PRESIDENT BUSH/3/2/89
DRAFT/2/28/89/10 a.m.
Page 5
other
Today, I want to single out one aspect of my educational
program -- rewarding the brightest and most motivated teachers. insert A
But I consider one proposal to be critically important -- the
This awards combines
the recognition of your profession the respect of your Awards collergies with
President's Award for Excellence in Education.
certificates and commendations are great Bot a raise is the
hose June
most eloquent -form of praise, there s.
$7.6
With this in mind, I proposed $8' million to be spent as
$5,000 cash awards to top teachers in every state. Eligible
teachers will be selected from all subjects and every grade
level.
This is just a start. In time, I hope the Teacher's Award
program will become a model for states and local school districts
to follow.
of course, public funds are tight at all levels of
government. As we develop new ways to reward and keep good
teachers, we must also look to combine the resources of the
public and private sectors. This is precisely what the N.E.H.
and the DeWitt Wallace trust have accomplished.
-MORE-
PRESIDENT BUSH/3/2/89
DRAFT/2/28/89/10 a.m.
Page 4
with the dawnafa new century only elven shoul yours Energy
Today, we are faced with a new challenge -- to revitalize
ensure
and restore the system our forebears bequeathed to us; to make an
American education second to none.
Xamumber work this
I have made many proposals to do this. Among them are
reward
MERIT SCHOOLS> I have requested $250 million to advance
those
whose students show measureever progress
merit schools for gifted children, especially among the
in educational achuvemant at the some maintaing a safe
disadvantaged. and dug - free enveronment,
MAGNET SCHOOLS: I have asked for an annual fund of $100
million in new appropriations to help create magnet schools to
broaden
enrich the educational choices of parents and students.
HISTORICALLY BLACK COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES: I have
proposed a special $60 million fund -- over four years -- to
develop the endowments of Historically Black Colleges and
Universities through matching grants.
During the coming weeks, I will transmet
Comprehensess -MORE- to the Congress details
our proposuls and asking for then help all
strengthing american education
PRESIDENT BUSH/3/2/89
DRAFT/2/28/89/10 a.m.
Page 3
To put it bluntly, a President is tempted to ignore the
whole issue of education. History will not judge him by the rise
or fall of S.A.T. scores. A President finds himself in the
center of a storm, beset by a thousand short-term problems that
cry out for immediate attention.
But you and I know that education is our most enduring
legacy. You and I know that education is nothing less than the
tvery heart
transmission and continuation -of. our civilization. And that is
why I am bound and determined to use the office of the Presidency
as a bully pulpit for progress in our schools even as I make a
renewed push for a shift in some af our priorities to concentrate
resources on those who need help the most.
:
early (comucois underston
This nation grew into greatness because it was the first
the value of
on earth to provide a free public education. The one-room school
house, the land-grant college -- these were the crowning
achievements of the pioneers. No less important were the urban
pioneers who schooled the children of the ghettoes. The
(not an casey one:
challenge that faced our ancestors was to build a national public
education al system from scratch. And But they did it with the
blood, sweat, teas and j. They www.dedicated inaweducals
whose raditions love come full cencle me cach
-MORE-
of you here today,
men and women with inquirestive minds,
clogged determination and bing dreams
PRESIDENT BUSH/3/2/89
DRAFT/2/28/89/10 a.m.
needs bridge
Page 2
Returning home, I am always delighted anew at the ethnic and
cultural diversity of our land. As American teachers, you are
often slighted by comparisons to foreign educational systems.
While I don't mean to criticize the teaching systems of other
countries, let's face it a highly systematized, impersonal and
rigid system educational of education septem is not has right an for equally America cratical
Our m the intellectual creativity, economic opportunity
and role the to place vasic freedoms ensuring of our rent generation and an wen begger
American teachers have the biggest job on earth. Name
another country that must educate and assimilate the children of
so many cultures from so many lands.
coours
To educate the children of such a vast, diverse nation
men and w onen of falent and dedication to own C belaven on
requires the best and the brightest in the teaching profession.
I don't mean to embarrass you, but I believe that you in this
room exemplify the kinds of teachers we need our very best.
Irealyed that, ther,
You not only encompass the diversity of America you
illustrate the encompassing of world culture in one society.
as I read a wont the many subjects
you'well
This diversity is reflected in the titles of your project5
be dezend the next esca
proposals, which includes works on Shakespeare, Chinese
literature, the Harlem Renaissance and American Indian culture
divirsion gover an mater and am iducates as
a vilua can of spint that las produced (over)
During the campaign, I am sure you recall I made a pledge to
Working work you and thousands
become the Education President. Sounds-great, some asked, "but
like your classions from Connecticut to California, its
what does that mean?' Let me tell you
a piec 8 0 missin heep,
-MORE-
(Davis (Dooley)
PRESIDENT BUSH/3/2/89
DRAFT/2/28/89/10 a.m.
Page 1
NEH/Teachers
Thank you. I am flattered to be in the company of the most
accomplished members of a most important profession. Without
you, our links to the past and our vision for the future -- all
that we are, all that we have accomplished, all that we will be
-- would lay dormant in the minds of our children.
I thank you for your dedication.
As you know, I've just returned from a trip to the Far East,
where I visited three countries in five days. And let me tell
you, as fascinating as it is to travel, there's no place like
home
especially if home is 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
our allies.
mital
Still, it was an important trip that will set the basis for
Visa Card the
future relations. In Japan, I saw a nation that has risen in 40
years from utter destitution to become the second greatest
POS disoruction a leaderly
economic power. on earth. In South Korea, I saw a nascent
industrial power just beginning to explore the measure of its
future greatness. And in China
well, just let me say that
there have been spectacular changes in China since I represented
our government in Peking. Sujeng
Education so an important ingreduct
each formula for suciess.
-MORE-
BEFORE RECENCILIATION
1
(Davis/Dooley)
February 28, 1989
6:50 p.m.
disc 1
NEH/Teachers
Thank you. I am flattered to be in the company of the most
accomplished members of a most important profession. Without
you, our links to the past and our vision for the future -- all
that we are, all that we have accomplished, all that we will be
-- would lay dormant in the minds of our children.
I thank you for your dedication.
As you know, I've just returned from a trip to the Far East,
where I visited three countries in five days. And let me tell
you, as fascinating as it is to travel, there's no place like
home
especially if home is 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Still, it was an important trip that will set the basis for
future relations. In Japan, I saw a nation that has risen in 40
years from utter destitution to become the second-greatest
economic power on earth. In South Korea, I saw a nascent
industrial power just beginning to explore the measure of its
future greatness. And in China
well, just let me say that
there have been spectacular changes in China since I represented
our government in Peking.
2
Returning home, I am always delighted anew at the ethnic and
cultural diversity of our land. As American teachers, you are
often slighted by comparisons to foreign educational systems.
While I don't mean to criticize the teaching systems of other
countries, let's face it -- a highly systematized, impersonal and
rigid system of education is not right for America.
American teachers have the biggest job on earth. Name
another country that must educate and assimilate the children of
so many cultures from so many lands.
To educate the children of such a vast, diverse nation
requires the best and the brightest in the teaching profession.
I don't mean to embarrass you, but I believe that you in this
room exemplify the kinds of teachers we need.
You not only encompass the diversity of America; you
illustrate the encompassing of world culture in one society.
This diversity is reflected in the titles of your project
proposals, which includes works on Shakespeare, Chinese
literature, Hispanic literature, the Harlem Renaissance and
American Indian culture.
During the campaign, I am sure you recall I made a pledge to
become the Education President. 'Sounds great,' some asked, 'but
what does that mean?' Let me tell you.
3
To put it bluntly, a President is tempted to ignore the
whole issue of education. History will not judge him by the rise
or fall of S.A.T. scores. A President finds himself in the
center of a storm, beset by a thousand short-term problems that
cry out for immediate attention.
But you and I know that education is our most enduring
legacy. You and I know that education is nothing less than the
transmission and continuation of our civilization. And that is
why I am bound and determined to use the office of the Presidency
as a bully pulpit for progress in our schools.
This nation grew into greatness because it was the first
on earth to provide a free public education. The one-room school
house, the land-grant college -- these were the crowning
achievements of the pioneers. No less important were the urban
pioneers who schooled the children of the ghettoes. The
challenge that faced our ancestors was to build a national public
education system from scratch. And they did.
4
Today, we are faced with a new challenge -- to revitalize
and restore the system our forebears bequeathed to us; to make an
American education second to none.
I have made many proposals to do this. Among them are:
MERIT SCHOOLS: I have requested $250 million to reward
schools that have shown measurable improvement -- especially
schools that serve large proportions of disadvantaged students.
MAGNET SCHOOLS: I have asked for an annual fund of $100
million in new appropriations to help create magnet schools to
enrich the educational choices of parents and students.
HISTORICALLY BLACK COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES: I have
proposed a special $60 million fund -- over four years -- to
develop the endowments of Historically Black Colleges and
Universities through matching grants.
5
Today, I want to single out one aspect of my educational
program -- rewarding the brightest and most motivated teachers.
I consider one proposal to be critically important -- the
President's Award for Excellence in Education. Awards,
certificates and commendations are great. But a raise is the
most eloquent form of praise there is.
With this in mind, I proposed $8 million to be spent as
$5,000 cash awards to top teachers in every state. Eligible
teachers will be selected from all subjects and every grade
level.
I hope the Teacher's Award program keeps all levels of our
educational system focused on the need to show good teachers that
we appreciate their dedication.
Of course, public funds are tight at all levels of
government. As we develop new ways to reward and keep good
teachers, we must also look to combine the resources of the
public and private sectors. This is precisely what this joint
program of N.E.H. and Reader's Digest has accomplished.
6
I want to single out Chairman Lynne Cheney for organizing
this project. This is but one outgrowth of the endowment's
remarkable report, American Memory, which detailed how
administrative impediments can demoralize even the best teachers.
These observations should prompt every state in America to
reassess its programs and priorities.
I also want George Grune to convey my gratitude and
admiration to the DeWitt Wallace trust, a fund at New York
Community Trust created by the founder of Reader's Digest.
You have shown a public spiritedness and dedication that is a
model for the private sector.
I am sure George won't mind if I point out that this grant
of $1.5 million isn't a case of pure charity. For the corporate
community, investment in education is a hardnosed business
decision. It is not surprising that someone in George's business
-- whose publication, Reader's Digest, is read by more than 50
million Americans -- should take an active interest in the future
of American education. Will there be 50 million Americans who
read for pleasure in the year 2020 A.D.?
I believe we will, judging from what I have seen today.
This grant is planting a seed for the future growth of literacy,
and the future of our country.
7
Together, these two organizations have rewarded you with the
most appropriate gift that can be bestowed on teachers -- time.
Time away from report cards, library fines and hall passes. Time
to learn, to master a subject. Time to write and publish. Time
to meditate and reflect.
What you will learn and accomplish, however, is not for you
alone. It is a trust for you to share with generations to come.
In perusing the list of your projects, my eye settled on one
in particular -- a project proposed by Barbara Whittaker of
Traverse City, Michigan, entitled, "The Origin of the American
Dream and Its Development in Literature."
I am sure Barbara will reveal deep insights into the
American novel. But there is a larger point here. My friends, I
believe we can trace the origin of the American dream to a very
ordinary place. It can be found between the hours of 8 a.m. and
3 p.m, in every classroom in every city and town in America.
For all that you do, you have my highest respect, and
sincerest congratulations.
Thank you.
#
#
#
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
February 23, 1989
MEMORANDUM FOR MARK DAVIS
FROM:
KATE L. MOORE
KM
SUBJECT:
Remarks of the President: Humanities Teachers
From a policy perspective here are the themes and key points we
would like included in the President's remarks to the teachers:
1. President's commitment to excellence in education. The
commitment to excellence is one of four themes within
education identified in Building a Better America.
Certainly among this group of outstanding teachers we have
the personification of excellence. Their commitment to high
standards is a model for all.
2.
President's commitment to teachers. One of the President's
initiatives in education is the creation of an award for
teachers; he appreciates the importance of their role. This
group would be highly receptive to hearing about this
awards initiative. (See attached fact sheet and matrix --
note, Mark, that our award is distinct from the NEH award,
covering all subject areas and grade levels, K-12, and is a
cash award, not a project grant.)
3.
Cultural diversity. Coming back from Asia, we have an
opportunity to praise a major strength of the U.S.- a
strength which contrasts the Japanese, for example: the
diversity of cultural heritage, and the strength we draw
from that. The assortment of projects these teachers are
working on reflects the many roots of our nation -- and the
importance of understanding and appreciating the
kaleidoscope of the American civilization.
Also attached is a brief description of the eight education
initiatives featured in the President's budget which this group
would also be interested in.
CC: Jim Pinkerton
Bill Roper
2/16/89
BUSH ADMINISTRATION
EDUCATION INITIATIVES
O
Merit Schools: This initiative provides recognition of
schools whose students make significant educational
progress over time. Special emphasis will be placed on
schools enrolling substantial numbers of disadvantaged
students who show significant educational progress. For FY
90, $250 million is requested, with growth projected to
$500 million in FY 93.
Teachers' Awards: The President's Award for Excellence in
Education ($5,000 cash) will be presented to top teachers in
every state. For FY 90, $8 million is requested.
National Science Scholars: Outstanding high school
students in mathematics and science -- each selected by a
Congressman, Senator, or the President -- will receive up to
$10,000 annually for four years in scholarship awards. For
FY 90, $5 million is requested, rising to $20 million in FY
93.
Magnet Schools: An annual fund of $100 million in new
appropriations is requested to assist in the creation and
development of magnet schools which offer students and
parents enriched educational choices.
Alternative Certification for Teachers and Principals:
This initiative will assist those states interested in
developing or enhancing programs to bring individuals with
excellent subject area knowledge into the classroom, and
proven managers into school management. For FY 90, $25
million is requested.
Experiments for Educational Achievement: The pursuit of
excellence requires experimentation, innovation, and better
data; support will be provided to the best innovators with
the best ideas. For FY 90, $13 million is requested.
Historically Black Colleges and Universities: A special
fund of $60 million -- over four years -- will be developed
to build, through matching grants, the endowments of
Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
Accountability in Education Programs: The Secretary of
Education will review Federal education programs and
implement improvements in accountability systems. The
Federal government should be a model in assuring that its
programs are successful.
Relationship of Initiatives to Principles
2/16/89
Excellence
Target To Need
Choice
Accountability
1. Merit
Rewards progress
Dollars weighted
Encourages setting
Schools
toward excellence
to schools with
measurable goals
high proportions
and meeting them.
of disadvantaged.
2. Teachers
Rewards
Encourages higher
Awards
excellence
standards for teachers.
3. National
Rewards
Indirectly encourages
Science
excellence
schools to monitor their
Scholars
science/math programs.
4. Magnet
Magnet schools
Some special
Magnet schools
Competition for
Schools
are generally
consideration is
serve broad
students encourages
superior & en-
given to low-
geographic areas,
accountability and
courage district-
income students.
and thus promote
results.
wide improvements
choice.
5. Alternative
Broadens
Provides adminis-
Certification
recruitment pool
trators greater
of teachers, thus
choice in personnel
upgrading quality
selection.
6. Experiments
Supports inno-
---
Experiments in
vation which leads
choice are eligible
to excellence
for support
7. Accountability
Promotes
Most Federal
The Federal government
Study
excellence by
dollars for educa-
should set the example
emphasizing
tion are targeted
for accountability in
quality outcomes.
to needy.
education.
8. HBCUs
Strengthens HBCUs
HBCUs are in
Strong HBCUs
to enhance
particular
broaden
quality
need.
educational choice
for Blacks.
To START
At the A peompt, type B: AND PRESS [ENTER]
At the B pRompt, type a:wp AND PRESS
[ENTER ]
POST- ASIA, DRUG themes - TIE in IF THERE is
A WAY, LOOK FOR TiE-ins
later ENVIRONMENT + EDUCATION.
12345678
F,m,A,M,J,J,A,S,
O,N, D, J,F, M,A,M(16)
T,J,A,S,O,N
27th - through 1st WEEK March "DRUGS"
4
48
12
DRUGS:
"EDUCATION
INTERDICTION
Emphasis will shift to each
THREE - MENTION OTHER 2
REHAB"
DAVID TEll- Depty C.O.S. to BENNETT-
Stroke him - incluDe his stuff. BEFORE putting
pen to pApER- - CAN Tell.
