The Virginia Department of Education will consider omitting James Madison as the Father of the Constitution and George Washington as the Father of our country from its standardized testing. Virginians should unite around teaching historically accurate information by calling for a rejection of these proposed changes.
Pretending Madison and Washington have not been popularly known as Founding Fathers is just plain false. Those two historic figures deserve to be revered throughout the entire country and especially here in Virginia, their home.
The test should simply ask; Who is revered as the Father of the Constitution? And who is revered as the Father of our country? The answers, respectively, are James Madison and George Washington. You don’t have to be one who reveres them, although I recommend you do, but you do need to respect history and understand why Madison and Washington are Founding Fathers. They deserve at least that.
It shouldn’t take much to support either’s Founding Father status. Both titles are simplifications that fit well. Neither achieved their fame alone, but both were instrumental above their peers. Madison was the principal writer and defender of the Constitution. He also became one of the foremost defenders for ratifying the Bill of Rights, even though he felt they weren’t needed. Washington was the stoic figure our country needed during the Revolution and in our infancy. One of an endless list of accolades; historian Joseph Ellis called Washington “an incalculable asset.”
Madison and Washington as Founding Fathers is so well-known that the term is not controversial at all. Removing them as Founding Fathers is not argued from a historic perspective. Those who support rewriting history are not presenting new information that Madison did not write the Constitution and that Washington was not widely respected. No one could argue that. Instead of facts, the call to rewrite history here is based on emotions and just another attempt from self-loathing far leftists who are ashamed of this great country. Their solution has been to rewrite history to make it more palatable to today’s social justice warriors. Instead of teaching history honestly, they feel the need to distort facts. Feelings, whether good or bad, cannot change history.
It is unbelievable that this is happening. The Virignia Department of Education has nine members. Thank God, Glenn Youngkin won the governorship last year, resulting in the appointment of a majority 5 members. Garren Shipley works in the Virginia House of Delegates, he tweeted this good news-
If Terry McAuliffe had won last year, then you could’ve bet your bottom dollar that this nonsense would’ve passed. The national fallout could’ve been awful. Let this be a serious reminder that elections are important, please vote.
Virginia’s Department of Education should not have to consider such historically inaccurate fiction as claiming, even if only through omission, that Madison and Washington were not Founding Fathers. The proposed changes need to be voted down and the vote needs to be public.
