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WASHINGTON - Rep. Tom Petri received an education award Friday morning at a Washington conference for the National Association of Scholars, an organization of academics who seek to foster intellectual freedom and to sustain the tradition of reasoned scholarship and civil debate in America’s colleges and universities.
NAS Chairman Stephen H. Balch explained, "It's an award in appreciation of really outstanding legislation and a truly good and timely idea, and that is bringing the resources of government behind an effort to improve the quality of civic education in our colleges, and through our colleges throughout the entire system of education, because college influences everything.
"He [Petri] was the sponsor of the Higher Education for Freedom Act, a bill which gives the Department of Education the authority to make grants in support of centers and institutions and scholars who are studying free institutions, the American founding, traditional American history - constitutional, political, intellectual - and Western civilization. These are subjects that were, for many, many, many years, thought of as the essential intellectual core of American higher education. But in recent decades they have been increasingly slighted for a variety of reasons, and this legislation is an effort to help put them back on center stage." (Audio of NAS Chairman Balch's comments)
The legislation was inserted into the higher education reauthorization bill which President Bush signed into law Aug. 14, 2008.
Petri said of the award, "I'm delighted to receive this award from the National Association of Scholars. They have been a leading national organization in the area of trying to maintain and improve standards in higher education. One area that we very much need to do a better job is learning about our shared history as Americans. Hopefully, this program will help us do a better job there."
During his speech at the conference, Petri illustrated the need for history education by holding aloft an International House of Pancakes "Just for Kids" placemat.
"I've been to IHOP. Some of you have. You know, you go to these restaurants and they have educational things for kids. This one is on Paul Revere. A good idea to try to get these sorts of things into the hands of young people."
"Did you know that on April 18, 1775, 'Paul Revere was one of the riders sent out to alert Samuel Adams and John Hancock in Lexington, Connecticut that the British were coming to attack'?
"I think that might be a good assignment: 'What's right and wrong about this sentence?' And then, kids could start learning the context and the history." (Audio of Rep. Petri's comments at the NAS conference)
The midnight ride of Paul Revere was to Lexington, Massachusetts.
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(Audio of Rep. Petri's comments on the education award)
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