(1)
Thoe n bungh - soing to S.A. to tour
capitals - SEWD office pRob. in Oval Office-
prob 5 min. - "Justice Knows no boundaries"
Common CAUSE o) lAw men" "MORAl support to
those who put their lives on the line."
NSCL.A.
(2)
Natt Conf. State Lesis - Prob. short -
Should he a Cirifins
(3)
State Chamian - Bush- Q + GOP
Prob, 5 minito - Subject?
after speech done, expect names from Quis -
-To p 2013 days in advance
4 JOGETHER
-Rhett
LET ADVANCE Know - will MEET w/ Them-
Display Right "4"!
8
NAR. ENDOWMENT FOR Humanities
ChARlES BACARISSE
Jim BAKER DEWITT WALLACE
-FiRST TIME DEAl
What better WAY to REWARD tEAchERs
than to LEAVE them Alone to READ, lEARN
AND SHARE- -
1
(Davis/Dooley)
March 1, 1989
12:00 p.m.
disc 1
REMARKS: NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES/READER'S DIGEST
TEACHER/SCHOLAR PROGRAM AWARDS
EAST ROOM
THURSDAY, MARCH 2, 1989
Thank you. I am flattered to be in the company of the most
accomplished members of a most important profession. Without
you, our links to the past and our vision for the future -- all
that we are, all that we have accomplished, all that we will be
-- would lay dormant in the minds of our children.
I thank you for your dedication.
As you know, I've just returned from a trip to the Far East,
where I visited three countries in five days. And let me tell
you, as fascinating as it is to travel, there's no place like
home
still, it was a vital trip that has laid the foundation for
future relations with our friends and allies. In Japan, I saw a
nation that has risen in 40 years from post-war destruction to
become a leading economic power. In the Republic of Korea, I saw
a nascent industrial power just beginning to explore the measure
of its future greatness. And in China
well, just let me
say that there have been spectacular changes in China since I
represented our government in Beijing.
2
In each of these countries, education has been an important
ingredient for economic success.
Our educational system has an equally critical role to
play in ensuring the intellectual creativity, the economic
opportunity, and the basic freedoms of our next generation.
American teachers have a big job and an even bigger
responsibility. To educate the children of such a vast, diverse
nation as ours requires men and women of talent and dedication to
our children and the teaching profession. You in this room
exemplify the kinds of teachers we need
our very best.
As I read about the many subjects you will be studying next
fall -- Shakespeare, Chinese literature, Hispanic literature, the
Harlem Renaissance, American Indian culture -- I realized that,
together, you encompass the diversity of America. That diversity
gives our nation and our educational system a vibrance of spirit
that has produced men and women with inquisitive minds, dogged
determination and big dreams.
I am sure you recall I made a pledge during the campaign to
become the Education President. And it's a pledge I intend to
keep by working with you and thousands like you in classrooms
from Connecticut to California.
3
You and I know that education is our most enduring legacy.
You and I know that education is nothing less than the very heart
of our civilization. And that is why I am bound and determined
to use the office of the Presidency as a bully pulpit for
progress in our schools. I will make a renewed push for a shift
in some of our priorities to concentrate resources on those who
need help the most.
This nation grew into greatness because early Americans
understood the value of education. The one-room school house,
the land-grant college -- these were the crowning achievements of
the pioneers. No less important were the urban pioneers who
schooled the children of the ghettoes. The challenge that faced
our ancestors was not an easy one: to build a national
educational system from scratch. But they did it with blood,
sweat, tears and joy. They were dedicated individuals whose
traditions have come full circle in each of you here today.
With the dawn of a new century only eleven short years away,
we are faced with a new challenge -- to revitalize and restore
the system our forebears bequeathed to us; to ensure American
education is second to none.
I have made a number of proposals to work toward this goal.
Among them is my request to reward those schools whose students
show measurable progress in educational achievement, while
maintaining a safe and drug-free environment.
4
I have also asked for an annual fund of $100 million in new
appropriations to help create magnet schools to broaden the
educational choices of parents and students.
Yet another one of our proposals is to allot a special $60
million fund -- over four years -- to develop the endowments of
Historically Black Colleges and Universities through matching
grants.
During the coming weeks, I will transmit comprehensive
legislation to the Congress detailing our proposals and asking
for cooperation in strengthening American education.
Today, I want to single out one other aspect of my
educational program -- rewarding the brightest and most motivated
teachers. Teachers do not choose their profession because of its
financial rewards. There are too many other ways to make a
living, even a better living. However, teachers enjoy the
immense satisfaction of raising the sights of the next
generation. Their work makes our horizons longer and our futures
brighter.
I consider one proposal to be critically important -- the
President's Award for Excellence in Education. This award
combines the recognition of your profession and the respect of
your colleagues with financial reward -- an idea whose time has
come.
5
With this in mind, I proposed $7.6 million to be spent as
$5,000 cash awards to top teachers in every state. Eligible
teachers will be selected from all subjects and every grade
level.
I hope the Teacher's Award program keeps all levels of our
educational system focused on the need to show good teachers that
we appreciate their dedication.
Of course, public funds are tight at all levels of
government. As we develop new ways to reward and keep good
teachers, we must also look to combine the resources of the
public and private sectors. This is precisely what the N.E.H./
Reader's Digest Teacher/Scholar program accomplishes.
I am very grateful to Lynne Cheney and N.E.H. for all they
have done. I also want George Grune to convey my gratitude and
admiration to the those who had the foresight to contribute to
this effort.
In making this grant, you have planted the seeds of literacy
and learning that will benefit our country for generations to
come.
Together, these two organizations have rewarded you with the
most precious gift that can be bestowed on teachers -- time.
Time away from report cards, library fines and hall passes. Time
6
to learn, to master a subject. Time to write and publish. Time
to meditate and reflect.
And so many will benefit. What you will learn and
accomplish and pass on to our children will ripple across the
years like a stone tossed on a still pond.
In perusing the list of your projects, my eye settled on one
in particular -- a project proposed by Barbara Whittaker of
Traverse City, Michigan, entitled, "The Origin of the American
Dream and Its Development in Literature."
I am sure Barbara will reveal deep insights into the
American novel. But there is a larger point here. My friends, I
believe we can trace the origin of the American dream to a very
ordinary place. It can be found between the hours of 8 a.m. and
3 p.m., in every classroom in every city and town in America.
For all that you do, you have my highest respect, my
gratitude and my sincerest congratulations.
Thank you.
#
#
#
REMARKS: NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES/READER'S
DIGEST TEACHER/SCHOLAR PROGRAM AWARDS
EAST ROOM
THURSDAY, MARCH 2, 1989
THANK YOU. I AM FLATTERED TO BE IN THE COMPANY OF
THE MOST ACCOMPLISHED MEMBERS OF A MOST IMPORTANT
PROFESSION. WITHOUT YOU, OUR LINKS TO THE PAST AND OUR
VISION FOR THE FUTURE -- ALL THAT WE ARE, ALL THAT WE HAVE
ACCOMPLISHED, ALL THAT WE WILL BE -- WOULD LAY DORMANT IN
THE MINDS OF OUR CHILDREN.
I THANK YOU FOR YOUR DEDICATION.
2
As YOU KNOW, I'VE JUST RETURNED FROM A TRIP TO THE
FAR EAST, WHERE I VISITED THREE COUNTRIES IN FIVE DAYS.
AND LET ME TELL YOU, AS FASCINATING AS IT IS TO TRAVEL,
THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME
STILL, IT WAS A VITAL TRIP THAT HAS LAID THE
FOUNDATION FOR FUTURE RELATIONS WITH OUR FRIENDS AND
ALLIES. IN JAPAN, I SAW A NATION THAT HAS RISEN IN 40
YEARS FROM POST-WAR DESTRUCTION TO BECOME A LEADING
ECONOMIC POWER.
3
IN THE REPUBLIC OF KOREA, I SAW A NASCENT INDUSTRIAL POWER
JUST BEGINNING TO EXPLORE THE MEASURE OF ITS FUTURE
GREATNESS. AND IN CHINA
WELL, JUST LET ME SAY THAT
THERE HAVE BEEN SPECTACULAR CHANGES IN CHINA SINCE I
REPRESENTED OUR GOVERNMENT IN BEIJING.
IN EACH OF THESE COUNTRIES, EDUCATION HAS BEEN AN
IMPORTANT INGREDIENT FOR ECONOMIC SUCCESS.
4
OUR EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM HAS AN EQUALLY CRITICAL ROLE
TO PLAY IN ENSURING THE INTELLECTUAL CREATIVITY, THE
ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY, AND THE BASIC FREEDOMS OF OUR NEXT
GENERATION.
AMERICAN TEACHERS HAVE A BIG JOB AND AN EVEN BIGGER
RESPONSIBILITY. To EDUCATE THE CHILDREN OF SUCH A VAST,
DIVERSE NATION AS OURS REQUIRES MEN AND WOMEN OF TALENT
AND DEDICATION TO OUR CHILDREN AND THE TEACHING
PROFESSION. You IN THIS ROOM EXEMPLIFY THE KINDS OF
TEACHERS WE NEED
OUR VERY BEST.
5
As I READ ABOUT THE MANY SUBJECTS YOU WILL BE
STUDYING NEXT FALL -- SHAKESPEARE, CHINESE LITERATURE,
HISPANIC LITERATURE, THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE, AMERICAN
INDIAN CULTURE -- I REALIZED THAT, TOGETHER, YOU ENCOMPASS
THE DIVERSITY OF AMERICA. THAT DIVERSITY GIVES OUR NATION
AND OUR EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM A VIBRANCE OF SPIRIT THAT HAS
PRODUCED MEN AND WOMEN WITH INQUISITIVE MINDS, DOGGED
DETERMINATION AND BIG DREAMS.
I AM SURE YOU RECALL I MADE A PLEDGE DURING THE
CAMPAIGN TO BECOME THE EDUCATION PRESIDENT.
6
AND IT'S A PLEDGE I INTEND TO KEEP BY WORKING WITH YOU AND
THOUSANDS LIKE YOU IN CLASSROOMS FROM CONNECTICUT TO
CALIFORNIA.
You AND I KNOW THAT EDUCATION IS OUR MOST ENDURING
LEGACY. You AND I KNOW THAT EDUCATION IS NOTHING LESS
THAN THE VERY HEART OF OUR CIVILIZATION. AND THAT IS WHY
I AM BOUND AND DETERMINED TO USE THE OFFICE OF THE
PRESIDENCY AS A BULLY PULPIT FOR PROGRESS IN OUR SCHOOLS.
7
I WILL MAKE A RENEWED PUSH FOR A SHIFT IN SOME OF OUR
PRIORITIES TO CONCENTRATE RESOURCES ON THOSE WHO NEED HELP
THE MOST.
THIS NATION GREW INTO GREATNESS BECAUSE EARLY
AMERICANS UNDERSTOOD THE VALUE OF EDUCATION. THE ONE-ROOM
SCHOOL HOUSE, THE LAND-GRANT COLLEGE THESE WERE THE
CROWNING ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE PIONEERS. No LESS IMPORTANT
WERE THE URBAN PIONEERS WHO SCHOOLED THE CHILDREN OF THE
GHETTOES.
8
THE CHALLENGE THAT FACED OUR ANCESTORS WAS NOT AN EASY
ONE: TO BUILD A NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM FROM SCRATCH.
BUT THEY DID IT WITH BLOOD, SWEAT, TEARS AND JOY. THEY
WERE DEDICATED INDIVIDUALS WHOSE TRADITIONS HAVE COME FULL
CIRCLE IN EACH OF YOU HERE TODAY.
WITH THE DAWN OF A NEW CENTURY ONLY ELEVEN SHORT
YEARS AWAY, WE ARE FACED WITH A NEW CHALLENGE -- TO
REVITALIZE AND RESTORE THE SYSTEM OUR FOREBEARS BEQUEATHED
TO US; TO ENSURE AMERICAN EDUCATION IS SECOND TO NONE.
9
I HAVE MADE A NUMBER OF PROPOSALS TO WORK TOWARD THIS
GOAL. AMONG THEM IS MY REQUEST TO REWARD THOSE SCHOOLS
WHOSE STUDENTS SHOW MEASURABLE PROGRESS IN EDUCATIONAL
ACHIEVEMENT, WHILE MAINTAINING A SAFE AND DRUG-FREE
ENVIRONMENT.
I HAVE ALSO ASKED FOR AN ANNUAL FUND OF $100 MILLION
IN NEW APPROPRIATIONS TO HELP CREATE MAGNET SCHOOLS TO
BROADEN THE EDUCATIONAL CHOICES OF PARENTS AND STUDENTS.
10
YET ANOTHER ONE OF OUR PROPOSALS IS TO ALLOT A
SPECIAL $60 MILLION FUND -- OVER FOUR YEARS -- TO DEVELOP
THE ENDOWMENTS OF HISTORICALLY BLACK COLLEGES AND
UNIVERSITIES THROUGH MATCHING GRANTS.
DURING THE COMING WEEKS, I WILL TRANSMIT
COMPREHENSIVE LEGISLATION TO THE CONGRESS DETAILING OUR
PROPOSALS AND ASKING FOR COOPERATION IN STRENGTHENING
AMERICAN EDUCATION.
11
TODAY, I WANT TO SINGLE OUT ONE OTHER ASPECT OF MY
EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM -- REWARDING THE BRIGHTEST AND MOST
MOTIVATED TEACHERS. TEACHERS DO NOT CHOOSE THEIR
PROFESSION BECAUSE OF ITS FINANCIAL REWARDS. THERE ARE
TOO MANY OTHER WAYS TO MAKE A LIVING, EVEN A BETTER
LIVING. HOWEVER, TEACHERS ENJOY THE IMMENSE SATISFACTION
OF RAISING THE SIGHTS OF THE NEXT GENERATION. THEIR WORK
MAKES OUR HORIZONS LONGER AND OUR FUTURES BRIGHTER.
I CONSIDER ONE PROPOSAL TO BE CRITICALLY IMPORTANT --
THE PRESIDENT'S AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN EDUCATION.
12
THIS AWARD COMBINES THE RECOGNITION OF YOUR PROFESSION AND
THE RESPECT OF YOUR COLLEAGUES WITH FINANCIAL REWARD -- AN
IDEA WHOSE TIME HAS COME.
WITH THIS IN MIND, I PROPOSED $7.6 MILLION TO BE
SPENT AS $5,000 CASH AWARDS TO TOP TEACHERS IN EVERY
STATE. ELIGIBLE TEACHERS WILL BE SELECTED FROM ALL
SUBJECTS AND EVERY GRADE LEVEL.
I HOPE THE TEACHER'S AWARD PROGRAM KEEPS ALL LEVELS
OF OUR EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM FOCUSED ON THE NEED TO SHOW GOOD
TEACHERS THAT WE APPRECIATE THEIR DEDICATION.
13
OF COURSE, PUBLIC FUNDS ARE TIGHT AT ALL LEVELS OF
GOVERNMENT. As WE DEVELOP NEW WAYS TO REWARD AND KEEP
GOOD TEACHERS, WE MUST ALSO LOOK TO COMBINE THE RESOURCES
OF THE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECTORS. THIS IS PRECISELY WHAT
THE N.E.H./ READER'S DIGEST TEACHER/SCHOLAR PROGRAM
ACCOMPLISHES.
I AM VERY GRATEFUL TO LYNNE CHENEY AND N.E.H. FOR ALL
THEY HAVE DONE. I ALSO WANT GEORGE GRUNE [GROON] TO
CONVEY MY GRATITUDE AND ADMIRATION TO THOSE WHO HAD THE
FORESIGHT TO CONTRIBUTE TO THIS EFFORT.
14
IN MAKING THIS GRANT, YOU HAVE PLANTED THE SEEDS OF
LITERACY AND LEARNING THAT WILL BENEFIT OUR COUNTRY FOR
GENERATIONS TO COME.
TOGETHER, THESE TWO ORGANIZATIONS HAVE REWARDED YOU
WITH THE MOST PRECIOUS GIFT THAT CAN BE BESTOWED ON
TEACHERS -- TIME. TIME AWAY FROM REPORT CARDS, LIBRARY
FINES AND HALL PASSES. TIME TO LEARN, TO MASTER A
SUBJECT. TIME TO WRITE AND PUBLISH. TIME TO MEDITATE AND
REFLECT.
