The July 25th edition of the Small Business Times includes a great article featuring an interview with Michael Grebe, President & CEO of the Lynde & Harry Bradley Foundation based in Milwaukee. The Foundation has spent something in the range of $250,000 to develop the project referred to in the title.
If you are a conservative, you know all about the Foundation and probably think it does great work. If you aren't a conservative, you may not wish to read the rest of this Blog.
The Foundation commissioned a survey of 2,421 American citizens and concluded that there is an American "identity crisis". 84% of those surveyed believe there is a unique American identity and yet 63% of those surveyed felt that America's shared national identity is becoming weaker.
The Foundation has set forth on an ambitious project that centers on the teaching of American history by teachers who have a major in history. They seek classes that expose students at all levels of school to the period of America's founding and that would explore the leaders of the time including their warts.
I would encourage you to check this full report if you're interested. This comes at a time when we hear about "citizens of the world" while we seem embarrassed to have instructors concentrate on our founding, our heritage and our achievements. Those of us under the age of 25 likely have limited knowledge of American history, may never have seen the great documents upon which the country is based, and have little idea of what it really means to be an American unless they've majored in the subject.
There has been what I see as a concerted effort to downplay our founding, to talk about the things of which we're all embarrassed while paying no attention at all to the things of which we should be proud. We have been a nation seeking political correctness to a fault...and the Lynde & Harry Bradley Foundation has set about curing that problem.
