Ronald Reagan's Legacy - Top Ten points for Parents, Families and Schools

gopusa ^ | August 12, 2004 | Kevin Fobbs

[KevinNuPac]

Ronald Reagan's Legacy - Top Ten points for Parents, Families and Schools By Kevin Fobbs August 12, 2004

In less than a month young school children all across America will be returning to their classrooms and the shadows of their summer vacation will slowly evaporate into distant memories. In this summer we lost a great president, in Ronald Reagan and it is important for both school students, parents and teachers to not only remember the legacy of this man, but more importantly, with the coming school year, to tell and teach the truth of the impact he had on this nation and the world.

Most of the students who will be returning to school were not born when the Berlin Wall fell, nor were the majority of their parents alive when the Berlin Wall went up. As a young grade school student I remember my parents talking about the infamous Berlin Wall, and my teachers talked about how another President went to this wall to throw down a glove for Democracy, and that young president, was John Kennedy. He went to Berlin to begin the job that President Ronald Reagan finished.

But what will our nation's students learn about Ronald Reagan and the freedom from communism which he helped to craft and who was largely responsible for ushering a new age of freedom and democracy for this world?

When President Reagan issued the challenge, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that wall!" he was speaking to all communist nations and to all people of the world who practiced tyranny and on behalf of the hundreds of millions of the world who yearned for a new breath of freedom.

As historians begin to evaluate and reevaluate the legacy of this man, the future historians of tomorrow are in our nation's elementary and junior high schools of today. These students need to be taught that the driving force in this real life drama was a plain speaking man, who was more than a celebrated hero on the Silver Screen.

When the parents are helping their children work through their history lessons or their civics lessons they need to be able to supplement their books with the truth about the man who helped to remind Americans that we could all endeavor to find that "Shining City on a Hill" in our own hearts and in our own communities across this nation.

What does it mean to honor a man who made all of us feel like we could do more, strive for more and touch the hearts of our fellow Americans because we all shared and embraced unselfish values like volunteerism? Teachers and parents must help students understand that Reagan helped us to embrace the belief that all of us had a right to be judged by our merit, by our initiative and by our achievement. Those were unique values, that actually had been embraced 20 years before Reagan by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in his famous and eloquent 1963 "I have A Dream" speech in Washington DC.

So as students and parents go into the school year I would like to share with them ten ideas they should consider in discussing with their children, their child's school, community organization, or even place of worship.

1. Parents can set aside time with their children and truly discuss what freedom, what cherishing the values of family and faith mean in real life terms and not just tossed out for incidental discussion in between the commercial break of television or a time out at a card game. Remember, the children you raise today are the same adults who will either stand up to the challenges that Reagan spoke about, or they will duck and cover, avoiding and evading and pointing fingers to others to be responsible for their freedom.

2. Places of worship can emphasize once a month in sermons why our founding fathers chose to build our nation upon the foundation of One nation Under God, and why the family values that Reagan stood for, that our founding fathers cherished and some died for is still central to our religious faith and our national principles today. Our faith leaders are the key to helping reinforce for the next generation and their parents about the unbreakable bridge between key elements from our nation's past like faith, freedom, family and what it means to guarantee we have a nation of traditional values and principles in our nation's future.

3. Parent teacher organizations should develop theme assignments by partnering with local civic organizations and the school social studies classes. For example, when my daughter was in elementary and junior high school in several of her classes she and her fellow classmates were able to volunteer in senior citizen centers, or helped younger students learn to read, or organize food drives. Other schools have had their students work with church families who were in need. Children must learn to give back to the community and the nation, which has given them and their families so much. By practicing this during the school year, students will learn that all Americans, young and old have a right to take occupancy in Reagan's Shining City on a Hill.

4. Parents can work with teachers to help initiate Alzheimer, research collection drives. By doing so, students will learn to appreciate the frailties of older family members, or why an older neighbor or even an older parent may be losing memory or experiencing other physical challenges. By taking part in a project they will learn compassion. The students will also learn and appreciate what courage and conviction it took for President Reagan to write his farewell letter to America by telling us the truth about his battle with Alzheimer.