15
AND so MANY WILL BENEFIT. WHAT YOU WILL LEARN AND
ACCOMPLISH AND PASS ON TO OUR CHILDREN WILL RIPPLE ACROSS
THE YEARS LIKE A STONE TOSSED ON A STILL POND.
IN PERUSING THE LIST OF YOUR PROJECTS, MY EYE SETTLED
ON ONE IN PARTICULAR -- A PROJECT PROPOSED BY BARBARA
WHITTAKER OF TRAVERSE CITY, MICHIGAN, ENTITLED, "THE
ORIGIN OF THE AMERICAN DREAM AND ITS DEVELOPMENT IN
LITERATURE."
I AM SURE BARBARA WILL REVEAL DEEP INSIGHTS INTO THE
AMERICAN NOVEL.
16
BUT THERE IS A LARGER POINT HERE. MY FRIENDS, I BELIEVE
WE CAN TRACE THE ORIGIN OF THE AMERICAN DREAM TO A VERY
ORDINARY PLACE. IT CAN BE FOUND BETWEEN THE HOURS OF 8
A.M. AND 3 P.M., IN EVERY CLASSROOM IN EVERY CITY AND TOWN
IN AMERICA.
FOR ALL THAT YOU DO, YOU HAVE MY HIGHEST RESPECT, MY
GRATITUDE AND MY SINCEREST CONGRATULATIONS.
THANK YOU.
#
#
#
CONTACT:
#CHARLES BACARisse
mark Davis
7120 / #128
Fyl
NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20506
THE CHAIRMAN
February 22, 1989
Mr. Sichan Siv
Deputy Assistant to the President
for Public Liaison
The White House
Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear Mr. Siv:
In connection with the March 2, 1989, reception at the White
House, I enclose a national press release that provides
information about the Teacher/Scholar Program and a short
description of each teacher's project. I also enclose local press
releases that give a fuller description of the teacher/scholars.
As the press releases point out, this program grew out of
the Endowment's report on humanities education in the schools,
American Memory, which recommended that teachers be given
opportunities to learn more about the subjects they teach. The
key points about the program are that:
involving, as it does, both the NEH and the Reader's Digest,
it brings together the private and public sectors to work
for excellence in the schools. (The President will want to
recognize George Grune, the CEO of Reader's Digest.)
it brings to outstanding teachers the recognition they
deserve.
it gives outstanding teachers exactly what they say they
want: time to read and study. When the NEH did its report,
American Memory, excellent teachers, one after another, said
that they needed time to become even more knowledgeable
about their subjects so that they could be even better
resources for students.
Mr.' Sichan Siv
February 21, 1989
Page 2.
Teachers were chosen for this award on the basis of the
projects they propose to undertake during a sabbatical year of
study. These projects show a remarkable diversity of interest:
One teacher will study early nineteenth century reform movements,
another the Harlem Renaissance, a third "Las Nuevas Tecnicas
Narrativas en el Curriculo de Espanol" ["New Narrative Techniques
in the Spanish Curriculum"]. At the end of a year of study, these
teachers will be able to help their students learn more about
Shakespeare, about Chinese society and about the way cultural
knowledge is transmitted among the Zuni, Acoma, Jemez, Taos and
Navajo peoples in New Mexico.
I also enclose a copy of American Memory since it has some
quotes in it that may be useful:
"Knowledge of the ideas that have molded us and the ideals
that have mattered to us functions as a kind of civic glue."
"We would wish for our children that their decisions be
informed not be the wisdom of the moment, but by the wisdom
of the ages; and that is what we give them when we give them
knowledge of culture. The story of past lives and triumphs
and failures, the great texts with their enduring
themes--these do not necessarily provide the answers, but
they are a rich context out of which our children's answers
can come. "
I look forward to meeting you March 2nd.
Sincerely,
Lyn very
Lynne V. Cheney
Chairman
Enclosure
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
SCHEDULE PROPOSAL
January 27, 1989
TO:
JOE HAGIN, DEPUTY ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT FOR
PRESIDENTIAL APPOINTMENTS AND SCHEDULING
FROM:
DAVE DEMAREST, DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS
BOBBIE KILBERG, DEPUTY ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT
FOR PUBLIC LIAISON
REQUEST:
that the President host a reception for the 53
teachers chosen for the teacher-scholar program
sponsored by the National Endowment for the
Humanities and Reader's Digest.
PURPOSE:
to signal a commitment to the teaching profession
by supporting a program which rewards quality
and to highlight the concept of private-public
partnerships.
BACKGROUND:
This is the first year that the National Endowment
for the Humanities has sponsored a program to
provide teachers with a year off from the
classroom in order to pursue further study in
their fields. One teacher has been selected from
each state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico,
and the Virgin Islands. As a private-public
partnership effort, the Reader's Digest has agreed
to provide $1.5 million for the three year
program.
The teachers who have been selected will be
announced on January 31 and will come to a
briefing March. session in Washington in February or
PREVIOUS
PARTICIPATION: None.
DATE AND TIME: February 21 or 22, March 2, 3, 13, 14, 20, or 21.
DURATION:
15 minutes.
LOCATION:
East Room or State Dining Room.
PARTICIPANTS: Lynne Cheney, Chairman, National Endowment for
the Humanities
Chairman of Board of Reader's Digest
53 teachers
OUTLINE OF
EVENT:
The President arrives
Photo-op
President makes brief remarks
President Departs
REMARKS REQUIRED:
Brief remarks.
MEDIA COVERAGE:
Press pool.
state Drning Room
Manch 2 atzp.m.
NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20506
THE CHAIRMAN
January 24, 1989
Bobbie Kilberg, Director
Office of Public Liaison
Executive Office of the President
128 OEOB
17th and Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Bobbie:
The attached letter explains the NEH/Reader's Digest
Teacher-Scholar Program and our request for a White House event to
honor the fifty-three teachers chosen for awards in the first
round. We've talked to various people about a White House
reception for the teacher-scholars, including Jim Baker, Hector
Irastorza, Richard English, Mary Lukens in Bob Teeter's office,
and Kelley Luce in Joe Hagen's office. The response has been
uniformly positive as to the idea and uniformly noncommital about
when (and I understand it has been an awkward time to do
scheduling).
In any case, we must bring the teachers to Washington for an
orientation meeting. We could do that on any of the dates below.
February 21 or 22
March 2, 3, 13, 14, 20, or 21
The February dates would be better in that they are closer to the
January 31 announcement. After February 1, however, they become
problematic since three weeks is about what teachers need to free
themselves up to leave their schools and what NEH needs to make
their travel arrangements.
I appreciate your willingness to steer this project
through. Let me know if there's any other information you need.
Sincerely Lynn yours,
Lynne V. Cheney
Chairman
Enclosures
NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20506
November 15, 1988
James A. Baker III
2415 Foxhall Road, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20007
Dear Jim:
event in February honoring the NEH/Reader's Digest
You and I talked recently about the possibility of a White House
proposal after the election.
Teacher-Scholars. You asked that I give you a letter on the
The National Endowment for the Humanities is asking that in
February President Bush have a short White House ceremony/reception
District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Such
honoring our 53 outstanding teachers -- one from each state, the
to learning by the "Education President." It would be an
an event soon after the inauguration would signal a deep commitment
opportunity for him to recognize the many fine educators in
Additionally, White House recognition of this program, which
schools and give teachers across the country a much deserved our boost.
involved private as well as public funding, would emphasize the
education. importance of bringing third-party support to the task of improving
Cheney's 1987 report on elementary and secondary education. In that
The Teacher-Scholar program grew out of American Memory, Lynne
report, Dr. Cheney pointed out that good teachers do not always
time become for the further exploration of subjects that will help them
receive proper support and recognition, nor do they usually have
1987, Dr. Cheney designed a program to provide a year of sabbatical of
even more effective in the classroom. Thus in the fall
study for one teacher from each state.
Realizing that the Endowment's budget, in a time of deficit
crisis, was unlikely to grow sufficiently to cover the costs of such
three-year program.
agreed to provide $1.5 million or one-third of the costs of the
a major program, Dr. Cheney approached the Reader's Digest, which
will last spring. We plan on announcing the winners in January. They
Applicants for the first group of Teacher-Scholars were received
in come to the Endowment for orientation and an honoring ceremony
study with stipends up to $27,500 in September 1989.
February. The Teacher-Scholars will begin their programs of
November 15, 1988
Page 2
Teacher-Scholar applications and present their comments many hundreds to the
and from around the country assess the of
The teachers Endowment awards grants on a competitive basis. Scholars
applicants legislation, makes the final decision. The projects of the
our recommendations to Lynne Cheney, who, as designated It, in
turn, presidentially-appointed makes National Council on the Humanities. in
drama, Celtic mythology, and the U.S. Constitution to the
cover a wide range of topics from the study of Greek
contributions to that native Americans, blacks and Hispanics have made
our literature and history.
These that we can arrange a White House ceremony for the 53 winners.
I appreciate your willingness to deal with this request and hope
they teachers will be models for others, and the more visibility
are given, the better will American education be served.
Sincerely,
Mayante H- Sullvan
Marguerite H. Sullivan
Director
Office of Publications and Public Affairs
NEWS
National Endowment for
Public Affairs Office
the Humanities
Media Relations
1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20506
(202) 786-0449
NEH-89-005-N
Contact:
Office
Home
(NEH) Noel Milan
202/786-0449
301/268-4309
John McGrath
202/786-0449
(Reader's Digest) Bruce Trachtenberg
703/525-9478
914/241-5385
914/921-0287
EMBARGOED:
Hold for release until 10:00 a.m. (EST)
Tuesday, Jan. 31, 1989
HUMANITIES ENDOWMENT NAMES 53 "TEACHER-SCHOLARS"
NEH/Reader's Digest Program Gives Teachers Grants for Year of Study
WASHINGTON, Jan. 31 -- Fifty-three U.S. school teachers have received
grants to begin a year of independent study in history, literature or
foreign languages, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)
announced today.
This fall, for example, Wisconsin high school teacher Karolyn Welty
will begin a sabbatical during which she plans to study Aristotle's
Poetics and other classical Greek texts. At the same time, Tedd Levy will
take a year off from his teaching duties at a Connecticut middle school to
conduct independent research on the history of reform movements in
19th-century America. Chicago teacher Alice Price will spend a year away
from her classroom to study African-American literature and history.
Welty, Levy, Price and 50 other elementary, middle and secondary
school teachers were selected as the first recipients of the NEH/Reader's
Digest Teacher-Scholar awards. The Endowment announced a grant to one
teacher from each state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the
U.S. Virgin Islands.
"Good teachers often must struggle to find adequate time to think and
learn more about the subjects they teach," NEH Chairman Lynne V. Cheney
said in announcing the new awards. "We at NEH are delighted to provide an
- OVER -
NEH News - Teacher-Scholars
Jan. 31, 1989
Page 2
opportunity for teachers to conduct a full academic year of rigorous,
self-directed study in the humanities."
Teacher-Scholars will receive stipends of up to $27,500 to replace
their salaries or to supplement sabbatical pay up to the amount of their
academic year salaries.
NEH administers the program in partnership with a fund at New York
Community Trust established by DeWitt Wallace, founder of Reader's
Digest. The Endowment received a $1.5-million grant from the fund to pay
for approximately one-third the program's costs for three years. The gift
is the single largest ever made to NEH.
In congratulating the award winners, George V. Grune, chairman and
chief executive officer of Reader's Digest, said the sabbatical program is
"important to all of us because it ensures that America's teachers -- the
people entrusted to educate our nation's students -- are the best at what
they do."
Grune, who serves as an adviser to the fund that made the grant to
NEH, added, "Imagine the powerful impact these teachers will have on their
students and fellow teachers after they return from a year away from the
classroom -- a year in which they were free to learn. As a company, we've
always encouraged people to improve themselves and strive for excellence
through the pursuit of knowledge, which is why Reader's Digest is pleased
to be associated with this program."
Project proposals were judged on their intellectual quality, the
significance of the topic and the relevance of the study plan to the
applicant's teaching responsibilities.
- MORE -
EH News - Teacher-Scholars
an. 31, 1989
Page 3
The NEH/Reader's Digest Teacher-Scholar program grew out of an
August 1987 NEH report on the state of humanities education in American
public schools. The congressionally-mandated report, American Memory,
found that teacher-preparation programs place too little emphasis on
subject-area study and recommended that teachers be given new
opportunities to learn more about the humanities disciplines they teach.
While sabbaticals -- paid leave to perform scholarly research -- are
common for college professors, most teachers at the precollegiate level
seldom have such an opportunity for reflection and intellectual growth.
Applicants to the Teacher-Scholar program were enthusiastic about gaining
chance to conduct intensive research on a subject related to their
teaching.
Susan Meeker, the Teacher-Scholar selected from New York state, wrote
of her plan to study the antebellum South, "To have the luxury of a year
to investigate questions in Southern history and to read the sources that
have been tempting me for years is exciting. The prime outcome will be
professional satisfaction and growth, both from pursuing my major academic
interest and in passing this on to my students and colleagues."
W
NEH chose the winners from a nationwide pool of 615 eligible
applicants. Of the 53 winners, 39 teach at public schools. Twenty
Teacher-Scholars are from institutions located in urban areas; 20 teach at
suburban schools; and 13 are teachers at schools in rural areas.
Topics to be studied by the 1989 Teacher-Scholars include the poetry
of Yeats, Eliot, Williams, Stevens and Frost; women writers in France
- OVER -
NEH News - Teacher-Scholars
Jan. 31, 1989
Page 4
since 1789; philosophy and literature for children; and the writings of
Voltaire and Rousseau.
"These teachers represent a wide variety of professional experiences
and interests," said NEH Chairman Cheney. "What they have in common is a
love of knowledge and the courage to undertake an ambitious research
project in the humanities."
NEH is currently accepting applications for the next cycle of
Teacher-Scholar awards. Application forms, available from the Endowment,
must be received by May 1, 1989, for projects that would begin in
September 1990.
The National Endowment for the Humanities is an independent federal
agency that supports education, research, preservation and public programs
in the humanities.
# # #
NOTE TO EDITORS: A complete list of the 1989 NEH/Reader's Digest
Teacher-Scholars, this release. with their schools and school phone numbers, accompanies
FACTS
National Endowment for
Public Affairs Office
the Humanities
Media Relations
1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20506
(202) 786-0449
NEH-89-005-F
EMBARGOED: Hold for release until 10:00 a.m. (EST)
Tuesday, Jan. 31, 1989
NEH/READER'S DIGEST TEACHER-SCHOLARS
1989-90
Mary Ann Rygiel
Auburn, Alabama
Auburn High School
Auburn, Alabama
205/887-2110
"The Contexts of Shakespeare's Plays"
Benjamin H. Orr
Tununak, Alaska
Paul T. Albert Memorial School
Tununak, Alaska
907/652-6827
"Native Americans in Language and Literature"
Jay L. Cravath
Tempe, Arizona
Frye Elementary School
Chandler, Arizona
602/786-7050
Americans" "An Ethnomusicological and Cultural Study of Arizona's Native
Harold L. McDuffie
Springdale High School
Fayetteville, Arkansas
Springdale, Arkansas
501/751-4838
"A Study of Poetics in Yeats, Eliot, Williams, Stevens and Frost"
Karen M. Steadman.
Salinas, California
Gonzales- Union High School
Gonzales, California
408/675-2495
"The Conquest of Mexico: An Examination of Conflicting Accounts
and Interpretations"
Alan E. Olds
Arvada, Colorado
Arvada West High School
Arvada, Colorado
303/422-2326
"The Short Stories of Lu Xun"
Tedd Levy
Norwalk, Connecticut
Nathan Hale Middle School
Norwalk, Connecticut
203/852-9864
"Study of Early 19th-Century Reform Movements with a Focus on
Common Schools"
- OVER -
NEH Facts - NEH/Reader's Digest Teacher-Scholars
Jan. 31, 1989
Page 2
EMBARGOED: Hold for release until 10:00 a.m. (EST)
Tuesday, Jan. 31, 1989
Phoebe B. Eskenazi
Colwyck School
Wilmington, Delaware
New Castle, Delaware
302/429-4085
"Transmission of Cultural Knowledge Amongst Zuni, Acoma, Jemez,
Taos and Navajo Peoples in New Mexico"
Lynn N. Rothberg
Washington, D.C.
Georgetown Day School
Washington, D.C.
