Educating for Freedom
By Alberto Coll This is an abridged version of Professor Coll’s essay in the Winter 2023 issue of The American Experiment, the Jack Miller Center’s historical journal. How do we educate our students for freedom? After all, many of them arrive in college today believing that the United States is systematically oppressive, hopelessly unjust, and […]
Presidents Day is a Farce
Presidents Day is a farce. It is an empty excuse for three day weekends for some, and bonanza sales for others. But seriously, does any one spend any meaningful time reflecting and commemorating our Presidents? Of course not. This was not always so. Celebrating Washington’s birthday began during the American Revolution at Valley Forge in […]
How MLK Embodied Our Founding First Principles
By: Hans Zeigler Nearly 60 years ago, Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his “I Have A Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. King’s powerful plea for equal rights has resonated with Americans ever since, in no small part because his message was wrapped in an enlightened patriotism. He understood that the best […]
David McCullough: America’s Storyteller  
By: Hans Zeigler Historian David McCullough, who passed away on Aug. 7, spent his life telling stories that his fellow citizens should know. He wrote well-known biographies of John Adams, Theodore Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and the Wright Brothers. He got his start chronicling the Johnstown Flood before turning to the creation of the Brooklyn Bridge […]
Jack Miller Center Announces New President, Aggressive National Civics Education Plan
By: Mike Sabo As part of an ambitious, five-year strategic plan to reinvigorate a civic education grounded in American founding principles and history, the Jack Miller Center has named Hans Zeiger as its next president. Zeiger will begin his new role on August 1. Founded in 2004, the Jack Miller Center is a nonprofit civic education organization […]
Celebrating Flag Day
“As we raise our flag, let us resolve always to cherish it with reverence and eternal gratitude so that the red, white, and blue may forever wave from sea to shining sea,” the proclamation from the White House On June 14, 1777 (now Flag Day), the Continental Congress, adopted the national flag through the following […]
The Matthew J. Ryan Center: Where Civic and Liberal Education Meet
By: Mike Sabo At the heart of the Matthew J. Ryan Center at Villanova University is an unabashed love of America and an open acknowledgement of its greatness, says director Steven F. McGuire. The Ryan Center, he notes, was founded to take seriously American history, traditions, and principles and to promote the study of free societies more […]
The Program on Constitutionalism and Democracy Delivers a Civic Education
By: Mike Sabo Civic education should supply “what students need to know to be participants in American public life,” says University of Virginia professor James W. Ceaser. But that goal is not being met at any educational level today. At the primary and secondary levels, Ceaser contends that civics mostly “isn’t being taught well or […]
Supreme Court Leak Poses ‘Grave Threat to our Republic’
On May 2, Politico published a draft majority opinion of the United States Supreme Court in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The draft reverses the landmark Roe v Wade, which found a federal constitutional right to an abortion. The resulting media frenzy and political explosion, including protests at Justices’ homes, proves exactly why the […]
Law Day – A Commentary
On a daily basis we Americans take for granted a remarkable blessing – the rule of law. We believe that the law should govern – not the personal whims of those in power. We believe that serious disputes should be settled in courtrooms or elections – not the streets; that we and government officials […]
