ACTA in the NewsHistorical Literacy
National group backs NC REACH Act
RALEIGH — A national group focused on academic freedom and excellence is backing a North Carolina House bill that would increase courses in American history and government.
Report
Alumni | General Education
Restoring America’s Legacy
September 1, 2002 by Anne D. Neal and Jerry L. Martin Download PDF
This eye-opening report reveals that despite growing public alarm about historical illiteracy and a Congressional Resolution calling for action, not a single one of America’s top 50 colleges and universities now requires the study of American history of its graduates. And in a continuing decline, only 10% of these same colleges require any study of history at all, a drop from 22% just two years prior. President Bush cited information in the report when he announced his national history and civics initiative in the Rose Garden on Constitution Day, September 17, 2002.
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CONTENT
Civic Literacy
A Curricular Solution to the Crisis of Civic Illiteracy
John and Abigail Adams envisioned an America with a school in every neighborhood and a well-informed citizenry that was adept in languages, literature, and music; science, history, and religion. Their vision was practical until the ages recast it, little by little. Then, sometime between Joseph McCarthy and Joan Baez, the status quo of the educational […]
Historical Literacy
ACTA Testimony on North Carolina House Bill 7
On April 2, Nick Down, ACTA’s Associate Director of External Affairs, offered proponent testimony before the North Carolina House Higher Education Committee on H. 7. This legislation would require all students attending public colleges and universities within the state to take a three-credit hour course in American history prior to graduation. Read the full testimony […]
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PRESS MENTIONS
ACTA in the NewsGeneral Education
President Bush Announces NEH American History Initiative
President Bush today launched “We the People,” an initiative by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to encourage the teaching, studying and understanding of American history and culture. “Studies have shown that Americans of all ages have a dangerously poor understanding of American history and culture,” said NEH Chairman Bruce Cole, who joined the […]
ACTA in the NewsGeneral Education
Requiring U.S. history weighed for colleges
Arizona’s college classrooms will be dressed in patriotic garb by this time next year, sporting U.S. flags and copies of the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Charles Mitchell of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni thinks it would be nice if students had a deeper understanding of them, as well. But U.S. history isn’t […]
ACTA in the NewsGeneral Education
"Losing America's memory"
Once upon a time in the bad old days you couldn’t graduate from most colleges and universities without taking a course in both American and European history. Nobody grumbled about it. We were prisoners of a system that honored Abraham Lincoln’s famous caution: “Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history.” In those bad old days such […]
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