202/333-7727
"The Canterbury Tales as a Fusion of Literature and History"
Emily D. Christofoli
Episcopal High School
Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville, Florida
904/396-5751
"Directed Studies on the Works of Ana Maria Matute and the Xuetas
in Spanish Literature"
Irene B. Marxsen
Central High School
Macon, Georgia
Macon, Georgia
912/743-4681
"France Since 1789: Perspective of Women Writers"
Carl R. Ackerman
Iolani School
Honolulu, Hawaii
Honolulu, Hawaii
808/949-5355
"Radical Political Thought in 19th-Century Russia"
James M. Francis
Idaho Falls, Idaho
Idaho Falls High School
Idaho Falls, Idaho
208/525-7740
"Chinese Culture in the Context of a World History Course"
Alice H. Price
Chicago, Illinois
Lincoln Park High School
Chicago, Illinois
"The Narrative Voice in Black Literature 312/280-3600 and History"
- MORE -
NEH Facts - NEH/Reader's Digest Teacher-Scholars
Jan. 31, 1989
Page 3
EMBARGOED: Hold for release until 10:00 a.m. (EST)
Tuesday, Jan. 31, 1989
Judith D. Lebryk
Valparaiso High School
Valparaiso, Indiana
Valparaiso, Indiana
219/464-1002
"C.P. Snow: A Life into Art"
Kenneth E. Resch
Stephen Hempstead High School
Dubuque, Iowa
Dubuque, Iowa
319/588-5172
"william Wordsworth: Cornerstone of English Romanticism"
Roger E. Gibson
Roosevelt Elementary School
Manhattan, Kansas
Manhattan, Kansas
913/537-2290
"Harlem Renaissance"
Lois J. Barnes
Western Hills High School
Versailles, Kentucky
Frankfort, Kentucky
502/875-2900
"Studies in Soviet Government and Society"
Matt Berman Metairie Park Country Day School
Metairie, Louisiana
Metairie, Louisiana
504/837-5204
"Philosophy and Children's Literature"
Ruth K. Shacter
Livermore Falls High School
Wayne, Maine
Livermore Falls, Maine
207/897-3428
"Louise Bogan: A Biographical and Critical Study"
Ralph D. Van Inwagen
St. Andrew's Episcopal School
Rockville, Maryland
Bethesda, Maryland
301/530-4900
"20th-Century U.S. History in the Context of Major World Trends,
Issues and Events"
- OVER -
NEH Facts - NEH/Reader's Digest Teacher-Scholars
Jan. 31, 1989
Page 4
EMBARGOED: Hold for release until 10:00 a.m. (EST)
Tuesday, Jan. 31, 1989
John W. Cameron
Dana Hall School
Wellesley, Massachusetts
Wellesley, Massachusetts
617/235-3010
"Reclaiming Our Humanity Through 20th-Century Literature, Music
and Art"
I'm PARtiA I to A PROjECT proposed by
...
Barbara S. Whittaker
Kingsley High School
Traverse City, Michigan
Kinglsey, Michigan
616/263-5261
"The Origin of the American Dream and Its Development in
Literature"
Marjorie J. Bingham
St. Louis Park High School
Minnetonka, Minnesota
St. Louis Park, Minnesota
612/925-4300
"Integrating Ottoman/Turkish History into Western Civilization
Courses"
Patsy R. Ricks
Jackson Preparatory School
Jackson, Mississippi
Jackson, Mississippi
601/939-8611
"Significance of Classical Color Symbolism: An Examination of
Original Greek and Roman Texts"
Mardella K. Harris
Hazelwood East High School
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis, Missouri
314/355-6800
"The African Influence in Latin American Literature"
Rebecca A. Cox
Helena High School
Helena, Montana
Helena, Montana
406/442-8090
"Montana's Mythology: Merging Theory, History and Literature"
Betty J. Kort
Hastings Senior High School
Hastings, Nebraska
Hastings, Nebraska
402/461-7550
"Literature, History and Culture of the Western Plains States"
- MORE - -
NEH Facts - NEH/Reader's Digest Teacher-Scholars
Jan. 31, 1989
Page 5
EMBARGOED: Hold for release until 10:00 a.m. (EST)
Tuesday, Jan. 31, 1989
Sandra M. Ventre
Crystal Bay, Nevada
Incline High School
Incline Village, Nevada
702/831-1240
"Found Sisters: Kate Chopin, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, Charlotte
Perkins Gilman, Sarah Orne Jewett, Harriet Beecher Stowe"
Douglas G. Rogers
Phillips Exeter Academy
Exeter, New Hampshire
Exeter, New Hampshire
603/772-4311
"American Literature: Works by Women, Blacks and Native Americans"
Marie-Helene V. Davies
Princeton Day School
Princeton, New Jersey
Princeton, New Jersey
609/924-6700
"17th-Century French Drama and Culture"
Philip J. Davis
Pojoaque Middle School
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe, New Mexico
505/455-2238
Mexico" "Historical and Cultural Ties Between Mexico and Northern New
Susan G. Meeker
Hunter College High School
New York, New York
New York, New York
212/860-1280
"The Antebellum South"
Esther M. Dunnegan
Athens Drive High School
Morrisville, North Carolina
Raleigh, North Carolina
919/851-8932
"The Islamic Influence in Five Modern Nations: Nigeria, Pakistan,
Malaysia, Trinidad and Egypt"
Marsha L. Looysen
Minot, North Dakota
Minot High - Central Campus
Minot, North Dakota
701/857-4660
"Characterization of Adolescents in British and American Novels"
- OVER -
NEH Facts - NEH/Reader's Digest Teacher-Scholars
Jan. 31, 1989
Page 6
EMBARGOED: Hold for release until 10:00 a.m. (EST)
Tuesday, Jan. 31, 1989
Beneth B. Morrow
Perrysburg, Ohio
Maumee Valley Country Day School
Toledo, Ohio
"South African History: Public and 419/381-1313 Personal"
Glenda J. Peters
Norman, Oklahoma
Longfellow Middle School
Norman, Oklahoma
405/360-0464
Beatrix Potter and Lance Henson"
"A Study of Robert Frost, Henry W. Longfellow, Emily Dickinson,
David E. Streight
Portland, Oregon
Oregon Episcopal School
Portland, Oregon
503/246-7771
"Troubadours, Mystics and Courts: The Flowering of Love in
Medieval Europe"
Joseph M. Phillips
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Central High School
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
215/224-6015
"Contemporary Poetry and the American Poetry Review Collection"
Rosa M. Feliciano
San Sebastian, Puerto Rico
Departamento de Instruccion Publica
San Sebastian, Puerto Rico
809/896-2838
"Làs Nuevas Tecnicas Narrativas en el Curriculo de Espanol" ["New
Narrative Techniques in the Spanish Curriculum"]
John C. Juhasz
Moses Brown School
North Kingstown, Rhode Island
Providence, Rhode Island
"The Muslim Presence in Spain and the 401/831-7350 Legend of Saint James"
Suzanne C. Linder
Columbia, South Carolina
Bennettsville High School
Bennettsville, South Carolina
"A Study of the History and Culture 803/777-5195 of Marlboro County, South
Carolina, from 1700 to 1865"
- MORE -
NEH Facts - NEH/Reader's Digest Teacher-Scholars
Jan. 31, 1989
Page 7
EMBARGOED: Hold for release until 10:00 a.m. (EST)
Tuesday, Jan. 31, 1989
Mary E. Fiedler
Brookings, South Dakota
Brookings High School
Brookings, South Dakota
"Three Responses to War: Camus, Hesse, 605/692-6181 Wiesel"
Carol G. Transou
Johnson City, Tennessee
Science Hill High School
Johnson City, Tennessee
"The Vietnam War: Origins, Experience 615/926-8171 and Legacies"
Alexandra M. Underhill
Austin, Texas
Porter Middle School
Austin, Texas
"Women of the American West, 1840-1900: 512/442-7073 Continuity and Change"
Steven T. Bickmore
West Jordan, Utah
West. Jordan High School
West Jordan, Utah
801/565-7576
"A Study of Victorian Serialization: Dickens, Eliot, Thackeray
and Trollope as Exemplars"
Jane B. Goodman
South Burlington, Vermont
Essex Junction Educational Center
Essex Junction, Vermont
"A Study of the Writings of Voltaire 802/879-7121 and Rousseau"
Marina L. de Salem
St. Thomas, Virgin Islands
Charlotte Amalie High School
St. Thomas, Virgin Islands
"Developing an Anthology of Poems from 809/774-0780 Spain, Central and South
America and the Caribbean"
John W. Noffsinger
Roanoke, Virginia
North Cross School
Roanoke, Virginia
Periods" "The Encounter with the Sacred in Classical, 703/989-6641 Medieval and Modern
- OVER -
NEH Facts - NEH/Reader's Digest Teacher-Scholars
Jan. 31, 1989
Page 8
EMBARGOED:
Hold for release until 10:00 a.m. (EST)
Tuesday, Jan. 31, 1989
Judith H. Lightfoot
Lakeside School
Seattle, Washington
Seattle, Washington
206/368-3600
"Versions of Modernism in Pound, Eliot, Williams, Stevens, H.D.,
Moore, Bishop, Ashbery and Rich"
Linda L. Pinnell
Fairmont Senior High School
Fairmont, West Virginia
Fairmont, West Virginia
304/366-4220
"Modern Comic Themes and Their Antecedents in Early Greek, Roman
and French Comedies"
Karolyn W. Welty
Whitewater High School
Whitewater, Wisconsin
Whitewater, Wisconsin
414/472-4800
"A Study Aristotle's Poetics, the Greek Epic and Greek Drama"
Roderick D. Laird
Saratoga Middle School
Saratoga, Wyoming
Saratoga, Wyoming
307/326-8365
"Current Archaeological Theories Concerning the First Peoples of
North America"
# # #:
UNCLASSIFIED
CLASSIFICATION
CIRCLE ONE BELOW
MODE SECURE FAX P16 #
PAGES 12
IMMEDIATE
DTG 2421352
PRIORITY
ADMIN FAX #
ROUTINE
RELEASER DG
FROM/LOCATION
1.
Botwin - White House
TO/LOCATION/TIME OF RECEIPT
1.
David Demarest - Tokyo
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
INFORMATION ADDEES/LOCATION/TIME OF RECEIPT
1.
2.
SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS/REMARKS:
CLASSIFICATION
President Bush/3/2/89
DRAFT/2/25/89/noon
Page 1
NEH/Teachers
Thank you. I am flattered to be in the company of the most
a
accomplished members of the most important profession. Without
our links Yo the past and our vision for thefuture
you, American civilization -- all that we are, and all that we
all drot we willbe would lay dormant in the mind
I Thank you for your dedication
have accomplished, would vanish in a single generation. children of our
As you know, I've just returned from a trip to the Far East,
where I visited three countries in five days. And let me tell
you, as fascinating as it is to travel, there's no place like
home
...
especially if home is 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Still, it was a memorable important trip that will set the basis for
future relations. In Japan, I saw a nation that has risen in 40
years from utter destitution to become the second-greatest
economic power on earth. In South Korea, I saw a nascent
industrial power just beginning to explore the measure of its
future greatness. And in China
...
well, just let me say that
there have been spectacular changes in China since I represented
our government in Peking.
-MORE-
President Bush/3/2/89
DRAFT/2/25/89/nooD
Page 2
Returning home, I am always delighted anew at the ethnic and
cultural diversity of our land. As American teachers, you are
often slighted by comparisons to foreign educational systems.
While I don't mean to criticize the teaching systems of other
countries, let's face it -- a highly systematized, impersonal and
rigid system of education is not right for America.
American teachers have the biggest job on earth. Name
another country that must educate and assimilate the children of
so many cultures from so many lands.
To educate the children of such a vast, diverse nation
requires the best and the brightest in the teaching profession.
inthis com
I don't mean to embarrass you, but I believe that you exemplify
the kinds of teachers we need.
You not only encompass the diversity of America; you
illustrate the encompassing of world culture in one society.
This diversity is reflected in the titles of your project
proposals, which includes works on Shakespeare, Chinese
literature, the Harlem Renaissance and American Indian culture.
During the campaign, I am sure you recall I made a pledge to
become the Education President. 'Sounds great,' my critics some
asked, 'but what does that mean?' Let me tell you.
-MORE-
President Bush/3/2/89
Page 3
To put it bluntly, a President is tempted to ignore the
whole issue of education. History will not judge him by the rise
or fall of S.A.T. scores. A President finds himself in the
center of a storm, beset by a thousand short-term problems that
cry out for immediate attention. 90 the state of American
education is an easy area for a President to delegate.
Out-of sight, out of mind.
But you and I know that education is our most enduring
legacy. You and I know that education is nothing less than the
transmission and continuation of our civilization. And that is
why I am bound and determined to use the office of the Presidency
as a bully pulpit for progress in our schools.
This nation grew into greatness because it was the first
on earth to provide a free public education. The one-room school
house, the land-grant college -- these were the crowning
achievements of the pioneers. No less important were the urban
pioneers who schooled the children of the ghettoes. The
challenge that faced our ancestors was to build a national public
education system from scratch. And they did.
-MORE-
President Bush/3/2/89
DRAFT/2/25/89/noon
Page 4
Today, we are faced with a new challenge -- to revitalize
and restore the system our forebears bequeathed to us; to again
make an American education second to none.
I have made many proposals to do this. Among them are:
MERIT SCHOOLS: I have requested $250 million to advance
merit schools for gifted children, especially among the
disadvantaged.
MAGNET SCHOOLS: I have asked for an annual fund of $100
million in new appropriations to help create magnet schools to
enrich the educational choices of parents and students.
HISTORICALLY BLACK COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES: I have
proposed a special $60 million fund -- over four years -- to
develop the endowments of Historically Black Colleges and
Universities through matching grants.
-MORE-
President Bush/3/2/89
DRAFT/2/25/89/noon
Page 5
Today, I want to single out one aspect of my educational
program -- rewarding the brightest and most motivated teachers.
I consider one proposal to be critically important -- the
President's Award for Excellence in Education. Awards,
certificates and commendations are great. But a raise is the
most eloquent form of praise there is.
With this in mind, I proposed $8 million to be spent as
$5,000 cash awards to top teachers in every state. Eligible
teachers will be selected from all subjects and every grade
level.
This is just a start. In time, I hope the Teacher's Award
program will become a model for states and local school districts
to follow.
of course, public funds are tight at all levels of
government. As we develop new ways to reward and keep good
teachers, we must also look to combine the resources of the
public and private sectors. This is precisely what the N.E.H.
and Reader's Digest have accomplished.
-MORE-
President Bush/3/2/89
DRAFT/2/25/89/noon
Page 6
I want to single out Chairman Lynne Cheney for organizing
this project. This is but one outgrowth of her remarkable
report, American Memory, which detailed how administrative
impediments can demoralize even the best teachers. Her
observations should prompt every state in America to reassess its
programs and priorities.
I also want George Grune to convey my gratitude and
admiration to the DeWitt Wallace trust and the people of
Reader's Digest. You have shown a public spiritedness and
dedication that is a model for the private sector.
I am sure George won't mind if I point out that this grant
of $1.5 million isn't a case of pure charity. It is also a
hardnosed business decision. Reader's Digest is currently
enjoyed by (number) million readers. Will there be that many
people who read for pleasure in 2020 A.D.? In making this grant,
Reader's Digest is planting a seed for the future growth of its
publication, and the future of our country.
-MORE-
President Bush/3/2/89
DRAFT/2/25/89/nooD
Page 7
Together, these two organizations have rewarded you with the
most appropriate gift that can be bestowed on teachers -- time.
Time away from report cards, library fines and hall passes. Time
to learn, to master a subject. Time to write and publish. Time
to meditate and reflect.
What you will learn and accomplish, however, is not for you
alone. It is a trust for you to share with generations to come.
In perusing the list of your projects, my eye settled on one
in particular -- a literary project proposed by Barbara Whittaker
of Traverse city, Michigan, entitled, "The Origin of the American
Dream
I am sure Barbara will reveal deep insights into the
development of the American novel.
But there is a larger point
here. My friends, I believe we can trace the origin of the
American dream to a very ordinary place. It can be found between
the hours of 8 a.m. and 3 p.m, in every classroom in every city
and town in America.
For all that you do, you have my highest respect, and
sincerest congratulations.
Thank you.
#
#
#
BEFORE RECONCILIATION
1
(Davis/Dooley)
February 28, 1989
6:50 p.m.
disc 1
NEH/Teachers
Thank you. I am flattered to be in the company of the most
accomplished members of a most important profession. Without
you, our links to the past and our vision for the future -- all
that we are, all that we have accomplished, all that we will be
-- would lay dormant in the minds of our children.
