Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. I love this paraphrase of the philosopher George Santayana because it captures the essence of why we must learn and understand history.

All too much today, I feel that my fellow citizens experience a lack of real education in American history.

What do I mean by this? I have been an avid history buff for much of my life, learning about World War II and the Civil War as a hobby while I grew up. Mixed with a home-school education, I learned much about America that I feel has been nearly eradicated from public school curricula.

The America I learned about was depicted in a positive light: Our unique government built on Christian principles, the freedoms we are able to enjoy and our rich history of accepting those who came looking for a better life.

Granted, I also learned about the struggles our country experienced like slavery, the ensuing Civil War, the struggle of civil rights to heal old wounds, the Great Depression and discrimination against immigrants and natives.

While learning about the mistakes our country has made is important, what I have seen in modern public school textbooks seems to focus mostly on these warts of our history.

We learn about the constant race struggles and class conflicts while forgetting the reason why the Pilgrims first came to America, why the colonists rebelled against England and why the founders organized our government in a way that has stood the test of time.

This focus on what essentially made America like the countries of Europe has not just made learning American history boring; it has taken away the ability for us to truly appreciate and understand what makes our nation great.

What does this lack of appreciation lead to? To me, the lack of appreciation of what built this country has led to a drawn-out argument over the application of the principles that made us a unique nation.

The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 should still be uniting us in the common goal of destroying those who wish to extinguish what our nation of liberty stands for, just as the bombing of Pearl Harbor drove us to join the fight against the fascist powers of World War II.

Yet, we have become a nation split by debate over the rights of terrorists, what the separation of church and state means and how big the government is allowed to be.

How do we solve this problem?

Our education system needs to return to primarily teaching what made America great, and how our struggles shaped our national character.

However, this new history curriculum must also include the Christian principles that built our government along with the Christian faith and beliefs of the people who drove this country to greatness in contrast to all that torn us down.

With an understanding of what our country is made of, I believe we can work towards what “e pluribus unum” stands for: Out of many, one.

Greg Sainer is a freshman chemistry major. He can be reached at 581-7942 or at [email protected].