5. Civic organizations can do their part as well in helping school students to become more participatory in learning about and cherishing freedom. With the post September 11th War on Terror this is increasingly important. Civic and business organizations can help sponsor school oratory, writing, and even art contests which seek to portray the ideals of freedom, of traditional family values and of what a universal colorblind society truly is represented by.

6. grandparents can even get in on this as well. Next to their parents, grandparents can serve as re-enforcement for school projects that deal with topics on freedom, social justice, traditional families, civic responsibilities, and what real life experiences were changed or impacted and especially strengthened by embracing the ideals Reagan spoke about

7. Columbus Day is on October 11th and while many schools and businesses have this day off, parents, and teachers can use this as a lesson for students to truly embrace a freedom day and find freedom heroes. Have students find three to five examples in their community of groups, events or even persons who represent their ideal freedom. Let the little ones in elementary and kindergarten classes choose a freedom hero who is an older member in their family, their Sunday School Class or on their block and do something special for that person. Columbus discovered America and let the students discover freedom heroes as well, and who knows, perhaps the students and family may even discover something new about a person who they had not quite thought about in that way as well

8. Video chains like Block Buster and others can put together a special Freedom Month Video discount rental special for students, schools and parents who want to use the films as part of a teaching assignment. This Freedom Month would stretch from Columbus Day, October 11th to Veteran's Day November 11th. So parents and teachers can go from Columbus' Discovery of our great land to remembering and honoring our great men and women who defend our freedoms at home and abroad. Parents and schoolteachers may need some guidance on the types of family oriented films on patriotism for their freedom clubs. So during the month of October 11th to November 11th you can go to the Hollywood Hero site for a list of great patriotic movies or write it's President, Lisa Sarrach. (web site)

9. Parents and teachers should embrace "One Nation under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance and emphasize why it must remain in it. Parents must emphasize why it is a symbol of our freedom and a legacy President Reagan was proud of. Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, spoke of Reagan's legacy of freedom. "Perhaps the most important way we benefit from President Reagan's legacy today is from the expansion of human freedom that took place with his leadership. Today America carries on the mission that animated President Reagan's life and his presidency: very simply, the defense of human freedom. And looking at what has been accomplished in the past two years -- tyrannies defeated, nations rescued, millions of people liberated, 46 million in those two countries -- and I suspect he would approve." One nation Under God is at the core of our defense of human freedom.

10. Lastly, remind your children that as they go through their school year they should develop a sense of personal honor and pride. They should be like Reagan and not let negative detractors take away who you they are or lead them down a pathway of fatalism about America's future. The school lesson for the year is that America's greatness lies within your children, your students. They must be taught to be responsible, caring, compassionate, and having the courage to stand for traditional values.

As Reagan was going into the sunset of his final years he wrote his - Farewell letter to America in 1994 after being diagnosed with Alzheimer's. He said, "In closing, let me thank you, the American people, for giving me the great honor of allowing me to serve as your president. When the Lord calls me home, whenever that day may be, I will leave with the greatest love for this country of ours and eternal optimism for its future. I now begin the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life. I know that for America there will always be a bright dawn ahead."

Parents as you prepare your children over the nest several weeks for the school year, by buying the school books, clothes, computers and shoes, don't forget to send them off to school armed with knowledge, and beliefs, and some of Reagan's legacy of honor, pride, courage and resolve. With those lessons intact your child's school year will be a bright dawn of new horizons as well.

Kevin Fobbs is President of National Urban Policy Action Council (NuPac), a non-partisan civic and citizen-action organization that focuses on taking the politics out of policy to secure urban America's future one neighborhood, one city, and one person at a time. View NuPac on the web at www.nupac.info. Kevin Fobbs is also Second Vice Chairman of the Michigan Republican Party and daily host of The Kevin Fobbs Show on News Talk WDTK - 1400 AM in Detroit as well as co-founder of the Jackson, MI-based American Conservative Values Television Network. Listen to The Kevin Fobbs Show at www.wdtkam.com.