HUCKPAC'S VERTICAL DAY - Sen. Lamar Alexander on American History and Civics

The first guest blogger today is Tennessee Senator, Lamar Alexander. He will be posting more today but his first entree is on the need for our children to be taught American History and lessons in Civics:

First of all, I want to thank Governor Huckabee and the community here at HuckPAC for letting me participate during Vertical Day.

I'll be posting on the blog several times throughout the day, but I wanted to begin by discussing the importance of a truly "vertical" issue: American history and civics.

From the founding of our country, we have always understood how important it is for citizens to understand the principles that unite us as a country. Other countries are united by their ethnicity. If you move to Japan for example, you can't become Japanese. Americans, on the other hand, are united by a few things in which we believe. To become an American citizen, you subscribe to those principles.

Still, the sad fact is that too many of our children are growing up as "civic illiterates," not knowing the basic principles that unite us as a country.

It's time to put the teaching of American history and civics back in its rightful place in our schools, so our children grow up learning what it means to be an American. That's why my first legislative act as Senator was to work across the aisle to establish Presidential Academies for teachers and Congressional Academies for students to train our best and brightest in these vital subjects.

And it's time to recognize that one of America's greatest accomplishments is the manner in which we unite our magnificent diversity. Of course, one very important way that we've done that is by speaking a common language, English. Accordingly, I've written legislation to protect English in the workplace and I've cosponsored legislation to establish English as the national language of the United States.

If you'd like to learn more about my efforts to ensure that our children and those who immigrate here legally can better learn what it means to be an American, I'd encourage you to visit LamarAlexander.com and sign up to join my team. Thanks again.

Very well said Senator Alexander. I could not agree with you more. You're doing a great job in The Senate and I hope you get to stay there for another term. I was too young to vote in 1996 but you were my choice for President if I was old enough then.