Subtract and divide

Back to School: Schools ignore what’s good about America and focus instead on keeping Americans from coming together as a people | Marvin Olasky

Illustration by Krieg Barrie

America's schools and colleges are opening their doors for the 2008-2009 year, but what are they teaching about America? Are they training students to become more aware of what divides us than what unites us? Is the United States in danger, as a new Bradley Project report suggests, of becoming not "from many, one"—e pluribus unum—but its opposite, "from one, many"?

I contributed slightly to that Bradley report, titled E Pluribus Unum, along with a diverse group that included journalists such as Michael Barone and Charles Krauthammer and academics such as William Galston (University of Maryland) and Amy Kass (University of Chicago). We came from different backgrounds but became aware of dire studies: Most eighth-graders cannot explain the purpose of the Declaration of Independence. Only 5 percent of seniors can describe how Congress and the Supreme Court can check presidential power.