President Jim Gash Calls on American Higher Education to Teach Patriotism in The Hill Op-Ed | Newsroom
As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary, Pepperdine president Jim Gash
has contributed a timely op-ed in The Hill, published today, discussing the importance of patriotism and the role of educational
institutions in cultivating virtuous citizens and preserving foundational American
values.
Titled “250 Years in, American Colleges Should Still Teach Patriotism,” Gash reflects
on the guiding principles set into motion within the United States Declaration of
Independence signed July 4, 1776: “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed
by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.”
Gash explains that the United States was founded on a unique idea, one that needs
to be protected and carried forward into the next 250 years. “Even beyond the basic
loyalty we owe to our homeland and our fellow citizens,” he writes, “ what has been
passed down to us as Americans is the only nation thus far in history founded on a
vision of God-given human dignity and lasting human flourishing.” Gash then discusses
Frederick Douglass and Martin Luther King Jr.’s shared vision for preserving American
liberty and human dignity, rooted in that foundational vision of flourishing.
Echoing Benjamin Franklin’s observation that “only a virtuous people are capable of
freedom,” Gash challenges educators to instill this kind of virtue in their students:
“Will we continue to steward the vision the founding generation passed down to us,
or will we abandon ship? Will we continue to carry the torch of liberty for the next
250 years, or will ours be the generation that allows freedom to go extinct once and
for all?”
Gash points to America’s educational institutions, from kindergarten to college, as
the determinants of America’s future. In order to “steward liberty for the good of
their neighbors and their posterity,” Gash calls for classrooms across the country
to operate under foundational American values, recognizing each person’s inherent
worth and dignity, and “return[ing] to an educational vision of greater purpose than
mere job preparedness—of character formation and whole-person formation.”
Read President Gash’s vision for higher education’s’ path forward with patriotism
on The Hill.