I thank you for your dedication.
As you know, I've just returned from a trip to the Far East,
where I visited three countries in five days. And let me tell
you, as fascinating as it is to travel, there's no place like
home
especially if home is 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Still, it was an important trip that will set the basis for
future relations. In Japan, I saw a nation that has risen in 40
years from utter destitution to become the second-greatest
economic power on earth. In South Korea, I saw a nascent
industrial power just beginning to explore the measure of its
future greatness. And in China
...
well, just let me say that
there have been spectacular changes in China since I represented
our government in Peking.
2
Returning home, I am always delighted anew at the ethnic and
cultural diversity of our land. As American teachers, you are
often slighted by comparisons to foreign educational systems.
While I don't mean to criticize the teaching systems of other
countries, let's face it -- a highly systematized, impersonal and
rigid system of education is not right for America.
American teachers have the biggest job on earth. Name
another country that must educate and assimilate the children of
so many cultures from so many lands.
To educate the children of such a vast, diverse nation
requires the best and the brightest in the teaching profession.
I don't mean to embarrass you, but I believe that you in this
room exemplify the kinds of teachers we need.
You not only encompass the diversity of America; you
illustrate the encompassing of world culture in one society.
This diversity is reflected in the titles of your project
proposals, which includes works on Shakespeare, Chinese
literature, Hispanic literature, the Harlem Renaissance and
American Indian culture.
During the campaign, I am sure you recall I made a pledge to
become the Education President. 'Sounds great,' some asked, 'but
what does that mean?' Let me tell you.
3
To put it bluntly, a President is tempted to ignore the
whole issue of education. History will not judge him by the rise
or fall of S.A.T. scores. A President finds himself in the
center of a storm, beset by a thousand short-term problems that
cry out for immediate attention.
But you and I know that education is our most enduring
legacy. You and I know that education is nothing less than the
transmission and continuation of our civilization. And that is
why I am bound and determined to use the office of the Presidency
as a bully pulpit for progress in our schools.
This nation grew into greatness because it was the first
on earth to provide a free public education. The one-room school
house, the land-grant college -- these were the crowning
achievements of the pioneers. No less important were the urban
pioneers who schooled the children of the ghettoes. The
challenge that faced our ancestors was to build a national public
education system from scratch. And they did.
4
Today, we are faced with a new challenge -- to revitalize
and restore the system our forebears bequeathed to us; to make an
American education second to none.
I have made many proposals to do this. Among them are:
MERIT SCHOOLS: I have requested $250 million to reward
schools that have shown measurable improvement -- especially
schools that serve large proportions of disadvantaged students.
MAGNET SCHOOLS: I have asked for an annual fund of $100
million in new appropriations to help create magnet schools to
enrich the educational choices of parents and students.
HISTORICALLY BLACK COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES: I have
proposed a special $60 million fund -- over four years -- to
develop the endowments of Historically Black Colleges and
Universities through matching grants.
5
Today, I want to single out one aspect of my educational
program -- rewarding the brightest and most motivated teachers.
I consider one proposal to be critically important -- the
President's Award for Excellence in Education. Awards,
certificates and commendations are great. But a raise is the
most eloquent form of praise there is.
With this in mind, I proposed $8 million to be spent as
$5,000 cash awards to top teachers in every state. Eligible
teachers will be selected from all subjects and every grade
level.
I hope the Teacher's Award program keeps all levels of our
educational system focused on the need to show good teachers that
we appreciate their dedication.
of course, public funds are tight at all levels of
government. As we develop new ways to reward and keep good
teachers, we must also look to combine the resources of the
public and private sectors. This is precisely what this joint
program of N.E.H. and Reader's Digest has accomplished.
6
I want to single out Chairman Lynne Cheney for organizing
this project. This is but one outgrowth of the endowment's
remarkable report, American Memory, which detailed how
administrative impediments can demoralize even the best teachers.
These observations should prompt every state in America to
reassess its programs and priorities.
I also want George Grune to convey my gratitude and
admiration to the DeWitt Wallace trust, a fund at New York
Community Trust created by the founder of Reader's Digest.
You have shown a public spiritedness and dedication that is a
model for the private sector.
I am sure George won't mind if I point out that this grant
of $1.5 million isn't a case of pure charity. For the corporate
community, investment in education is a hardnosed business
decision. It is not surprising that someone in George's business
-- whose publication, Reader's Digest, is read by more than 50
million Americans -- should take an active interest in the future
of American education. Will there be 50 million Americans who
read for pleasure in the year 2020 A.D.?
I believe we will, judging from what I have seen today.
This grant is planting a seed for the future growth of literacy,
and the future of our country.
7
Together, these two organizations have rewarded you with the
most appropriate gift that can be bestowed on teachers -- time.
Time away from report cards, library fines and hall passes. Time
to learn, to master a subject. Time to write and publish. Time
to meditate and reflect.
What you will learn and accomplish, however, is not for you
alone. It is a trust for you to share with generations to come.
In perusing the list of your projects, my eye settled on one
in particular -- a project proposed by Barbara Whittaker of,
Traverse City, Michigan, entitled, "The Origin of the American
Dream and Its Development in Literature."
I am sure Barbara will reveal deep insights into the
American novel. But there is a larger point here. My friends, I
believe we can trace the origin of the American dream to a very
ordinary place. It can be found between the hours of 8 a.m. and
3 p.m, in every classroom in every city and town in America.
For all that you do, you have my highest respect, and
sincerest congratulations.
Thank you.
#
#
#
WORKING DRAFT x
RECORCI RECONCILIATION
PRESIDENT BUSH/3/2/89
DRAFT/2/28/89/10 a.m.
Page 1
NEH/Teachers
Thank you. I am flattered to be in the company of the most
accomplished members of a most important profession. Without
you, our links to the past and our vision for the future -- all
that we are, all that we have accomplished, all that we will be
-- would lay dormant in the minds of our children.
I thank you for your dedication.
As you know, I've just returned from a trip to the Far East,
where I visited three countries in five days. And let me tell
you, as fascinating as it is to travel, there's no place like
home
especially if home is 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Still, it was an important trip that will set the basis for
future relations. In Japan, I saw a nation that has risen in 40
years from utter destitution to become the second-greatest
economic power on earth. In South Korea, I saw a nascent
industrial power just beginning to explore the measure of its
future greatness. And in China
well, just let me say that
there have been spectacular changes in China since I represented
our government in Peking.
--MORE-
PRESIDENT BUSH/3/2/89
DRAFT/2/28/89/10 a.m.
Page 2
Returning home, I am always delighted anew at the ethnic and
cultural diversity of our land. As American teachers, you are
often slighted by comparisons to foreign educational systems.
While I don't mean to criticize the teaching systems of other
countries, let's face it -- a highly systematized, impersonal and
rigid system of education is not right for America.
American teachers have the biggest job on earth. Name
another country that must educate and assimilate the children of
so many cultures from so many lands.
To educate the children of such a vast, diverse nation
requires the best and the brightest in the teaching profession.
I don't mean to embarrass you, but I believe that you in this
room exemplify the kinds of teachers we need.
You not only encompass the diversity of America; you
illustrate the encompassing of world culture in one society.
This diversity is reflected in the titles of your project
proposals, which includes works on Shakespeare, Chinese
kate>
His pAnic cul twen
literature, the Harlem Renaissance and American Indian culture.
During the campaign, I am sure you recall I made a pledge to
become the Education President. 'Sounds great,' some asked, 'but
what does that mean?' Let me tell you.
-MORE-
PRESIDENT BUSH/3/2/89
DRAFT/2/28/89/10 a.m.
Page 3
To put it bluntly, a President is tempted to ignore the
whole issue of education. History will not judge him by the rise
or fall of S.A.T. scores. A President finds himself in the
center of a storm, beset by a thousand short-term problems that
cry out for immediate attention.
But you and I know that education is our most enduring
legacy. You and I know that education is nothing less than the
transmission and continuation of our civilization. And that is
why I am bound and determined to use the office of the Presidency
as a bully pulpit for progress in our schools.
This nation grew into greatness because it was the first
on earth to provide a free public education. The one-room school
house, the land-grant college -- these were the crowning
achievements of the pioneers. No less important were the urban
pioneers who schooled the children of the ghettoes. The
challenge that faced our ancestors was to build a national public
education system from scratch. And they did.
-MORE-
PRESIDENT BUSH/3/2/89
DRAFT/2/28/89/10 a.m.
Page 4
Today, we are faced with a new challenge -- to revitalize
and restore the system our forebears bequeathed to us; to make an
American education second to none.
I have made many proposals to do this. Among them are:
REWARD
MERIT SCHOOLS: I have requested $250 million to advance
Kate
mum SCHOOLS that hAVE shown MEASURAblE
merit schools for gifted children, especially among the
disadvantaged. STUDEnTS.
IMPROVEMENT - ESP. Schools that 1 ARGELY SERVE DISADUANTAGED
large proporlins
of
MAGNET SCHOOLS: I have asked for an annual fund of $100
million in new appropriations to help create magnet schools to
enrich the educational choices of parents and students.
HISTORICALLY BLACK COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES: I have
proposed a special $60 million fund -- over four years -- to
develop the endowments of Historically Black Colleges and
Universities through matching grants.
-MORE-
PRESIDENT BUSH/3/2/89
DRAFT/2/28/89/10 a.m.
Page 5
Today, I want to single out one aspect of my educational
program -- rewarding the brightest and most motivated teachers.
I consider one proposal to be critically important -- the
President's Award for Excellence in Education. Awards,
certificates and commendations are great. But a raise is the
most eloquent form of praise there is.
With this in mind, I proposed $8 million to be spent as
$5,000 cash awards to top teachers in every state. Eligible
teachers will be selected from all subjects and every grade
level.
This is just a start. In time, I hope the Teacher's Award
Kats
KEEP OUR EDUCATIONAL System AT All LEVELS FOCUSED on
program will become a model for states and local school districts
THE AEED TO SHOW GOOD TEACHERS THAT THEIR DEDKAT 10N
to follow. IS APPRECIATED.
Of course, public funds are tight at all levels of
government. As we develop new ways to reward and keep good
teachers, we must also look to combine the resources of the
Peogy
public and private sectors. This is precisely what the N.E.H.
READER'S DIGEST PROGRAM
and the DeWitt Wallace trust have accomplished.
-MORE-
PRESIDENT BUSH/3/2/89
DRAFT/2/25/89/NOON
Page 6
Prysy-AEH
I want to single out Chairman Lynne Cheney for organizing
the EnDowmerts
this project. This is but one outgrowth of her remarkable NEH
CHANGE
PEGGY
report, American Memory, which detailed how administrative
impediments can demoralize even the best teachers. Her
observations should prompt every state in America to reassess its
[AfunD At Com, TRUST
,NEHT
programs and priorities.
CREATED by RD FOUNDER
De with WALLACE. ]
Pessy
I also want George Grune to convey my gratitude and
admiration to the DeWitt Wallace trust. You have shown a public
spiritedness and dedication that is a model for the private
sector.
I am sure George won't mind if I point out that this grant
of $1.5 million isn't a case of pure charity. For the corporate
community, investment in education is a hardnosed business
decision. It is not surprising that someone in George's business
-- whose publication, Reader's Digest, is read by more than 50
million Americans -- should take an active interest in the future
of American education. Will there be 50 million Americans who
read for pleasure in the year 2020 A.D.?
-nett
In making this grant, the Dewitt Wallace trust is planting a
Persy
seed for the future growth of literacy, and the future of our
country.
-MORE-
PRESIDENT BUSH/3/2/89
DRAFT/2/25/89/NOON
Page 7
Together, these two organizations have rewarded you with the
most appropriate gift that can be bestowed on teachers -- time.
Time away from report cards, library fines and hall passes. Time
to learn, to master a subject. Time to write and publish. Time
to meditate and reflect.
What you will learn and accomplish, however, is not for you
alone. It is a trust for you to share with generations to come.
In perusing the list of your projects, my eye settled on one
in particular -- a project proposed by Barbara Whittaker of
Traverse City, Michigan, entitled, "The Origin of the American
Dream and its Development in American Literature."
I am sure Barbara will reveal deep insights into the
American novel. But there is a larger point here. My friends, I
believe we can trace the origin of the American dream to a very
ordinary place. It can be found between the hours of 8 a.m. and
3 p.m, in every classroom in every city and town in America.
For all that you do, you have my highest respect, and
sincerest congratulations.
Thank you.
#
#
#
Reader Design
a 223-9520
Rdship 50milion a month
100 millior worldwide
CIRC. 20 million
Ralph Bemet
at
2/28/89
(914) 238-1000
(914) 241
BRUCE TRAHe TRACKtenburg
FunD prinate & separate
R.D. canolt take credit.
5385
American
Memory
A Report
on the Humanities
in the Nation's
Public Schools
Lynne V. Cheney
Chairman
NH
National Endowment
for the Humanities
THE MYSTIC CHORDS OF MEMORY, stretching from every
battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearth-
stone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of
the Union when again touched, as surely they will be, by the
better angels of our nature.
Abraham Lincoln
First Inaugural Address
March 4, 1861
Contents
Foreword
V
The Humanities and the Nation
5
History and Literature
7
Foreign Languages
11
Textbooks
15
Teachers
21
Recommendations
27
iii
Foreword
I
n 1985, the Congress of the United States instructed the
National Endowment for the Humanities and the National
Endowment for the Arts to study the state of humanities and
arts education in the nation's public schools. American Mem-
ory is the result of the National Endowment for the Humanities'
efforts.
We at NEH undertook this study enthusiastically. In 1984,
under the chairmanship of my predecessor William Bennett,
NEH had issued To Reclaim a Legacy, a report on the humanities
in higher education. It was time for us to consider elementary
and secondary schools. Indeed, for many reasons, it seemed
urgent that we do so. A number of thoughtful observers were
expressing alarm about the state of the humanities in our
schools, but history and literature were not emerging as central
concerns in the various state, regional, and national commissions
looking at education. Educational reform was in the air, but the
humanities were seldom a part of it.
And so it was with the sense of being about an important task
that an advisory group on history and literature first met on
March 2, 1987. I convened this group twice more. Our discussions
were informed by readings, statistical data, short presentations
by outside experts, and by the results of an NEH-funded nation-
wide test of what seventeen-year-olds know about history and
literature.
The advisory group on history and literature represented all
parts of the country and a variety of educational institutions.
Among its members were the principal of an inner-city
elementary school and the dean of a college in the Rocky
V
Mountains; a school superintendent from Maine, a high school
teacher from Iowa, a faculty member from the graduate school
of education at the University of California. There were humani-
ties scholars in the group from colleges and universities across
the na ion.
In addition to the advisory group on history and literature, I
called together a group on foreign language education. This
group, which met once, was also composed of scholars, teachers,
and administrators.
Under the auspices of the Woodrow Wilson Center for Interna-
tional Studies in Washington, D.C., I also met with heads of major
humanities organizations and leaders of foundations that have
supported humanities education. We discussed the topics this
report should cover.
At all the meetings held in connection with this report, there
was lively debate. The members of these groups brought a variety
of perspectives to the meetings, and they did not reach consensus
on every point. Given their diversity, however, there was a sur-
prising amount of agreement. Most important, they agreed that
there is reason for serious concern about humanities education
in U.S. schools.
I am deeply appreciative of the counsel that the members of
these different groups provided. I would particularly like to ex-
press gratitude to those advisory group members who, upon
receiving a draft of this report, made thoughtful commentary
upon it. I called upon their observations and insights time and
again while preparing the final report.
I would also like to thank the outside presenters who informed
and enlivened our discussions. In addition, I am grateful to the
NEH staff, particularly to Celeste Colgan, who directed this
project; to John Agresto and Tom Kingston, who made impor-
tant contributions to the report; and to Jeff Thomas and Anne
Gwaltney, who provided valuable research assistance.
The contributions of still one other group should be acknowl-
edged: the many scholars and teachers I have talked with as I
have traveled to various parts of the country on NEH business.
Their words and thoughts also inform this report.
Indebted as I am to all these people, responsibility for this
report and its conclusions is mine alone.
vi
Advisory Group on History and Literature
William B. Allen
Stephen Donadio
Professor of Government
Professor of American
Harvey Mudd College
Literature
Claremont, California
Middlebury College
Middlebury, Vermont
Janice Baker
High School English Teacher
John Drisko
Baltimore School of the Arts
History Teacher
Baltimore, Maryland
Falmouth High School
Falmouth, Maine
Daniel J. Boorstin
The Librarian of Congress
E. D. Hirsch
Washington, D. C.
