Florida State University is introducing a new initiative to increase awareness of American principles among young students.
The Founding Voices Program is an educational platform the school hopes will be adopted in public middle schools to help students learn the importance of Memorial Day and other chapters of the American story.
The FSU Institute for Governance and Civics (IGC) says the program involves enhanced teaching methods to engage younger students. Director of the IGC and Professor of Political Science Ryan Owens said increasing numbers of young people simply don’t connect with the meaning of Memorial Day.
“A student who studies the (Civil War) Battle of Little Round Top through maps and lectures may learn what happened,” Owens said. “But a student who must assume the role of (commander) Joshua Chamberlain, confronts impossible choices and understands what was at stake begins to grasp why courage, duty and sacrifice mattered. The lesson becomes not simply historical, but civic and moral.”
The Founding Voices Program is “immersive and interactive,” according to FSU. FSU officials cited a recent Talker Research poll that tapped 2,000 Americans in explaining the need to enhance civics education and emphasize meanings, morals and significance of Memorial Day.
The survey found only 48% of Americans knew that Memorial Day is designed to honor military personnel who were killed in the service of the country. And the numbers are worse among younger Americans. Only 27% of Generation Z respondents and only 38% of millennials knew the holiday was set aside to honor those fallen personnel.
By design, FSU IGC leaders acknowledge that they want the institute to become “the nation’s premier policy institute (in)… constitutional and educational liberty through bold research and transformative teaching.”
