Dear Grandparenting: I have always made it a point to refer to July 4 as Independence Day. July 4 sounds like just another day on the calendar. But when you say Independence Day, it can make people stop and think what July 4 is actually all about.
July 4, 1776, was unquestionably the most important day in America’s history. On that day, our fledgling Continental Congress formally approved the document — the Declaration of Independence — announcing that America’s 13 states were no longer under the thumb of Great Britain. “All men are created equal,” it read, and “endowed with certain inalienable rights,” including “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Those words are at the very heart of what keeps America the greatest nation on earth and central to our sense of America’s nationhood.
About now you’re probably asking what all this has to do with being a grandparent. If your grandchildren are like mine, July 4 is all about parades, parties, fireworks, picnics and celebration. Kids need to be reminded why everybody makes such a fuss.
America has a handful of time-honored national holidays. Christmas and Thanksgiving, Memorial Day, New Year’s Day and Labor Day are well and good, but Independence Day is The Big One, the very dawn of America. Shout it to the grandkids! Bessie Fisher, Columbus, Ohio
Dear Bessie: The history behind the holiday is indeed a mystery to many, especially America’s youth. Take the teens — about 15 percent think Independence Day was when America broke free from France, and another batch believes Americans rose up against those terrible Canadians on July 4, 1776. Responses were rife with other miscues, and we can’t imagine those younger have a much better idea.
There’s blame enough to go around, according to a Marist College Institute for Public Opinion poll. Of the more than 1,000 respondents, only 58 percent knew America declared its independence from Great Britain on July 4. But just 31 percent of adults younger than age 30 knew the correct answer.
We’re aware of numerous studies citing declines in civic and governmental knowledge among America’s grandchildren. That’s bad enough, but striking out on Independence Day is much more disheartening. After all, it’s The Big One.
GRAND REMARK OF THE WEEK
Flair Molino from Fishkill, New York, reports that granddaughter Madison is “still getting up to speed” on her family tree.
“Grandma likes to play and have fun with us,” Madison whispered to her mother, “but then how come she didn’t have any children of her own?”