Kenan Professor of English
University of Virginia
Glenn Brooks
Charlottesville, Virginia
Dean
Colorado College
Leon R. Kass
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Professor, The College and The
Committee on Social Thought
Jo Bruno
University of Chicago
Elementary School Principal
Chicago, Illinois
PS 189
Brooklyn, New York
Helen Lojek
Assistant Professor of English
Ron Calgaard
Boise State University
President
Boise, Idaho
Trinity University
San Antonio, Texas
Reginald A. MacDonald
Superintendent of Schools
Nancy Coombs
South Portland Public Schools
Teacher
South Portland, Maine
Leal Elementary School
Urbana, Illinois
Maynard Mack
Sterling Professor of English,
Charlotte Crabtree
Emeritus
Professor, Graduate School
Yale University
of Education
New Haven, Connecticut
University of California
Los Angeles, California
1
Constance Matthews
Virginia T. Whatley
English Department Head
Teacher
Amherst-Pelham Regional
Oglethorpe Elementary School
High School
Atlanta, Georgia
Amherst, Massachusetts
Gordon Wood
Linda Miller
Professor of History
English Teacher
Brown University
Pelham Memorial High School
Providence, Rhode Island
Pelham, New York
James Morris
Outside Presenters
Program Director
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Max A. Eckstein
New York, New York
Professor, School of Education
Queens College
Karen H. Munro
City University of New York
Coordinator, The National
New York, New York
Faculty, Northwest Region
Olympia, Washington
Harriet Tyson-Bernstein
Writer and Textbook Analyst
Richard E. Peters
Council for Basic Education
History Teacher
Washington, D.C.
Mount Vernon Community
High School
Arthur Woodward
Mount Vernon, Iowa
Professor, Graduate School
of Education
Diane Ravitch
University of Rochester
Adjunct Professor of History
Rochester, New York
and Education
Columbia University Teachers
College
New York, New York
Ronald A. Sharp
Professor of English
Kenyon College
Gambier, Ohio
Helen Vendler
Kenan Professor of English
Harvard University
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Bernard A. Weisberger
Free-lance Historian
Elizaville, New York
2
Advisory Group on Foreign
Language Education
Miriam DeCosta-Willis
Myriam Met
Professor of Romance Languages
Coordinator of Foreign
LeMoyne-Owen College
Languages
Memphis, Tennessee
Montgomery County Public
Schools
Claud DuVerlie
Rockville, Maryland
Associate Professor of French
University of Maryland
Maureen O'Donnell
Baltimore, Maryland
Latin Teacher
The W.T. Woodson High School
Billie D. Gaines
Fairfax, Virginia
Foreign Language Consultant
Atlanta, Georgia
Mary Louise Peabody
Foreign Language Specialist
Sol Gittleman
Louisiana Department of
Academic Vice President/
Education
Provost
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Tufts University
Medford, Massachusetts
Paola Malpezzi Price
Assistant Professor of Italian
Jan Herrera
and French
Foreign Language Teacher
Colorado State University
Recruitment
Fort Collins, Colorado
Colorado State Department
of Education
Maureen Regan
Denver, Colorado
Associate Professor of Foreign
Languages
Elizabeth Hoffman
State University of New York
German Teacher
Potsdam, New York
Burke High School
Omaha, Nebraska
Outside Presenter
Richard A. LaFleur
Professor of Classics
C. Edward Scebold
University of Georgia
Executive Director
Athens, Georgia
American Council on
the Teaching of
Foreign Languages, Inc.
Hastings-on-Hudson, New York
3
The Humanities and the Nation
A
refusal to remember," according to Nobel Prize poet
Czeslaw Milosz, is a primary characteristic of our age.
The culprit is
Certainly there is abundant evidence that it is a pri-
"process"the belief
mary characteristic of our nation. Teachers tell of stu-
that we can teach
dents who do not know that George Washington led American
our children how to
forces in the Revolutionary War; that there was a World War I;
think without trou-
that Spanish, not Latin, is the principal language in Latin Amer-
bling them to learn
ica. Nationwide polls show startling gaps in knowledge. In a
anything worth
recent survey done for the Hearst Corporation, 45 percent of
thinking about.
those polled thought that Karl Marx's phrase "from each accord-
ing to his ability, to each according to his need" is in the U.S.
Constitution.
Cultural memory flourishes or declines for many reasons, but
among the most important is what happens in our schools. Long
relied upon to transmit knowledge of the past to upcoming gen-
erations, our schools today appear to be about a different task.
Instead of preserving the past, they more often disregard it,
sometimes in the name of "progress"-the idea that today has
little to learn from yesterday. But usually the culprit is "process"-
the belief that we can teach our children how to think without
troubling them to learn anything worth thinking about, the
belief that we can teach them how to understand the world in
which they live without conveying to them the events and ideas
that have brought it into existence.
To be sure, countless people within our schools resist this
approach. I have met school administrators who are convinced
that education should be about mastery of knowledge. I have met
teachers who, deeply knowledgeable themselves about the roots
5
of our culture, are passionate about wanting their students to be.
In Little Rock, Arkansas, for example, I encountered a classics
teacher who is determined to teach Greek. For bureaucratic
reasons, she has to offer it outside regular school hours; and so
she comes early each day to teach a class before school and stays
late to teach another after-even though this means she teaches
eight classes a day.
Among good teachers, the idea persists that teaching is about
transmitting culture. What I heard from them again and again,
however, is how many obstacles stand in the way of doing the
kind of teaching they think is important.
An educational system that devalues knowledge of the past
produces students who do not firmly grasp the facts of history
and literature. A 1987 study, based on a survey funded by the
National Endowment for the Humanities and conducted by the
National Assessment of Educational Progress, reports that more
than two-thirds of the nation's seventeen-year-olds are unable to
locate the Civil War within the correct half-century. More than
two-thirds cannot identify the Reformation or Magna Carta. By
vast majorities, students demonstrate unfamiliarity with writers
whose works are regarded as classics: Dante, Chaucer, Dos-
toevsky, Austen, Whitman, Hawthorne, Melville, and Cather.
Dates and names are not all that students should know, but
A system of educa-
such facts are a beginning, an initial connection to the sweep of
tion that fails to
human experience. And why is it important that they make that
nurture memory of
connection? Why is it important that they-that we-remember?
the past denies its
The first argument is the simplest: to realize our human po-
students the satis-
tential. We alone of all creatures have the ability to break out of
factions of mature
the narrow circle of the moment, and until we do, until we reach
thought, an attach-
beyond ourselves, we are limited and immature. "To know noth-
ment to abiding
ing of what happened before you were born is to remain forever a
concerns, a
child," Cicero wrote. Or as Santayana put it, "[W]hen experience
perspective on
is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual."
human existence.
By reaching into the past, we affirm our humanity. And we
inevitably come to the essence of it. Because we cannot encom-
pass the totality of other lives and times, we strip away the thou-
sand details of existence and come to its heart. We come to the
age-old questions, to the enduring subjects of both historian and
poet. How do we know our duty? How do we deal with our fate?
How do we give our lives meaning and dignity? Pondering these
questions, we realize others have pondered them. We realize that
we are not the first to know joy and sadness, not the first to set
out on the human journey.
The past also offers lessons, and although we shall surely dis-
pute what they are, even as we do so we enlarge our perspective
on the present. What does it mean that Rome fell? And Athens?
What does it mean for us? The Framers of the Constitution
debated such questions two hundred years ago in Philadelphia.
Their achievement is reminder that history is not merely what
has happened; it is a way of finding paths into the future.
6
A system of education that fails to nurture memory of the past
denies its students a great deal: the satisfactions of mature
thought, an attachment to abiding concerns, a perspective on
human existence. As advisory group member Linda Miller ob-
served, "We take a tremendous risk of national character by
failing to ground our students in history and literature."
Indeed, we put our sense of nationhood at risk by failing to
familiarize our young people with the story of how the society in
which they live came to be. Knowledge of the ideas that have
molded us and the ideals that have mattered to us functions as a
kind of civic glue. Our history and literature give us symbols to
share; they help us all, no matter how diverse our backgrounds,
feel part of a common undertaking. Advisory group member
Bernard Weisberger cited a passage from The Promised Land in
which Mary Antin, who came to this country from Poland as a
child, told of first learning about George Washington: "I
discovered that I was more nobly related than I had ever
supposed Antin wrote. "George Washington, who died long
before I was born, was like a king in greatness, and he and I were
Fellow Citizens."
By allowing the erosion of historical consciousness, we do to
ourselves what an unfriendly nation bent on our destruction
might. Novelist Milan Kundera has described how the Soviet
Union has methodically set about destroying the historical mem-
In our schools today
ory of Czechoslovakia, proscribing her literature and tearing
we run the danger
down historical monuments, in order to destroy the Czech sense
of nationhood.
of unwittingly
proscribing our
In our schools today we run the danger of unwittingly pro-
own heritage.
scribing our own heritage. The purpose of this report is to
describe how this has happened and to suggest ways it can be
remedied.
History and Literature
IN 1892, A SCHOOL REFORM COMMISSION MET that was
distinguished in its membership and decided in its views. Known
as the Committee of Ten, the panel called together scholars from
universities-a young Princeton professor named Woodrow Wil-
son was among them-and representatives from the schools. As
participants saw it, cultural content should be central to what was
taught and learned. The Committee emphasized the importance
of literature (as well as "training in expression") and recom-
mended an eight-year course of history. This plan of study, the
Committee stressed, was for all students, not just for those who
would be attending college.
For a time a curriculum of the kind the Committee of Ten
endorsed prevailed. Gradually, however, an opposing view came
to dominate: Schools should concern themselves not with intel-
lectual life, but with practical life. As millions of children who
7
would once have been outside the educational system enrolled in
the schools, progressive educators argued that what most stu-
dents needed was not study in history and literature, but prepa-
ration for homemaking and for work in trades.
"Skill" training began to drive more traditional offerings, like
ancient history, out of the curriculum. Indeed, the very concept
of history became submerged in "social studies," a term that
emphasizes the present rather than the past; English courses,
transformed into "language arts," stressed communication
rather than literature; and as the schools adopted a fundamen-
tally different orientation from colleges and universities, human-
ities scholars turned away from precollegiate education. Curric-
ula, textbooks, and teacher training became the domain of
professional educationists.
Under their guidance, schools began to emphasize the process
of learning rather than its content. Both are important, ex-
tremely important in the teaching of history and literature. But
so much emphasis has been placed on process that content has
been seriously neglected. One can see the imbalance in the open-
ing pages of a teacher's guide to a widely used textbook series.
Scores of skills to be taught are set forth: everything from draw-
ing conclusions and predicting outcomes to filling in forms and
compiling recipes. The cultural content of learning, on the other
Both the process
hand, is given only brief mention.
and the content of
"How to identify the sequential order of events," "how to ex-
learning are impor-
plore alternatives," "how to follow directions involving substeps"
tant, but so much
-lists of such skills fill up page after page of the curriculum
emphasis has been
guides and scope-and-sequence charts that direct the activity of
placed on process
classrooms. Textbooks used to teach teachers are similarly or-
that content has
iented. Paying only passing regard to the content of education,
been seriously
they concentrate on process-centered "instructional objectives,"
neglected.
"learning activities," "teaching strategies," and "evaluative
measures."
Perhaps the most obvious indicator of how process-driven our
schools have become is the dominant role played by the Scholastic
Aptitude Test (SAT). In the 1985-86 school year, almost 1.7 million
students took the two-and-a-half-hour examination; and many of
them, and many of their parents and teachers as well, regarded it
as the single most crucial experience of their academic lives.
Looming over our educational landscape is an examination that,
in its verbal component, carefully avoids assessing substantive
knowledge gained from course work. Whether test-takers have
studied the Civil War, learned about Magna Carta, or read Mac-
beth are matters to which the SAT is studiously indifferent.
Skills-such as reading comprehension, which the SAT as-
sesses-are crucial, I repeat. But the content of education also
deserves close attention. Indeed, common sense argues that the
two are connected. How can mental skills be developed except
through exercise on materials that are challenging and
substantial?
8
In fact, the SAT itself has provided dramatic indication of this
link. Between the early 1960s and the early 1980s, the national
average of the verbal SAT scores declined by some fifty points.
This same period also saw the substantive content of education
diminish rapidly in the schools. Responding to cries for relevance
as well as to the idea that young people learn best by following
their own inclinations, schools began offering an astonishing
variety of ways to earn credit-and conveying no notion that
some kinds of knowledge are more important than others. Stu-
dents could take courses in jewelry making and blanket crochet-
ing to earn credits toward a high school diploma.
The fall in SAT scores that paralleled this phenomenon stimu-
lated a national debate about our schools. More than any other
single factor, it generated the educational reform movement of
the last few years.
Current reformers have emphasized the necessity of paying
close attention to what our children learn as well as to how they
learn, but their message has proved difficult to translate into the
classroom. In Texas, new "Rules for Curriculum" have been is-
sued that set forth "essential elements" for three English/lan-
guage arts courses required in high schools: how "to vary rate of
reading according to purpose," how "to recognize relevant de-
tails," for example. Among the essential elements-more than
one hundred in all-there is just one mention of major literary
If history gives us
works and authors.
perspective on our
This particular document is not an anomaly. It reflects an
lives, then shouldn't
unhappy aspect of educational reform: Education specialists who
every young person
think in terms of process rather than content have often been put
be encouraged to
in charge of seeing to it that our schools improve. This delegation
study it? If litera-
of authority has been especially painful for teachers who value
ture connects us to
knowledge of the disciplines they teach, but now find themselves
permanent
increasingly regulated by a bureaucracy that has other interests.
concerns, then
Recent attempts to improve our schools have also stumbled
shouldn't every
over organizational structures previously set in place by those
young person
who wanted the system to take a less academic direction. Across
read it?
the nation, graduation requirements have been tightened for
social studies and English/language arts: In 1981-82, the average
number of credits required was 2.6 for social studies and 3.6 for
English/language arts; in 1984-85, the figures were 2.8 and 3.8
respectively. One assumes that policy makers increased require-
ments so that students would take a greater number of academic
courses; but that is not necessarily the effect since "social studies"
and "English/language arts" often describe courses that are de-
cidedly unacademic. In Maine, for example, "Introductions to
Careers" and "Business Communications" can partially satisfy
graduation requirements in social studies and English/language
arts.
Words have consequences. Broad terms like "social studies" make
it difficult to raise standards concerned with content. For years
9
courses in everything from driver education to "values clarifica-
tion" have been making their way into curricula under the social
studies umbrella. "Language arts" has been somewhat less a
cover for non-academic courses, but that term too complicates
the task of restoring study of the humanities to a central role.
Indeed, such terminology makes it difficult even to assess accu-
rately whether progress is being made.
The problem extends far beyond vocabulary into matters of
equity. Not all students are fulfilling graduation requirements
with courses like "Introductions to Careers" and "Business Com-
munications." Only certain groups are: those in "general educa-
tion" and "vocational education" programs. For these students-
more than 60 percent of those enrolled in our schools-the core
of education thus becomes different from that studied by their
peers in academic programs. In history and literature, it inevita-
bly becomes diminished.
By their nature, the humanities disciplines ought to be the
easiest to bring to everyone. While some students will need more
help than others with the language of Shakespeare's plays, for
example, the themes that animate the plays-love, honor, be-
trayal, revenge-are familiar to all and interesting to all. More-
over, once the case for humanities education has been made, the
conclusion that it is for every student seems inevitable. If history
World competition
gives us perspective on our lives, then shouldn't every young
is not just about
person be encouraged to study it? If literature connects us to
dollars but about
permanent concerns, then shouldn't every young person read it?
ideas.
"To make the best that has been thought and known in the world
current everywhere" is the way Matthew Arnold stated the goal.
No other ambition suits a democracy well.
The educational reform movement of the 1980s has rightfully
espoused the cause of educational equity. It has, in general,
raised the expectations we have for our schools. Perhaps most
important, it has kept the subject of education in the forefront of
national attention by making a pragmatic and important case:
Our country's economic role in the world will surely decline
unless we improve American education.
