Displaying the founding documents in American schools
A guest post from my dad:
On Monday, Sept. 8, Rep. Chris Murphy and I will hold a press conference in the lobby of Town Hall at noon. Our purpose: to announce that Rep. Murphy will introduce a Resolution to Congress calling for U.S. public schools to display copies of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution in their entryway. Such a display would say to everyone who enters: "This is what we stand for in educating our children. This is the basis of our society and our government."
I've written to Rep. Ron Paul to co-sponsor the bill on a bipartisan basis—nonpartisan, actually, since this is more basic than party politics.
I initiated this effort in 2005 here in Cheshire. I proposed to the Board of Education that it be done in Cheshire public schools. The Board agreed and Superintendent Greg Florio took action. Now, life-size replicas of the two founding documents are posted in the seven Cheshire public schools.
In 2007 I took my idea to the state level, via Rep. Al Adinolfi and Sen. Tom Gaffey. They collaborated to introduce a bill calling for Connecticut public schools to display the documents. But it was too late in the session for much to be done, so at my request Sen. Gaffey reintroduced the bill in 2008. It passed the Education Committee's review but died in the Finance Committee. At my request, it will be raised again in Committee in 2009, and in light of Rep. Murphy's support in Congress, I'm hopeful Connecticut will pass it and lead the way for the nation.
The bottom line for me is this. I'm concerned about the education of young people because they are 20% of the population but 100% of the future. If they don't understand and appreciate the fundamentals of America, in a few generations there won't be an America. Displaying the two founding documents of our nation would teach and remind people, especially students, how important they are to the life of our nation and to the freedom and the rights which we have as Americans.
John White
1 comment:
What a waste of time, effort and more political nonsense. Have a press conference on something that means something with tangible values and benefits. It should not take an act of Congress to have our most important documents displayed in our schools. That should be an automatic unwritten rule and the hell with those that don't like it.
A really poor excuse for Murphy to get airtime. We should ll be embarrassed.
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