PAtownhall.com
Pennsylvania's Marketplace of Ideas
Pennsylvania's Marketplace of Ideas
PAtownhall.com
Pennsylvania's Marketplace of Ideas
Pennsylvania's Marketplace of Ideas
by Peg Luksik
In 1984, George Orwell describes how the state's most effective method of controlling its citizens is to remove words from the vocabulary. O'Brien, the government official, tells hero Winston Smith during his interrogation in prison that people think in words, so if there is no word, there is no thought. If there is no thought, there can be no action. The effective totalitarian state, therefore, should not focus on controlling actions, it should instead control words.
How would a state control words?
By controlling education.
Several years ago, a television host questioned people coming out of Union Station in Washington, DC for a program segment. The questions required the people to identify the quote, the person, or the event in American history. The quotes included:
"We the people of the United States" (Preamble, U.S. Constitution)
"What's up, Doc?" (Bugs Bunny)
"...endowed by their Creator with inalienable rights..." (Declaration of Independence)
"Ask not what your country can do for you..." (John F. Kennedy)
"Show me the money!" (Cuba Gooding, movie Jerry Maguire)
The host stopped people of all ages and backgrounds. One 60-something gentleman was walking with his 5-year-old grandson. When asked about, "We the people", he not only correctly identified the source, but straightened up and proudly recited the entire Preamble verbatim. He did not, however, know that Bugs Bunny said, "What's up, Doc?", which horrified his little grandson.
At the end of the day, the host was appalled to find that people under the age of 35 could not correctly identify more than one person, quotation, or event from our history, and most could not name any. In one case, the host asked a group of high school students accompanied by their teacher. The teacher was shown the questions first, and was delighted to have his students respond since they were, he said, an advanced history class on a field trip rewarding them for their fine work. They got every history question wrong, although they DID know Bugs Bunny and Cuba Gooding.
There were two exceptions among the high school respondents. A group of homeschooled students got every history question correct, and a group from a diocesan high school missed only one history question. They both identified the pop culture questions correctly.
If our youth don't know our history and our heritage, how can they cherish it? If the words of the Constitution and Declaration are unfamiliar to the citizens, how can any public official be held accountable by those citizens to uphold them while in office?
As parents, the final responsibility for ensuring that our children and our grandchildren learn the words rests with us. The words that built America. The words that made her that shining city on the hill. The words that brave Americans have died to defend.
If our schools won't teach our youngsters the words, then we must find schools that will. Or we must teach them ourselves. But the words must be protected and passed on.
There is an old poem about a kingdom that was lost for want of a nail. In reality, as Orwell so correctly stated, cultures are lost for want of the words. Let's stand together to ensure that the legacy we hand our children is not, "Missing Words."