One effect of this approach, however, has been to concentrate
reform effort on basic skills, mathematics, and science. While
these aspects of schooling assuredly deserve close attention, it is
now time to elaborate the argument; to be clear that world com-
petition is not just about dollars but about ideas. Our students
need to know what those ideas are, need to understand our
democratic institutions, to know their origins in Western
thought, to be familiar with how and why other cultures have
evolved differently from our own. They need to read great works
of literature, thus confronting questions of good and evil, free-
dom and responsibility that have determined the character of
people and nations. These needs cannot be met in an elementary
and secondary curriculum that typically devotes no more than
three or four years to history in a twelve-year sequence. They
10
cannot be met in a curriculum that takes a hit and miss-and
mostly miss-approach to literature.
It is sometimes argued that the story of our nation's past and
the Western tradition that forms our heritage is irrelevant to a
population that increasingly comes from other traditions, but I
would argue that the opposite is true. While we need to know as
much as we can about all people everywhere, our first goal has to
be to comprehend this nation, all its virtues and faults, all its
glories and failures. We can only build from where we are, and to
do so intelligently requires that we-that all of us-know where
we are.
On a trip to Los Angeles, I met with a group of students from
John Marshall High School who made this point with good sense
and simplicity. They had won the 1987 U.S. Academic Decathlon,
accomplishing this feat by becoming experts on the U.S. Consti-
tution. They not only knew its provisions, they knew its origins in
European thought. They knew the fascination the Framers of
the Constitution had with the classical world.
More than three-quarters of the John Marshall student body
learned English as a second language. Thirty percent of the
students on the decathlon team were born in other countries.
And so, playing the devil's advocate, I asked them why, given their
diverse backgrounds, they had become devoted students of this
country's founding. They seemed to think this an odd question;
Nothing has greater
but finally one of them answered, "Because we're here."
potential for giving
These students want to understand the society in which they
young people the
live-a society which they, repeating a pattern basic to the Ameri-
expanded aware-
can story, will shape for generations to follow.
ness they need than
foreign language
study.
Foreign Languages
AMERICAN MEMORY IS A RICH AND INTRICATE CON-
STRUCT, reaching far into the life and ideas of other nations.
"The pilgrims did not sail into view out of the void, their minds
blank as the Atlantic sky, ready to build a new world out of
nothing but whatever they could find lying about the ground in
eastern Massachusetts," historian Paul Gagnon has written.
"They and all the others who landed in the Western hemisphere
were shaped and scarred by tens of centuries of social, literary,
political, and religious experience."
Self-knowledge requires that we understand other cultures.
Daily life increasingly demands it. The world our children live
and work in will seem even smaller than the one we know now. Its
parts will be even more tightly linked by technology; its citizens,
more interdependent.
Nothing has greater potential for giving young people the
expanded awareness they need than foreign language study-an
area that was once considered an important part of education. In
1915, for example, 37 percent of this country's high school stu-
11
dents were studying Latin, and 36 percent were studying a mod-
ern foreign language. As the population of the schools expanded
and curricula became less academic, these percentages plum-
meted. There was a reversal when the launching of Sputnik
made foreign language knowledge seem useful for a time, but
generally the trend has been downward. In 1978, only 21 percent
of high school students were enrolled in either a classical or
modern foreign language.
The last few years have seen a substantial revival:
-In Virginia, the Department of Education reported that 42
percent of all secondary students were studying a foreign lan-
guage in 1986-the highest since World War II.
-In North Carolina, the legislature has ordered every school
district to offer foreign language instruction from kindergar-
ten through high school by 1992.
-The number of students taking the National Latin Exam has
increased from 9,000 to over 61,000 during the last nine years.
-Nationwide, 29 percent of high school students were enrolled in
foreign language classes in 1985-86. This represents a 38 per-
Studying a second
cent increase since 1978.
language gives us
greater mastery
-Severe shortages of foreign language teachers are occurring
over our own
and threaten to become worse, particularly in parts of the
speech, helps us
country where expanded programs are under way.
shape our thoughts
with greater preci-
Characteristic of the current revival is a practical, often voca-
sion and our
tional approach to foreign language education. Students take
expressions with
Latin to improve SAT scores. They see modern foreign lan-
greater eloquence.
guages as a key to employment opportunities. Schools and col-
leges that once concentrated on literature now offer such courses
as "Spanish for Hotel Management."
At all educational levels, oral proficiency is being emphasized.
To aid in the task of producing speakers of other languages,
foreign language educators are concentrating on examinations
that assess a student's oral command.
Laudable as the goal of producing proficient speakers is, the
concentration on it does raise concerns. Shouldn't reading also
be stressed? Shouldn't cultural study? Indeed, without cultural
awareness, can a person become an effective speaker? As advi-
sory group member Myriam Met, a coordinator of foreign lan-
guages, observed, "In order to speak to someone meaningfully
and communicate purposefully, you have to know a great deal
about the cultural perspective that person brings."
Just as there are teachers of history and literature committed to
teaching culturally significant materials, so there are foreign
12
language teachers determined to make culture the content of
foreign language education. As their students begin to explore
the rich storehouse a second language unlocks, they also acquire
the facts, myths, metaphors, and allusions that make them effec-
tive speakers.
Teachers who saw interest in foreign language instruction in-
crease after Sputnik only to decline a few years later want to
insure that current interest endures. Thus they emphasize the
lasting value of foreign language study as well as its immediate
practical benefits: Studying a second language gives us greater
mastery over our own speech, helps us shape our thoughts with
greater precision and our expressions with greater eloquence.
Studying a foreign language also provides insight into the nature
of language itself, into its power to shape ideas and experience.
A broad vision of foreign language study also includes the
great texts of other cultures. The ability to read them with
understanding requires years of studying both language and
culture, but starting foreign language education in elementary
school, as many localities are beginning to do, will allow students
time to become sufficiently knowledgeable.
In a letter to Joseph Priestley, Thomas Jefferson noted that
reading classical authors in the original was "a sublime luxury."
The same is true for reading the great texts of Spanish, French,
German, Russian, Chinese and Japanese. Valuable as they are in
translation, the great texts are more valuable still when encoun-
tered as they were written; when words, thoughts, and feelings
pass directly from mind to mind.
Even at beginning levels, students should be made aware that
foreign language study provides more than practical skills. It can
be a way of understanding ourselves and others. It can be, as
Jefferson put it, "a rich source of delight."
13
Textbooks
t has been the object to obtain as wide a range of leading
I
authors as possible, to present the best specimens of style,"
Far from providing
begins the McGuffey's Fifth Eclectic Reader used around the
"the best specimens
turn of this century. In books like McGuffey's, children en-
of style," modern
countered Longfellow, Hawthorne, Alcott, Dickens, and Shake-
readers usually
speare. They read stirring speeches, stories about heroes, and
offer prose that
selections from the Bible. To be sure, the reading books of the
satisfies "readabil-
late nineteenth and early twentieth century also contained
ity formulas."
stories and essays that have since, deservedly, faded into oblivion;
but at least half the content of these readers was composed of
enduring literature, education historian Diane Ravitch reported
to the advisory group on history and literature.
Not so today. In the basal readers most widely used now, 10
percent or less of the content is classic children's literature. The
emphasis in current readers is overwhelmingly on contemporary
writing, generally by writers whose names are unknown outside
the textbook industry. They produce a variety of materials,
mostly aimed at developing skills, everything from how to recog-
nize cause and effect to how to make grocery lists and use the
telephone book.
Far from providing "the best specimens of style," modern
readers usually offer prose that satisfies "readability formulas."
These calculations, which dictate sentence length, word length,
and the number of new words that can be introduced, can lay
waste to even the best of stories. After a readability formula has
been applied, for example, Aesop's fable about the tortoise and
the hare becomes:
15
Rabbit said, "I can run. I can run fast. You can't run fast."
Turtle said, "Look Rabbit. See the park. You and I will run.
We'll run to the park."
Rabbit said, "I want to stop. I'll stop here. I can run, but Turtle
can't. I can get to the park fast."
Turtle said, "I can't run fast. But I will not stop. Rabbit can't see
me. I'll get to the park."
With vital connections and colorful words lost, what was once
meaningful and compelling becomes pointless and dull.
If there were persuasive evidence that using readability for-
mulas is the most effective way to teach children to read, one
would be tempted to let well-written prose wait for another day.
In fact, recent research suggests that chopping up sentences
sometimes confuses young readers. Extreme restrictions on vo-
cabulary can leave them-or anyone-mystified. One beginning-
level book's version of "The Shoemaker and the Elves" illustrates
why: Apparently for readability's sake, the story contains no ref-
erences to elves, shoemakers, or even shoes.
Most elementary reading books contain little literature; most
social studies texts in the early grades contain little history. Dom-
inated by a concept called "expanding environments," they re-
port on such matters as where cars come from and where letters
Textbooks are
go; and they do so in ways meant to develop "human-relations
tangible evidence of
skills" (like "recognizing interdependence among people") or
how little we are
"life skills" (like "addressing an envelope"). These textbooks bela-
doing to make our
bor what is obvious even to six-, seven-, and eight-year-olds: that
children share-
people live in families, for example, or that children go to school.
holders in their
It is hard to imagine that youngsters are spurred on to learn-
cultural heritage.
ing by these textbooks. What we give them to read seems particu-
larly vacuous when compared to what grade-schoolers once stud-
ied. In the early decades of this century, they read myths, fables,
stories from the distant past, and tales of heroes. They learned
about Daedalus and King Arthur, George Washington and Joan
of Arc, exercising their imaginations and beginning to develop a
sense of life in other times.
Textbooks used to teach American history are also disappoint-
ing. The advisory group on history and literature looked at
samples used in high schools. They were large (weighing about
three pounds each), heavy with facts, but seldom were those facts
made part of a compelling narrative, part of a drama with indi-
viduals at center stage. The human ambitions and aspirations
that are both the motivating force of history and its fascination
were largely absent. One textbook's account of the Constitutional
Convention, for example, mentioned only James Madison's age
and the fact that he took notes. A second recognized him as a
"profound student of government," credited him with being "the
Father of the Constitution," but provided no further explana-
tion. A third set forth his contributions to the Convention in
some detail, but beyond describing him as "the most astute politi-
16
cal thinker of his day" gave little sense of the character of this shy
and driven man.
Missing also was a sense of the significance of the historical
record. A reader was left with little notion of the ideas that
inform our institutions, the arguments and debates that helped
shape the kind of nation we are, the reasons behind the choices
we have made or why those choices are important. As NEH
Deputy Chairman John Agresto, observed, "At the end of each
chapter, I could imagine any student saying, 'So what?'
Good, even excellent textbooks do exist, but they are the ex-
ception rather than the rule. For the most part, textbooks used
in U.S. schools are poor in content, and what content they do
contain is not presented in a way to make anyone care to re-
member it. Thought by many to be the primary determinant of
what is taught in U.S. classrooms, textbooks are tangible evidence
of how little we are doing to make our children shareholders in
their cultural heritage.
How do textbooks come about?
PUBLISHERS ARE FREQUENTLY BLAMED FOR TEXT-
BOOKS. It should be noted, however, that when they decide to
put out new books or new series, they first consider what various
Name will be
states and localities say they want. As textbook consultant Har-
heaped upon name,
riet Tyson-Bernstein explained to the advisory group, publishers
cause upon cause,
look to state and district curriculum guides and adoption check-
until the textbook
lists for guidance. Curriculum guides, thick manuals full of lists
becomes an over-
and charts produced by education specialists, set forth what
crowded flea
students are to know-skills for the most part, though in the case
market of discon-
of history there will often be many pages of topics to be covered.
nected facts.
Checklists detail what adoption committees look for, including
whether or not textbooks fulfill the requirements of the curricu-
lum guides.
Many checklists specify reading levels, thus bringing readabil-
ity formulas into play. Checklists also provide a way for various
interest groups to make their influence felt. Feminists, environ-
mentalists, ethnic minorities, nutritionists-all have concerns,
often important ones. But adding them to the checklist of text-
book requirements frequently results in what critics call the
"mentioning" problem. A native American will be mentioned or
a suffragist pictured, but no full account given of his or her
contributions. Name will be heaped upon name, cause upon
cause, until the textbook becomes an overcrowded flea market of
disconnected facts.
Many checklists have an entry about whether the textbook is
likely to engage students; but as one item among many, it is of no
more consequence than whether the textbook has a recent copy-
right date (the most common question on checklists) or whether it
will withstand wear and tear. Even if adoption committees were to
17
focus more on content and quality of writing, one has to wonder
how textbook editors and writers could meet their expectations.
They have dozens of curriculum guides and adoption checklists to
try to satisfy as they work. Some are more important than others.
More than twenty states adopt textbooks on a statewide basis; and
when those states are large and the number of textbooks they
approve for each subject is small-as in Texas and California-
their demands receive extra attention. But since publishers want to
sell books in as many places as possible, editors and writers must
also try to keep the requirements of other states and localities in
mind. "They are so tied up in knots accommodating this cross-re-
ferencing that they forget they are editing real material or writing
about real events," Tyson-Bernstein observed.
Fearful that controversy will keep them out of important mar-
kets, publishers have tried to avoid controversial subjects like
religion. This strategy has come under attack in recent years as
critics across the political spectrum have pointed out that history
makes no sense unless the driving power of religious belief is
taken into account. To describe the Crusades or the pilgrims or
the Civil Rights movement without talking about religion is to
distort the past, but wary textbook publishers have done it.
Literature has also felt the effect of publishers' desire to avoid
controversy. Author Ray Bradbury has recounted one publishing
The "great textbook
house's attempt to remove religious references from "The Fog
machine" grinds
Horn," a short story in which he described the illumination
away, trying to
coming from a lighthouse as a "God-Light." Those seeing the
satisfy almost every
light from a sea creature's perspective, Bradbury wrote in the
interest group
story, would have felt they were in "the Presence." Editors who
imaginable-except
wanted to include "The Fog Horn" in a high school anthology
our children.
deleted both "God-Light" and "the Presence." Fahrenheit 451,
Bradbury's novel about censorship and book burning, has also
been censored. Unbeknownst to him, editors over the years de-
leted some seventy-five separate sections they judged might
cause offense. Observed Bradbury in a 1979 afterword to Fahren-
heit 451, "There is more than one way to burn a book."
The committees who gather to make centralized textbook adop-
tions have a complicated task and insufficient time to complete it
properly. Matching a single book against an elaborate curriculum
guide might take months. Adoption committees seldom have
months, at least not of full-time work; and they have many books
to consider. And so committee members find themselves running
down checklists and flipping through pages. Are women and
blacks included? A picture of Susie King Taylor will satisfy-no
matter that her contributions as a Civil War nurse are inade-
quately explained. Is this textbook up to date? A recent copyright
will satisfy-no matter that the book has been changed only
superficially since the last edition.
Even if textbook committees had time to do their assignments
thoroughly, good textbooks would not likely be the result. Curric-
18
ulum guides that emphasize skills at the expense of content are
not a proper matrix for producing textbooks that will teach
either skills or content well. Nor can checklists that fail to set
priorities produce textbooks in which essential matters receive
proper attention. The "great textbook machine," as Tyson-Bern-
stein and Arthur Woodward described it in a recent article, is not
geared to produce textbooks that are rich in intellectual content
and interesting to read. It functions to perpetuate an idea of
education that concentrates on skills. It grinds away, trying to
satisfy almost every interest group imaginable-except our
children.
What can be done?
ONE POSSIBILITY IS TO MOVE AWAY FROM CENTRAL-
IZED ADOPTIONS. Let teachers and faculties decide what text-
books they will use and hope that when individuals and small
groups choose, they will do so by asking a few important ques-
tions: Is this a book a child might love? Does it tell him or her
about things that really matter?
But so long as there is centralized adoption anywhere, all text-
books will feel the effect. And it is hard to imagine adoption
states, which gain power from the practice, all deciding simulta-
Let teachers
neously to give it up.
enlighten their
Another possible remedy is for that power to be used in a good
students with real
cause. With the development of a new history curriculum, Cali-
books-real works
fornia is sending a powerful and simple message to textbook
by real authors in
publishers: Give us books that engage students; give us books that
the same form in
put the facts of the past into compelling narratives and stimulat-
which they are read
ing intellectual form; give us books that take religion into ac-
by the rest of us.
count and that make the problems and accomplishments of this
country clear. Whether California's clout will be sufficient to get
the machine to produce a largely unfamiliar product remains to
be seen.
