Not that long ago, the Hawaiian language was on the verge of disappearing. After all, a language can die out in just one generation if not passed on. Had that happened, it would have been a tragedy. But through concerted effort, the language is enjoying a renaissance as it flourishes across the Hawaiian Islands.
As we prepare to celebrate our nation’s 250th birthday this July 4, something else of great value is increasingly threatened with extinction: our constitutional democratic republican form of government. It too is fragile and can be lost in a single generation. And it too requires that literacy in its “grammar” and “vocabulary” be passed on to the next generation to be maintained.
The founders of our nation understood the precarious nature of the grand experiment in self-government they launched. They were students of history, observing that republics seldom lasted long compared to less beneficial forms of government. The most famous of these, the Roman Republic, lasted from 509 to 31 BC, before dissolving into an imperial autocracy. Most other republics have eventually suffered similar fates.
That is probably why Thomas Jefferson wisely observed that “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, … it expects what never was and never will be.” That is why our nation’s founders were not just champions of liberty and self-government but of an educated citizenry to maintain it.
That makes sense given that the people in our system of government are the sovereign, taking the place of kings and dictators and parliaments in other countries. The people of North Korea, for instance, do not need to be tutored in the principles of republican self-government — they just need to know how to obey.
But if we are to rule ourselves, we must understand the foundations of our constitutional democratic republic so that we can ensure not only its survival, but its health. And we must pass on that knowledge to tomorrow’s citizens.
Thus, the youth of this nation must understand things such as popular sovereignty, the separation of powers, federalism, equal justice, the rule of law, the Bill of Rights, civic charity, and our nation’s founding and history — both the good and the not so good. And they must understand our founding documents: the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Without that firm foundation, they cannot know when our country is diverging from its noble principles.
After all, as James Madison observed, “A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government.” And they without sufficient literacy in republican government, we cannot continue this great experiment in self-government that has now been copied by most of the nations of the earth.”
Perhaps, then, John Adams, who arguably did as much as anybody to help found our nation, was only partially right when he declared: “I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain.”
Each generation must have a basic understanding of government, history and political philosophy for the nation to perpetuate.
Sadly, we are not doing well in helping the next generation prepare for its important role by gaining literacy in self-government. Our nation’s 250th birthday should be a wake-up call for us all to redouble our efforts in making sure, as Abraham Lincoln observed in his Gettysburg Address, “that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.”