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Freedom at Stake: Too Many Schools Are Turning Out Uninformed Citizens
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Action is what it takes to solve this problem.
A generous endowment gift from Paula and John Lillard will fund the teaching of our founding principles and history to Chicagoland educators in perpetuity.
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An $800,000 Gift to Combat Civic Illiteracy
Paula and John Lillard carefully crafted their gift to the JMC endowment fund so that we would invest the money and use the proceeds to implement strong, accredited programs for teachers to be held each year in partnership with the Newberry Library in Chicago.
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Paula and John hope others will join them in this effort to strengthen civic education, in Chicago or elsewhere.
The need is great because, as Thomas Jefferson long ago said, “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.”
As survey after survey show, we are at the point where we may lose that freedom. The teaching of our founding principles and history—civics—has been eliminated or diluted in many schools and universities or, even worse, taught from a negative and one-sided point of view.
Our young people cannot remain both “ignorant and free” for long under these circumstances. We must act to change that.
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Four years ago JMC began a pilot project in Chicago to help high school civics teachers better teach their students. This project is now being expanded nationally. (Big news on this later.) But it cannot be done without your support.
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If you want to help Paula and John strengthen civic education, in Chicago or nationally, click below to make a donation.
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If you would like more information on JMC programs for teachers, contact Tom Kelly, Director of Civic Education Outreach, at 484-436-0033 or [email protected].
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For the past 15 years The Jack Miller Center (JMC) has been combatting civic illiteracy at the university level by conducting programs for young professors, helping them secure teaching jobs, and supporting programs for undergraduates on campuses.
The results are almost 1,000 professors on over 300 campuses who have, as of now, taught over one million students about our founding principles and our history—about the effort to achieve that mission in our Declaration of Independence that “All men are created equal and are entitled to their Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness.
Both K-12 education and higher education need to do more to equip their students for self-government and free society.
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About the Jack Miller Center
The Jack Miller Center is a 501(c)(3) public charity with the mission to reinvigorate education in America's founding principles and history. We work to advance the teaching and study of America's history, its political and economic institutions, and the central principles, ideas and issues arising from the American and Western traditions—all of which continue to animate our national life.
We support professors and educators through programs, resources, fellowships and more to help them teach our nation's students.
www.jackmillercenter.org
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