One step that should be taken is to assign textbooks a less
important role. Let teachers enlighten their students with real
books-real works by real authors in the same form in which they
are read by the rest of us. Many teachers do this now, often
paying for real books out of their own pockets since their schools'
book budgets are consumed by textbooks.
Teachers who have tried it testify that students at all levels
benefit when challenged by texts that are not only real, but
great. High school teacher Richard Peters told the advisory
group about using The Federalist to engage his students. A New
York City teacher wrote in American Educator recently about her
success in teaching Great Expectations to ninth graders in a New
York City public school. An elementary teacher in South Caro-
lina reported at an NEH institute that the Aeneid had held her
students' interest better than any other material she had used.
19
Teachers
M
iss Julia Mortimer, in Eudora Welty's novel Losing Bat-
tles, knew what teaching was about: "She didn't ever
To find and bring
doubt but that all worth preserving is going to be
into the classroom
preserved, and all we had to do was keep it going, right
literature that is not
from where we are, one teacher on down to the next."
in the textbooks
The idea of being transmitters of culture is difficult for today's
takes time; to draw
humanities teachers to hold in mind. They are besieged by educa-
up plans for intro-
tional theorists, administrators, and bureaucrats, all determined
ducing students to
that daily classroom activity take another direction. They are
original historical
beset by curriculum guides that set forth behavioral objectives; by
documents takes
required textbooks that follow the curriculum guides; by teachers'
time; and time is the
guides to the textbooks that tell them what questions to ask, what
commodity teachers
answers to give, what skills to emphasize.
have least of.
Good teachers tend to become subversives in such a system.
Advisory group member Constance Matthews from Amherst-
Pelham Regional School District in Massachusetts described how
she, at another district earlier in her career, was presented with a
class of eighth-grade boys, non-readers for the most part. Told
not to veer from the prescribed-and deadly-curriculum and
text, she joined in a conspiracy with the students, who were only
too willing to conspire. To their enjoyment, as well as to their
serious education, she led them through a year of "secret" read-
ings in McGuffey's Readers.
In good schools, enlightened principals protect their teachers.
"We just don't let her in the building," said the principal of a
Colorado high school about the education specialist who occa-
sionally attempts to bring "in-service" training to the school's
teaching staff. All too often, though, good teachers-the ones
21
who know and love their subjects and want above all else to teach
them-have to endure distractions they regard as meaningless.
To find and bring into the classroom literature that is not in the
textbooks takes time; to draw up plans for introducing students to
original historical documents takes time; and time is the com-
modity teachers have least of. Even those who ignore official
curriculum guides when they teach often have to file lesson plans
that pay homage to them. And there are meetings to attend;
parents to see; report cards, library fines, permission slips, and
bus passes to worry about; lunchrooms to supervise; dances to
chaperone. "Each of these duties, I know, seems minor," observed
advisory group member Janice Baker, a teacher at the Baltimore
School of the Arts; "but the result is an exasperating trivialization
of one's time and energy."
How much easier, then, to use the textbook, to follow the
teacher's guide, to go with the curriculum chart that says students
should practice "finding the main idea"-and never mind if the
main idea is worth finding.
How are teachers trained and sustained?
SOME TEACHERS ARE GLAD TO FOLLOW THE GUIDES
To a lament that
and textbooks since their college years have left them unprepared
students do not
to do otherwise. They have come through teacher preparation
know what the
programs in which they have taken courses of dubious intellectual
Reformation was or
quality. Sometimes the subject matter is trivial, at least to judge
when the Civil War
from course titles like "Lettering, Posters, and Displays in the
occurred, these
School Program." Usually the approach is at fault: Courses treat
teachers reply, "But
teaching and learning in abstraction, elevating process to dogma
they know how to
and elaborating it in scientific-sounding language. Those future
look them up."
teachers who assume there is significance here go forth armed
with jargon and convinced that what matters is what students can
do after a lesson rather than what they know. To a visiting govern-
ment official's lament that students do not know what the Refor-
mation was or when the Civil War occurred, they reply, "But they
know how to look them up."
Most teachers I talked with, however, regarded most education
courses as a waste of time, "cheap hoops," as Baltimore teacher
Janice Baker put it, through which one must jump in order to
enter the classroom. To be sure, there is one education course that
teachers almost always said was valuable: practice teaching. Occa-
sionally teachers cited methods courses as worthwhile-if they
were taught by someone with classroom experience and directed
toward practical rather than theoretical ends.
An elementary school teacher, expected to teach everything
from history to mathematics, will typically have spent 41 percent
of his or her time as an undergraduate taking courses in educa-
tion. Many states require fewer education courses for secondary
teachers than for elementary teachers, but in others the require-
22
ment is the same. Of concern for all levels of teaching is that
requirements for education courses have increased in recent
years. Colleges and universities in 1983 required their teacher
candidates to have, on the average, four more hours in education
courses than they did a decade earlier. They also required five
more hours of practice teaching.
Time spent taking education courses is time that cannot be
spent studying in content areas. Thus a survey of seventeen major
institutions in the South showed that future teachers had a weaker
general education curriculum than most arts and science gradu-
ates. Prospective teachers who majored in a content area (as op-
posed to education) took fewer credits in the major than most arts
and science graduates and fewer courses at the upper level.
Whether teachers have strong majors is only one consideration
in judging how well they know what they teach, because they can
also be certified in other subjects. State requirements differ dras-
tically, but in some localities, a few courses in a subject are consid-
ered sufficient qualification. School districts can demand more,
but too often they do not. And too often, factors other than
preparation in subject area are given consideration in hiring. Of
particular concern to the history profession is the value placed on
coaching ability when history teachers are hired. In a 1979 survey,
58 percent of the school superintendents in Iowa reported that
the need to fill coaching positions sometimes (and some superin-
Time spent taking
tendents said frequently) led to the hiring of history teachers less
education courses is
competent in the subject than other candidates. One of every five
time that cannot be
history teachers in Iowa, the survey reported, had majored in
spent studying in
physical education.
content areas.
Teacher preparation requirements can leave teachers knowing
less than they should about the subjects they teach; and, once on
the job, they have insufficient encouragement to become more
knowledgeable. Recertification requirements direct teachers
toward courses in education rather than in history, literature, and
foreign languages. Heavy classloads and an extraordinary num-
ber of paraprofessional demands often make the rigors of con-
tent-area study seem impossible in any case. "If you take a course
with meaning, you need time to think and time to read," Janice
Baker told the history and literature advisory group. "In educa-
tion you can take three two-day workshops for three credits. It's
more like buying credits than earning them."
Teacher prepara-
tion requirements
can leave teachers
What can be done?
knowing less than
they should about
COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY PROGRAMS for preparing
the subjects they
teachers usually give them too little time to study the subjects they
teach.
will teach. These programs are also one factor discouraging
bright people from entering the profession.
A number of colleges and universities have recently begun pro-
grams that try to solve this problem by improving the quality of
23
education courses. A few also offer financial incentives to good
students who intend to become teachers. At Trinity University in
Texas, for example, scholarships and forgivable loans are used to
recruit high-ability students into a five-year teacher training pro-
gram. Students first get a liberal arts degree; then they enter a
fifth-year "clinical" program that stresses the practical aspects of
teaching.
Various localities and states-Houston, Los Angeles, Arizona,
and New Jersey, for example-have also begun alternative certifi-
cation programs. Designed for those who have already completed
a bachelor's degree, these programs allow a person to earn a
teaching certificate without going through a traditional teacher
education program. Alternative certification plans typically pro-
vide more experience in the classroom and fewer hours of educa-
tion course work than do regular programs. A 1986 study re-
ported that the alternative programs are producing competent
and well-trained teachers with above average preparation in sub-
ject areas.
Positive as these results are, there was strong feeling in the
advisory group on history and literature that finding ways to
circumvent regular certification is a limited solution to the prob-
lem of attracting bright and knowledgeable teachers. The issue of
certification must be faced head on, the group felt, if good teach-
The process of
ing in the humanities, as well as other disciplines, is to thrive. As it
certifying teachers
is now, colleges of education and state education agencies are the
must become inde-
strongest forces in determining who gets to teach in public
pendent of the
schools. Horror stories growing out of this situation abound, and
colleges that
they almost always play on a single theme: that knowledgeable
prepare them.
people with teaching skill cannot teach because they have not
taken certain education courses-even when those courses are of
no demonstrable use in making better teachers.
We should do more than find alternative ways to get bright and
knowledgeable people into classrooms. We should be sure that
regular paths to certification are fashioned with but a single
interest in mind: securing good teachers. This cannot be accom-
plished until the process of certifying teachers becomes indepen-
dent of the colleges that prepare them.
The Carnegie Forum on Education and the Economy has
funded a project to create tests that will serve as the basis for
certification from a national board. This effort holds promise as a
way of separating teacher training from teacher certification.
Recent suggestions that only those who have completed approved
education programs be allowed to take the tests are of concern,
however, since such a requirement would allow colleges of educa-
tion to continue in their role of not only training teachers but also
recommending them for credentialing.
The Holmes Group, a consortium of education deans and chief
academic officers from major research universities, has rightly
stressed the importance of strong undergraduate education in
academic disciplines for future teachers. But that group's empha-
24
sis on graduate study in education as the path to advancement in
teaching is troubling. Surely the career path upward for teachers
ought to lie at least as much in study of what is to be taught as in
study of how to teach.
Securing and sustaining good teachers will require commit-
ment from humanities faculties at colleges and universities. Fu-
ture teachers must be of concern to them in a way they have not
always been in the past. Observed Iowa teacher Richard Peters,
"In college I was taught in very fine manner by my history
teachers, but none of them felt that what I was going to do was
important. They wanted to prepare me for graduate school,
which was fine, but I wanted to be a high school teacher."
The ongoing intellectual lives of teachers must also be of con-
cern to institutions of higher education. Faculty at many colleges
and universities have taken part in programs that bring them
together with teachers in classrooms, seminars, and institutes.
Reports of these experiences are almost universally positive:
Teachers profit from time spent studying the Odyssey or Othello;
faculty members profit from time spent with intelligent, commit-
ted students who are also dedicated teachers.
Upon returning to their campuses, though, college and univer-
sity faculty often find that time spent teaching teachers is not
regarded by their peers as time spent seriously. When decisions
are made about tenure or promotion, the person who has spent
Humanities facul-
the summer doing research has the edge.
ties in colleges and
Surely this should change, if only as a matter of self-interest. If
universities have a
the humanities are not taught well in our schools, students will
stake in helping to
continue to arrive on campuses without knowledge and apprecia-
improve humanities
tion of them; and if they have not begun to see the value of the
teaching in our
humanities by the time they enter college, they may well be unin-
schools.
terested in further study. The sharp decline in humanities enroll-
ments and majors on the nation's campuses over the last twenty
years should demonstrate that humanities faculties in colleges
and universities have a stake in helping to improve humanities
teaching in our schools.
Teachers must be relieved of too-heavy classloads and of the many
non-teaching duties that clutter their days. They need "time to
get ideas from each other, to learn what works and what doesn't,"
said Brooklyn elementary school principal Jo Bruno, an advisory
group member. "We have to find creative ways to give people time
to think and teach well," observed Maine high school teacher John
Drisko, also a member of the advisory group.
Giving teachers more time need not mean spending more on
education since what is already being spent is so clearly in need of
reallocation. Between 1960 and 1984, while the number of
teachers grew by 57 percent and the number of principals and
supervisors by 79 percent, the number of other staffers, from
curriculum specialists to supervisors of instruction, was up by
almost 500 percent. Resources are increasingly being drawn into
25
salaries for people who are not in the classroom but who attempt
to direct the activity going on there. Specialists in education for
the most part, they inevitably steer in the direction of process
rather than content, toward skills rather than substance. How
much better to spend this money giving teachers time and re-
sources so they can work out teaching methods and gain greater
command of the subjects they teach. How much better to put
teachers, rather than outsiders, in charge of the classroom.
There has been debate in recent years about whether teacher
shortages lie ahead. In states where foreign language instruction
has drastically expanded, there are already shortages that will
undoubtedly become worse unless specific steps are taken to re-
cruit and train a sufficient number of teachers. But for the hu-
manities generally, the challenge is not quantity, but quality.
In the last advisory session on history and literature, Baltimore
teacher Janice Baker told the group: "If you love some area of
knowledge, and you'd love to bring other people around to think-
ing about what you love, then teaching is a great job." Our task is to
find the men and women Baker described-and then to make
sure that they flourish.
26
Recommendations
n Life on the Mississippi, Mr. Bixby advises young Sam Cle-
I
mens, "My boy, you've got to know the shape of the river
perfectly. It's all there is to steer by on a very dark night.
Everything else is blotted out and gone."
During the months of researching and writing this report, I
thought often of the river captain's words. The idea I encountered
repeatedly-that the purpose of education is to teach students
how to think rather than imparting knowledge to them-is the
equivalent of teaching them how to steer the steamboat without
giving them any notion of the river. There are times when human
beings can consult maps to figure out where they are going; but
for the surest navigation, the shape must be in the mind.
Thomas Jefferson consulted no books when he wrote the Decla-
ration of Independence. He did not need to; Locke was as familiar
to him as Monticello. The Framers of the Constitution referred
effortlessly to history as they debated. They knew the shape of the
past, knew the shoals and sandbars on which other civilizations
had run aground and determined to avoid them.
But one need not think of such august figures to understand the
importance of knowledge internalized. We need only think of
ourselves, of the thousand decisions life forces upon us. Shall I do
this or shall I do that? How is it important for me to spend my time?
What is it good to do? What is it noble to do? We cannot look the
answers up. Life presses us on, and we have to decide according to
what we know.
We would wish for our children that their decisions be informed
not by the wisdom of the moment, but by the wisdom of the ages;
and that is what we give them when we give them knowledge
27
of culture. The story of past lives and triumphs and failures, the
great texts with their enduring themes-these do not necessarily
provide the answers, but they are a rich context out of which our
children's answers can come.
It is in this spirit, then, that the following recommendations are
made:
I. More time should be devoted to the study of history, litera-
ture, and foreign languages.
-Much that is in school curricula now under the guise of "social
studies" should be discarded and replaced with systematic study
of history. What goes under the name of "social studies" in the
early grades should be replaced with activities that involve imag-
inative thought and introduce children to great figures of the
past.
-Both history and enduring works of literature should be a part
of every school year and a part of every student's academic life.
-Foreign language study should start in grade school and con-
tinue through high school. From the beginning, it should teach
students the history, literature, and thought of other nations.
II. Textbooks should be made more substantive.
-Reading textbooks should contain more recognizably good lit-
erature and less formulaic writing.
-History textbooks should present the events of the past so that
their significance is clear. This means providing more sophisti-
cated information than dates, names, and places. Textbooks
should inform students about ideas and their consequences;
about the effect of human personality; about what it is possible
for men and women to accomplish.
-In literature, history, and foreign language classes, original
works and original documents should be central to classroom
instruction.
III. Teachers should be given opportunities to become more
knowledgeable about the subjects that they teach.
-In their college years, future teachers should be freed from
excessive study of pedagogy so that they can take more courses
in subject areas like history, literature, French, and Spanish.
-Teacher preparation and teacher certification must be indepen-
dent activities. This will help ensure that education courses
28
taken by prospective teachers are of value to effective teaching.
-Higher education liberal arts faculties must recognize their
responsibility for the humanities education of future teachers.
Further, these faculties must play a greater role in the continu-
ing education of teachers.
-School districts should invest less in curriculum supervisors,
instructional overseers, and other mid-level administrators and
more in paraprofessionals and aides who can relieve teachers of
time-consuming custodial and secretarial duties. This will help
accomplish two important goals: It will give teachers time to
study and think; and it will put them, rather than outside educa-
tion specialists, in charge of what goes on in the classroom.
Because American education is-and should be-a local responsi-
bility, implementation of these recommendations will fall largely
to policy makers in the states, educators in the schools, and
scholars in colleges and universities. Implementation will fall
above all to local school boards, parents, and other concerned
citizens.
But I do not mean merely to set an agenda for others. There are
efforts that the National Endowment for the Humanities can and
will undertake. Indeed, there are many we have already begun,
such as seminars and institutes that provide teachers the opportu-
nity to study important texts.
We all have a stake in seeing to it that the humanities are
properly taught and thoroughly learned in our schools. We all
have a stake in making sure our children know the shape of the
river they are traveling.
Carrying that shape in memory will not guarantee wisdom or
safety for them or any generation. But there are few surer guides
through dark nights-or sunny days as well.
29
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